************************* TELECOM DIGEST - Issue 14 ************************* Date: Fri, 12 May 89 12:05:40 PDT From: "Sandy Libman - now on ATSE::" Subject: Problem with Phonemate >I have a PhoneMate 9750, their top-of-the-line two-line answering machine >with a built-in telephone. [...] Oh, there is one drawback to this unit: >it uses very expensive lithium batteries which have failed at least >twice already. Bob Breum I also have the Phonemate 9750 and am disgusted by the (lack of) design that went into the way it handles power failures. The machine takes $12 worth of batteries. These batteries last one hour! It seems to have the following reactions to a power outage: 1. If the batteries are good and there's a power glitch, everything happens as you would expect. The machine acts as if nothing happened (power-wise). 2. If the batteries are hopelessly shot, or not even there, or good and you have a long (>one hour) power failure, then when the power comes back on, the machine rewinds the incoming message tape. Yes, you noticed that. It happily writes all over the messages that came in before the power failure. 3. If the batteries are marginal, and there's a power glitch, the machine puts both tapes into FF and runs them until they are banging at the end of the reels. It then starts to smell like it's going to produce copious amounts of smoke and flame. 1 and 2 were confirmed by Phonemate's 800 number as "That's the way it works." 3 was observed once, first-hand, and is the reason that I don't keep any batteries in it. -Sandy ------------------------------ From: Rick Watson Subject: Re: PhoneMate Answering Machine Problem Date: 13 May 89 16:37:14 GMT Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas > I have a PhoneMate 9750, their top-of-the-line two-line answering machine > with a built-in telephone. It has not had any problems during the more than > a year that I have used it. I would recommend it to anyone, although the > built-in phone is pretty worthless; buy the similar model without the phone. > > Oh, there is one drawback to this unit: it uses very expensive lithium > batteries which have failed at least twice already. While the 9750 has some nice features, it has a very low-security touch-tone remote operation code. Worse, I can always tell when someone else's 9750 answers because of a distinctive answering characteristic. Also, the touch-tone decoder on my 9750 has drifted and had to be re-adjusted. I now supect that the timer that decides a caller didn't leave a message has drifted becuase it won't save a very short message. I wouldn't recommend it. --Rick ------------------------------ From: "Ross D. Snyder" Subject: Re: PhoneMate Answering Machine Problem Date: 15 May 89 02:46:33 GMT Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA I also own a PhoneMate 9750 answering machine, which I have used for the last three years. Its behavior over that time has been peculiar in a number of ways. For the first six to twelve months, the VOX circuit seemed deaf and impatient, but that problem "healed" over time. While it was a problem, I just instructed the people who usually called me to speak loudly and quickly, which got around the problem. The other problem I have had is DTMF deafness, but it seems to vary over time. Sometimes it is quite sensitive, but other times (often only a few seconds later) it's completely deaf. I used to think it was the telco trunks, but after MIT's cutover to our new 5ESS (with completely new cable plant) last fall, I ruled that out. I opened up the PhoneMate and found four trimpots on the board. I tried adjusting them, but it did not seem to have any effect. I never use the built-in handset. In fact, I have kept always kept the PhoneMate in a Eear plastic bag to keep it looking new and operate it through the bag. (I use only a 1970's vintage WECO 2500 set or my 1960's vintage WECO 3B speakerphone when I want to talk on the phone.) I've always wondered why PhoneMate used those expensive 6V photoflash batteries for backu8f The batteries cost ~$12, and I only paid $60 for the machine. I overcame the problem by wiring up an external 8 AA-cell alkaline pack. Overall, I have been very pleased with the PhoneMate. Sure a few analog levels aren't quite right, but the uP software is good, as are the front panel controls. The thing I like most about the PhoneMate is that it either does exactly what you want or (if it's deaf) does nothing (and retains all messages). I've never lost a message with it. I also believe Code-A-Phone makes good machines, but not as good as they used to (e.g. Ford Industries Code-A-Phone Model 200: the "Chrysler" of answering machines). -Ross ------------------------------ From: James Turner Subject: Re: HELP!! With phone lines Date: 12 May 89 15:08:53 GMT Reply-To: James Turner Organization: Solbourne Computers, Eastern Regional HQ In article pixar!unicom!dv@ucbvax. berkeley.edu (David W. Vezie) writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 158, message 4 of 8 >I have a problem. I have a lot of phone lines going into our >computer room, and I have no idea what the some of numbers are. >There was a number (760-7760) which would tell me what number >I was calling from. However, since the Pa Bell upgrade last >February, that number hasn't worked. > >Can anyone tell me what the new number is? I'm desperate! For some reason, people seem to delight in searching for these numbers, when there is a much simpler solution to their problem. When I was working in NY, I had a similar problem (multiple lines with unknown numbers). I simply hooked up a handset to the line and dialed the closely kept secret telephone company number, "0". When the operator came on the line, I explained that I needed to know the number of the phone I was calling from. She read me the number off the TSPS console. End of story. [Moderator's Note: That may be the end of your story, but many telecom participants, myself included, have found that normally the operator will NOT say what number the call is coming from. The rule is they aren't supposed to do it, for various security reasons. PT] ------------------------------ From: jad@dayton.UUCP (J. Deters) Subject: Re: HELP!! With phone lines Date: 12 May 89 14:50:45 GMT Reply-To: jad@dayton.UUCP (J. Deters) Organization: Terrapin Transit Authority In article pixar!unicom!dv@ucbvax. berkeley.edu (David W. Vezie) writes: >I have a problem. I have a lot of phone lines going into our >computer room, and I have no idea what the some of numbers are. >There was a number (760-7760) which would tell me what number >I was calling from. However, since the Pa Bell upgrade last >February, that number hasn't worked. In our area, (Minneapolis, St. Paul - 612, and in other areas I have done work in, 511 is the standard readback number. -j ------------------------------ From: Ron Natalie Subject: Re: Education level needed to use a public telephone Date: 12 May 89 20:23:15 GMT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. It hasn't been a good idea to dial 0 for the police or fire for years, even stretching before deregulation. Why don't you buy your kids a handheld cellular telephone. -Ron ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 May 89 14:58:52 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: computerized answering service United Telephone is offering in some areas a "message phone" where you can forward calls to (you would get a computerized answering machine). Information about this is available by calling 800-692- 7382. (I got this number by calling time & weather service in Carlisle, Pa. at 717-243-1313, and the toll-free number I got works in Maryland.) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 May 1989 17:07 MDT From: "Frank J. Wancho" Subject: "area code" data for Autovon numbers? I'd like to mash a copy of the area code program to return locations for Autovon prefixes (and vice-versa). Does anyone have an online copy of Autovon prefixes+locations I could grab for this purpose? --Frank ------------------------------ From: Art Gentry Subject: Re: Loud hum on the Phone Date: 9 May 89 14:00:41 GMT Organization: AT&T Kansas City, MO. In article , russ@silver.bacs. indiana.edu (Jeff Russ) writes: > My telephone recently started acting up. When I pick up the phone I hear > a loud hum. I can still dial numbers and make connections but the hum > is so loud that I can hardly hear anything. The onhook voltage is 51 volts > and the offhook voltage is 6 volts. I have another phone on the same > line and it does the same thing. Does this look like a phone company > problem and not a problem with my wiring at home? The only things connected > to the line are telephones that I bought from the phone company. There > was a thunder storm with lots of lightening before I noticed the problem. > I'd appreciate any suggestions as to what to check before I call the phone > company. Sounds suspiciously like you have a blown ground protector. This is a fuse like device in the junction box, where the telco cable comes into the building. It's purpose is to prevent excessive potential (like a lightening strike) from entering the equipment. Another possibility is a high ground on the cable, this could be either inside or outside wiring. Telco can rapidly test for a ground and tell you if the problem is theirs or yours. Odds are, since you mentioned the storm, that the protection fuse has done its job and needs to be replaced by the telco. Art ------------------------------ From: Dave Levenson Subject: Re: Area Codes - a few comments Date: 14 May 89 12:50:03 GMT Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA In article , cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) writes: > ...But why can't numbers like 210-310-311-511 be used? [as area codes] In NJ Bell territory, 311 produces a ring-no-answer. I've been told that it produces automatic number identification in a few central offices, but I haven't heard which (anyone else in NJ know of any?). I think most of the N10 codes are/were assigned to TWX, weren't they? My copy of "Notes on the Intra-Lata Networks" (1984, Bellcore) lists codes 211, 311, 511, and 711 as RESERVED. This publication extimates that by 1995, we will need Interchangeable NPA codes. This refers to area codes of the NNX format, just like CO codes. Before that time, ALL local switching systems must have been modified to require 1+ dialing. If anything, recent events indicate that the 1995 estimate may be off. I wonder how much difficulty would be caused if the USA and Canada were to be assigned different country codes? This would allow re-assignment in the USA of area codes presently assigned in Canada (and vice versa) and might push that 1995 date back a few years. -- Dave Levenson {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave ...the man in the mooney [Moderator's Note: You may recall that numerical list of area codes published several months ago in the Digest. In that list, *I* said that the N10 codes were all assigned to Western Union (formerly AT&T) TWX. The response from a couple people was that I was grossly in error....that those numbers were just 'artifacts' with no relevance to the voice network. If that's so, then why won't they be used for area codes, now that we need a few spares? PT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 MAY 89 14:37:19 BST From: PGM%vms.brighton.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Subject: Miscellaneous Comments From New Reader A few comments on topics which came up in TELECOM Digest v9 i160 11 May 89 [ Please excuse me if I blunder - this is first digest I've received and I'm not "up" on some of your terminology. ] --- comments on Sci.commtech Bruce Klopfenstein :- >> * new delivery technologies (direct broadcast satellites, digital >> video-on-demand, pay-per-view) What is "digital video-on-demand" please ? (different to pay-per-view?) I'd like it to be moderated, and distributed via LISTSERVers, too. It may be that it needs to be split further, but that'd be up to the moderator to decide... there are many subject areas there ! --- modem speeds vs carriers reliability survey Brian Jay Gould :- >> has anyone ever attempted to chart data rate versus carrier? >> (for several modem types) Since we get most things late, I don't know whether a recent issue of "Data Communications" has covered this again. Past issues which had ratings of modems / carriers include carriers: Aug 87; modems: Sep 87, May 88 (fast), Oct 88. Oh yes - there was also a *big* feature in Aug 86 - the areas they measured may give you a head start on planning a questionnaire - though the data won't be of interest now. Why not get more money and do the survey for them, or did they ask anyway ? :-) --- 01 for London R.I.P. '90 Mark Brader SoftQuad Inc., Toronto >> This is reflected in the title of a TV show over there: "01 For Lon$og". A new one to me... maybe it is only shown on London TV. BT (British Telecom) took out large adverts in some papers recently. The ads show the current "exchange" part (01-XXX-1234) and how that will translate in the new number system. 0x1-XXX-1234 +44 x1 XXX 1234 x=8 for "Greater London", x=7 is "City" ( 4 mile radius ). I'm really *dreading* next Spring (junk mail) but some firms are outside London, thank goodness! I'll be getting the list of codes keyed in fairly soon. If you want a copy, or feel I should post a copy, just let me know. --- Peter. Peter Morgan, network supporter! | JANET: Brighton Poly. Computer Centre, | world: Watts Building, Lewes Road, | Dialcom: 10074:MIK1108 Brighton, BN2 4GJ, England. | FIDO: (use as last resort, please) +44 (273) 600900 x 2321 | [Moderator's Note: Welcome to the Digest readership, Peter. I hope to hear from you frequently. PT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 May 89 0:34:53 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Telemail, MCI, AT&T Mail Interconnection! U.S. Sprint's subsidiary, Telenet has announced an interconnection agreement between Telemail, Telenet's electronic mail product, MCI Mail, and AT&T Mail. The new arrangement, scheduled to be in effect later this summer, will allow the 300,000 worldwide users of Telemail, the 100,000 users of MCI Mail and the 50,000 users of AT&T Mail to conveniently send email messages to each other. The exact logistics have not yet been announced, but I wanted to get the word to you as soon as I heard about it. When more details are available, a message will be posted. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Daniel Senie Subject: Re: Automated Operators Date: 15 May 89 20:55:50 GMT Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc., Marlboro, MA In article , Kenneth_R_Jongsma@cup. portal.com writes: > Just received an insert in this month's bill from Michigan Bell > (Ameritech). It seems that they are about to implement a form > of the automated operator services some of the COCOTs have > been using for collect and third party billing. According to > the flyer, if you are making a 0+ call withing the LATA and > do not enter a credit card number after the "bong", you may > get connected to a computer asking you to touch a number > corresponding to your billing request (collect or third > party). You will then be asked to record your name. The called > or billed number will then be called, a computer generated message > will be played with your name inserted appropriately, and the > receiver asked to touch a number corresponding to whether or > not they accept charges. What do they plan to do if the billed number does not have touch-tone? Some of us are still in the dark ages and connected to step offices... Daniel Senie UUCP: harvard!ulowell!cloud9!dts Stratus Computer, Inc. ARPA: anvil!cloud9!dts@harvard.harvard.edu 55 Fairbanks Blvd. CSRV: 74176,1347 Marlboro, MA 01752 TEL.: 508 - 460 - 2686 [Moderator's Note: We have something like this now in Chicago. You dial zero plus the ten digit number to make a call on your card, even if the call is in Chicago. After dialing those eleven digits, a gong rings, and a condescending recorded voice tells us, "Enter your calling card number, followed by a pound (#), or dial zero for an operator now!" If you do neither, then a live operator cuts in after about twenty seconds to handle the call manually. Phones known to be rotary dial are automatically routed to the operator following the gong signal. PT] ------------------------------ Organization: SMART HOUSE Limited Partnership Subject: Miscellaneous Comments Date: 15 May 89 10:02:38 EDT (Mon) From: John Owens I have some piecemeal responses to a number of things in the last few TELECOM Digests, so I'll just lump them together in this one message. > TELECOM Digest Sat, 13 May 89 00:33:37 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 162 > From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) > Subject: telephone carriers > 1. Are codes like 10222 and 10288 supposed to work from residence and > business phones as well as pay ones? Absolutely. We just got equal access on our business lines here and they were switched to MCI; I reprogrammed my auto-dialer to use 10288 before all my calling card calls. If you're placing calling card calls from a business or residence where you don't know the carrier, always give the 10288 (or whichever) a try. > 2. I just passed through the Lynchburg, Va. area, and used a pay phone > (ostensibly C&P) to place a 0+ call inter-LATA, and it went via ITI. This reminds me of something I saw a few weeks ago in Waldorf, MD (southern Maryland - C&P territory). On the front of a 7-11 store along U.S. 301N was the requisite row of payphones (4). Above the payphones was a large white banner with blue letters proclaiming C & P Public Phones Are Back! I guess they had COCOTs and got complaints..... > From: Sowa > Subject: Re: Implementation of 911 Enhanced Service through PBX > This is an interesting operation. How are you proposing > sending more digits/extensions other then the phone > numbers administered by your local operating company? I understood the original posting to mean that the campus had DID trunks to extensions on-campus, but that without outgoing ANI, all the 911 service would be able to tell was that the 911 call originated on one of the university's outgoing trunks. With ANI from the campus, a regular directory number would be provided with no separate extension, much as (as you mentioned) some PBXs do for billing origination purposes. > An Enhanced 911 PSAP has an address database that must be maintained > by someone, how or will the university keep the database informed of > extension moves. I imagine this will be one of those things that's going to be more work than anyone planned.... > TELECOM Digest Mon, 15 May 89 02:00:00 CDT Volume 9 : Issue 164 > From: julian macassey > Subject: Re: Jack specifications > [Description of in-series alarm wiring.] Usually, you put the > alarm on the least used pair, often the last or your FAX line. I'd suggest not putting it on a FAX or modem line. For quite a few months here we were having problems with both our FAX and modem connections being terminated randomly. For modem use, it was obvious that no connection ever lasted for more than an hour. It turned out that all the lines involved were passed through alarm systems (at least one for intrusion and one for fire) and the systems were "testing the lines" hourly! We decided to get dedicated lines for them, since, in addition to this annoyance, we didn't want an incoming call to potentially hold up the alarm. (They weren't ground-start lines.) -- John Owens john@jetson.UPMA.MD.US uunet!jetson!john +1 301 249 6000 john%jetson.uucp@uunet.uu.net ------------------------------ From: John Cowan Subject: Re: Area Codes - a few comments Date: 15 May 89 19:18:42 GMT Reply-To: John Cowan Organization: ESCC New York City >[Moderator's Note: Why 411-611-911 are not used as area codes is pretty >obvious, since they equal Information, Repair Bureau, and Emergency in >that order. But why can't numbers like 210-310-311-511 be used? Or numbers >like 410-510-710? They at least resemble area codes and would not be so >confusing to a phone user. PT] Historically, the N10 codes were used by TWX (otherwise Telex II); whether this is still true, I don't know. AT&T set up TWX to compete with Telex, and used a hitherto-empty part of its name space to avoid interference. Later, AT&T had to sell off TWX, but the N10 codes are still treated as sacred. The last time I checked into the matter, which was maybe 15 years ago, my local telco (New Jersey Bell) treated some N10 codes as "invalid exchange" and others as "invalid area code", kind of randomly. [Moderator's Note: But some readers have maintained, very vigorously, that since Western Union central offices are in no way connected with or wired through Bell central offices, their use of those numbers have no longer any bearing on area codes. I put those codes (410-510-610-710-810-910) in the master list of numerical area codes message run several months ago, and finally took them out. What is the definitive answer on this? Will someone from Bellcore or some other authoritative source please reply? PT] ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Paying for directory assistance calls. Date: 13 May 89 21:41:26 GMT Organization: ATI Wares Team In article , roy@phri.uucp (Roy Smith) writes: > Anyway, I got my phone bill the other day. The DA call was $0.60, > under the heading "Directory Assistance, Canada and Area Code 809". I've > never been charged for DA before, even DA calls to Canada, so this was Where on earth have you been all these years? AT&T has been charging for DA for YEARS now. Initially it was $.50 and then later raised to $.60. I didn't realize that it was *only* $.60 to the Virgin Islands. What a deal! -- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.uucp | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: "Ross D. Snyder" Subject: More TSPS ANI confusion Date: 16 May 89 01:08:32 GMT Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA The other day a friend of mine was making an AT&T operator-assisted call, and the person she wanted to reach was not there, so she told the person who answered the called line to have the desired person call her back at a different number than the one she was calling from. The problem occurred when, after she had said "...call me back at NPA-NXX-", the operator broke the transmitted audio path from my friend and completed the number with "XXXX" read from her TSPS console. Of course, the last four digits the operator read were not the last four digits that my friend intended to say. After I thought about this situation, I started to get upset, realizing that there is really no recourse for my friend other than making a DDD call and giving the person the correct number. The operator had already hit "position release" and was off to continue to unknowingly confuse other customers. -Ross ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 89 09:44:38 -0400 From: David Marston Subject: AT&T Card To Become A Credit Card? On the 8:55 EDT 5/15/89 broadcast of "Today in Business" on the CBS Radio Network, it was reported that AT&T is considering "converting" its 40,000,000 or so Calling Cards into full-blown credit cards. This was one of those three-line stories that only mentioned the possibility of more flexible calling, since a full-fledged credit card is accepted by some AOSes. I'm sure that TELECOMmers can think of many other angles to this story. To get you started: would they "convert" the cards with or without credit checks? .................David Marston decvax!dartvax!eleazar!marston marston@eleazar.dartmouth.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 89 01:26:01 PDT From: Linc Madison Subject: Last of the area codes I've been following the area code splits with some interest, since they seem to be affecting just about every place I've ever lived. As has been noted, 909 and 917 are the only remaining "conventional" A/C's left unused at present, and my area (Oakland/Berkeley, California) is slated to get one in 1991, before "Time T." Any idea what the last one will be? Maryland, perhaps? Will 706 and 905 be reclaimed for use in US/ Canada, requiring "011" dialing for all calls to Mexico? Another speculation: what areas will get new area codes in 1992 when the telcos get to use NNX codes? One area that comes to mind immediately is Yukon/Northwest Territories. For years upon years, the numerical list of area codes in my phone book has shown "403: Alberta, 403: Yukon Territory (Temporary), 403:Northwest Territories (Temporary), 404: Georgia ..." A/C 403 has been "temporary" for YT/NWT for an awfully long time. -- Linc Madison = rmadison@euler.berkeley.edu or e118-ak@ " " " ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 89 06:30:27 PDT From: gilpatrick%dixie1.DEC@decwrl.dec.com Subject: Other unused NPAs? d i g i t a l I N T E R O F F I C E M E M O R A N D U M Date: 15-May-1989 09:17 EDT From: Jim Gilpatrick GILPATRICK.JIM Dept: Software Services Tel No: DTN 351-2263 TO: Remote Addressee ( _DECWRL::"TELECOM@EECS.NWU.EDU" ) Subject: Other unused NPAs? So we are running out of area codes. How about reclaiming the 905 & 706 codes by breaking the North-American Zone 1 hack that uses these codes for Mexico in violation of the CCITT rules? Or would this be too inconvenient? If we could do it, it would give a total of 4 free NPA codes (706, 905, 909, 917). Is there some good reason this cannot or will not be done? --jim ------------------------------ Date: 15 May 89 8:57 -0700 From: laura halliday Subject: Re: Area Codes - a few comments Dave Levenson writes: > I wonder how much difficulty would be caused if the USA and Canada > were to be assigned different country codes? This would allow > re-assignment in the USA of area codes presently assigned in Canada > (and vice versa) and might push that 1995 date back a few years. Probably quite a bit...not only would you only liberate a handful of area codes in the process, you would disrupt important lines of communication. We Canadians tend to phone the U.S. more than we phone other provinces - lines of communication are north-south rather than east-west. ...laura University of B.C., Vancouver, B.C., Canada ------------------------------ From: Eric Schnoebelen Subject: Re: NPA 903 assigned to NE Texas Date: 14 May 89 20:37:35 GMT Reply-To: egs@u-word.dallas.tx.us Organization: John W. Bridges & Associates, Inc., Lewisville, Tx. In article Anthony Argyriou writes: - X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 162, message 2 of 12 - covert%covert.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (John R. Covert) writes: - >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 160, message 6 of 8 - >It was just announced that those portions of 214 outside Dallas will be - >changed to 903 in the Fall of 1990. - How do they choose these numbers? Who chooses? Why did Dallas suburbs - get 903? Is either 909 or 917 unsuitable there? LP} Well, I just talked to our tariff folks, and 903 is not being assigned to the Dallas suburbs ( unless you consider Tyler a suburb of Dallas :-) According to our tariff folks, it will be the Longview lata ( 544 ) and probably portions of the Houston lata ( 560 ) and the Dallas lata ( 552 ). Geographically, I have been told it will go from Tyler east to the state line, and south from the state line to a someplace south of Palestine. As to what area codes are suitable in this area, well Fort Worth ( the unheard of half of Dallas/Ft. Worth ) is in the 817 area code, as well as nearly everything else west of Dallas. Even Waco on the south, and Denton on the north are in area code 817. That probably makes 917 unsuitable.. About 909, I don't know. Maybe Southwestern Bell made it to Bellcore before Pacific Bell. :-) -- Eric Schnoebelen, JBA Incorporated, Lewisville, Tx. egs@u-word.dallas.tx.us ...!killer!u-word!egs "...we have normality"..."Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem..." -- Trisha McMillian, HHGG ------------------------------ From: Gerry Wheeler Date: 15 May 89 17:38:47 GMT Subject: Re: Area Codes - a few comments Organization: Mortice Kern Systems, Waterloo, Ont. Lines: 29 In article , cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) writes: > [Moderator's Note: ... > ... But why can't numbers like 210-310-311-511 be used? Or numbers > like 410-510-710? They at least resemble area codes and would not be so > confusing to a phone user. PT] There have been several messages of late commenting on suitable area codes, and I think this is the second time the moderator has made this point. As a non-insider, I would estimate that 99% of telephone users have no preconceived notion of what an area code looks like. It is simply three digits. Heck, I didn't know there were restrictions on area code numbering until I started reading this group, and I used to work for the phone company! There were also previous messages about whether this area code or that should be assigned right next to some other area code that was similar. I don't think there is any difficulty with that from a user point of view. (I can't say whether there are technical reasons for avoiding it.) After all, one seldom knows what area codes adjoin the desired one, and if you misdial you get some wrong party -- it hardly matters if they are 100 or 10000 miles away from the party you intended to dial. Is there some inside reason why these points are important? I don't see them affecting how the ordinary user sees the phone system. -- Gerry Wheeler Phone: (519)884-2251 Mortice Kern Systems Inc. UUCP: uunet!watmath!mks!wheels 35 King St. North BIX: join mks Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2W9 CompuServe: 73260,1043 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 89 01:32:36 PDT From: Linc Madison Subject: Using "800" LD access from COCOTS ZfoF^Y>>From: black@ll-null.arpa (Jerry Glomph Black) >Subject: Getting LD carriers from payphones >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 162, message 4 of 12 > >Three notes from travels in past 2 weeks: > >3) What has failed in only the rarest of COCOT situations is to use > Sprint's LD service via the 800-877-8000 access. A few of them shut > off the keypad's tone generator after the connection is made, but at > least an operator answers, and you can still complete your call, > with a $1 surcharge (still a lot better than AOS rates!) I find > that the ATT charge-card phones (the silly ones with the CRT and > card-reader) usually shut off the keypad, but otherwise the BOS > phones are OK. BUMSTENCH phones are usually OK as well. Try telling the Sprint operator, "I'm calling from a pay phone and the owner doesn't want me to use Sprint, so my keypad is turned off. Can I get the lower rate?" If Sprint has *any* sense at all, they'll happily give you the lower rate. --Linc Madison = rmadison@euler.berkeley.edu or e118-ak@ " " " ------------------------------ Subject: Re: 01 for London R.I.P. '90 Reply-To: K.Hopkins%computer-science.nottingham.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Date: Mon, 15 May 89 17:13:06 +0100 From: Kevin Hopkins I already have the codes on-line and a shell script built round them to change 01 numbers to 071/081 numbers. If Peter Morgan, or anyone else, wants the list and/or script please drop me a line. Kev. +--------------------------------------------+--------------------------------+ | K.Hopkins%cs.nott.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk | Kevin Hopkins, | | or ..!mcvax!ukc!nott-cs!K.Hopkins | Department of Computer Science,| | or in the UK: K.Hopkins@uk.ac.nott.cs | University of Nottingham, | | CHAT-LINE: +44 602 484848 x 3815 | Nottingham, ENGLAND, NG7 2RD | +--------------------------------------------+--------------------------------+ Date: Wed 17 May 89 02:57:55-EDT Subject: Re: Modems and LD Carriers From: "Robert Gutierrez / MCI ID: 367-9829" From: westmark!dave@rutgers.edu (Dave Levenson) >In article (Brian Jay Gould) writes: > I have seen numerous comparisons by carriers, of their noise levels >(dropping pins and such). The modem manufacturers specify data rates based >upon noise free lines. > So... has anyone ever attempted to chart data rate versus carrier? > (for several modem types) ~r>We have used three different LD carriers in recent years. Our >experience is that each of these (SBS Skyline, MCI, and AT&T) shows >significant variation between different calls to the same place, >using the same carrier. The variation in data transmission quality >varies even more among calls placed over the same carrier to >different destinations. The variation between these carriers was no >more than the variation between different calls using the same >carrier. I could not agree more. Even at MCI, the circut quality could even depend on the time of day you call. Scenaro: You call from San Francisco to New York. If you called at 9pm, your call would travel over our backbone fiber that runs between San Francisco and Washington DC, then via digital radio to New York (over-simplification here), but it is possible that you try at 9AM instead, and all trunks are busy on that fiber route, then we have to find an alternate route for you call to terminate in New York. So, lets see, we send you to Los Angeles first, then Phoenix, Arizona, then Dallas, Texas, then St. Louis, Missouri, then......you get the picture. Then there is unexpected problems that can contribute, like "backhoe fade"....:-) >We also find plenty of noisey intra-lata calls. If the local >carrier cannot deliver a clean dial-up circuit across town, how can >they be expected to provide a uniformly clean interface to any of >the inter-lata carriers? It doesn't matter much how good the toll >carrier is if the local carrier is bad. A given circuit is as good >as its weakest link, isn't it? Ahhh yes, the local carrier lines. I have a problem in that regard. I am on Portal (cup.portal.com) in Cupertino, California. I call from Hayward, California, so, it is intralata. I am calling from a 1AESS to a DMS-100, distance: 25 miles. I would hope to think that there are directs between HYWRCA11CG0 (Hayward C.O.) and SNJSCA12CG0 (San Jose C.O. serving Cupertino). When I call Cupertino at 2400 baud, I always get a bunch of curly characters at the beginning of the transmission, usually going away after repeated 's (or, during retraining/equalization). This usually points towards frame errors/slips on a T-1 carrier, a common problem on the DMS-100, but I have also gotten this while calling through MCI which we have direct circuts to that C.O., but not from work, where we route through San Francisco instead (I think it's San Francisco 10 or 12 were on). I searched my own calls from work, and they terminate directly into SNJS/12, but I have no way of searching my intralata calls to see if I hit the tandem on their end (Santa Clara) or my end (Oakland), and see if one of the tandems is screwing this up. Of course, trying to explain all this to repair (611), and they usually say "huh?". Let us know if you do proceed with the modem experiments, and the results and problems you encounter. Robert Gutierrez MCI Telecommuncations Western Region Trouble Management Center Hayward, California. ------------------------------ From: Jeff Stearns Subject: Re: regular noise/interference over long distance credit card calls Date: 19 May 89 00:41:08 GMT Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA In article Steve Dyer writes: > I was travelling on business last month and attepted to use my trusty Toshiba > laptop which comes with a 1200 baud modem... Whenever I dialed direct with > the credit card, I would end up getting an incredibly regular noise pattern: > what seemed like { once a >second--you could set your watch with it... Steve, Most phone calls are transmitted as a stream of digital data. (Odd, ain't it; the modem converts digital to analog so the central office can convert it back to digital for transmission...) This digital data stream passes from one network switch to another. The network switches probably aren't synchronized to the same clock. One switch is running slightly faster than the other; thus the digital data stream is constantly and steadily "slipping" as it passes from one to the other. The scrambled bit pattern often contains characters ~ or } or DEL (they're rich in 1-bits). A quick workaround? Route the call along a different path. Using a different LD carrier is very likely to accomplish this. -- Jeff Stearns John Fluke Mfg. Co, Inc. (206) 356-5064 jeff@tc.fluke.COM {uw-beaver,microsoft,sun}!fluke!jeff PS - Calling all users of the Vitalink TransLAN IV Ethernet bridge! Please drop me a line. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 May 89 10:26:29 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Illinois Bell Knocked Out For Four Hours! Service to over 40,000 Illinois Bell subscribers in the northwest suburbs of Chicago was disrupted for about four hours Thursday because of problems with the computer in the switching center. Phones were either dead or inoperative for incoming and outgoing calls between 9:30 a.m. and 1:40 p.m. because of a software glitch at the central office in Hoffman Estates, IL. Most of the disruption occurred in Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Hanover Park, and Streamwood, IL. The exact nature of the problem was not discussed by the Bell spokesman who reported that the outage had been corrected. Apparently the backup system which is supposed to kick in also failed. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: RJ21X and regulations Date: 20 May 89 04:14:50 GMT Organization: ATI Wares Team In article , OLE@csli.stanford.edu (Ole J. Jacobsen) writes: > Pacific Bell has quite a different idea about what an RJ21X should > look like. As the person responsible for our company's phone system, It's not Pacific Bell, it's whoever comes out to do the work. There are two types of installers: those that want to get the job done and those that like to play like little Nazis. I have been involved with phone systems ranging from 2 line key systems to multi-site PBXs and there are as many interpretations concerning what the rules say as there are installers in the field. > I was recently served with a "Violation Notice" and given two weeks to > wire our lines to the 66 block VIA the amphenol connector. The > straight "them on one side --- us on the other" with bridging clips in > between is NOT ALLOWED here. I was told that if I did not correct the > problem, service would be terminated. If you receive service by means > of an RJ21X, the phone company wants to have the ability to disconnect > all of your lines with one simple yank of the amphenol plug, wonderful. If any repair person pulled the amphenol off any of my RJs in the process of testing one line, he would be looking for a new job--I guarantee it. > inside a phone closet in the building). The reason is apparently that > you are not supposed to have lines with different "class of service" > on the same 66 block. When I explained that we already had a mixture On one RJ21X block in Pac*Bell land I have the following: 8 Ground Start PBX incoming trunks 4 Ground Start PBX outgoing trunks 3 Sprint Pro-Wats Lines 1 Pac*Bell Metro 800 Line 1 Ground Start DISA access Line 2 Loop Start Modem Lines 1 PBX outgoing OPX No one, but no one has ever given me the slightest comment about this. If anyone ever does, he will be given certain directions concerning impossible anatomical acts he can perform on himself. -- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.uucp | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ Date: Fri May 19 09:50:35 1989 From: Robert J Woodhead Subject: Re: RJ21X and regulations Reply-To: trebor@biar.UUCP (Robert J Woodhead) Organization: Biar Games, Inc. In article OLE@csli.stanford.edu (Ole J. Jacobsen) writes: >The straight "them on one side --- us on the other" with bridging clips in >between is NOT ALLOWED here. Ah yes, the bridging clips. Here in Ithaca, the phone company installers do "them on the left and you on the right", and twice in the last 6 months one of those clips has popped out or shifted just enough to screw up a connection. Plus, would you believe it, for 4 phone lines on an internal phone system plus a modem and fax line, I have a total of 4 of these boxes of various sizes, plus 2 boxes of an older vintage; some installed by the phone company, some by the phone system company. One of these days I'm going to have to spend an afternoon and trace all the damn wires and figure it all out. I mean, at the current rate, if I get another modem line I'll run out of wall space in my utility closet! -- Robert J Woodhead, Biar Games, Inc. !uunet!biar!trebor | trebor@biar.UUCP "The lamb will lie down with the lion, but the lamb won't get much sleep." -- Woody Allen. ------------------------------ From: Lars Poulsen Subject: MCI FAX Network Date: 19 May 89 23:14:24 GMT Organization: Not Much I just received a pretty, multi-colored brochure from MCI, headlined "What a beautiful day for a revolution". The revolution is that MCI now has "a dedicated FAX network". Is this in the same sense that they have "dedicated customer service", or do they really have a SEPARATE national long-distance telephone network that exclusively carries FAX traffic ? It would seem to make no sense at all to maintain a dedicated FAX network, when you already have a telephone network. The brochures include a price list giving per-minute charges in US mileage bands as well as internationally by country. I don't have the MCI telephone price list hand; can I save this list and use it as a price list for my MCI telephone calls ? If the prices are different for phone and FAX, why ? If they are lower than the phone prices, what's to stop me from pretending my phone is a FAX ? / Lars Poulsen ACC Customer Service LARS@SALT.ACC.COM ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 May 89 11:32:37 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: neighboring area codes Delaware and Maryland are neighboring area codes which differ by only one digit: 302 and 301 respectively. ------------------------------ From: William E Evans Subject: TV Interference from the telephone Date: 19 May 89 18:33:05 GMT Organization: Bell Communications Research Can someone suggest a reason why we see television interference whenever one of our telephones is picked up? I can understand there being interference when I use my modem; however, this interference (zigzag lines in the TV picture) happens anytime a telephone is picked up. Is there an easy way to isolate and fix such a problem? Thanks. Bill Evans Bellcore ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 May 89 22:33:38 EDT From: deh@eng.umd.edu Subject: DC area NXX code update CHESAPEAKE AND POTOMAC TELEPHONE COMPANY NEW NXX CODE OPENINGS UPDATED THROUGH May 8, 1989 NPA NXX RATE AREA SERVICE DATE REMARKS -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 703 706 Alexandria-Arlington 03/04/89 703 716 Alexandria-Arlington 03/04/89 703 914 Falls Church-McLean 03/04/89 804 337 Richmond 03/18/89 703 994 Pulaski 03/18/89 703 776 Roanoke 03/18/89 703 224 Roanoke 03/19/89 703 204 Falls Church-McLean 04/29/89 703 846 Falls Church-McLean 04/15/89 804 832 Lynchburg 05/06/89 703 633 Radford 05/06/89 804 235 Richmond 05/20/89 703 587 Bedford 05/20/89 804 354 Richmond 04/25/89 703 712 Falls Church-McLean 05/14/89 703 818 Failfax-Vienna 06/04/89 Please note - code introduced 6-4-88. Not all switches updated. 703 415 Alexandria-Arlington 06/02/89 804 383 Richmond 05/20/89 Opening being expedited 703 709 Fairfax-Vienna 07/14/89 703 516 Alexandria-Arlington 07/07/89 301 960 Baltimore 11/26/88 301 805 Bowie-Glendale 11/26/88 301 808 Capital Heights 11/26/88 301 507 Berwyn 12/03/88 301 402 Bethesda 01/15/89 301 638 Bel Air 01/15/89 301 414 Damascus 01/28/89 301 816 Kensington 02/12/89 Cancelled code 417 - Replaced with 816. 301 487 Myersville 03/19/89 301 608 Silver Spring 08/05/89 301 309 Rockville 08/12/89 301 312 Columbia 04/01/89 301 780 Essex 04/15/89 301 931 Parkville 05/20/89 301 409 Berwyn 05/28/89 301 996 Catonsville 08/01/89 301 979 Catonsville 08/01/89 301 331 Hagerstown 07/14/89 301 998 Pikesville 09/01/89 202 404 Washington 04/15/89 202 613 Washington 05/06/88 202 605 Washington 06/03/88 202 504 Washington 06/17/88 202 307 Washington 06/01/88 Date changed from 06/24/88 202 915 Washington 06/10/88 202 310 Washington 09/15/88 202 213 Washington 09/18/88 202 954 Washington 10/26/88 202 610 Washington 02/03/89 202 319 Washington 03/17/89 202 416 Washington 02/10/89 202 514 Washington 03/17/89 202 708 Washington 05/05/89 202 906 Washington 09/23/88 Code activated 9-23-88 Not all switches updated. 202 408 Washington 10/13/89 202 812 Washington 06/30/89 202 917 Washington 06/30/89 202 806 Washington 07/28/89 304 544 Huntington 10/17/87 304 627 Clarksburg 09/12/87 304 639 Wheeling Zone 1 02/15/88 301 633 Huntington Zone 1 02/05/88 304 281 Wheeling Zone 1 04/04/88 304 479 Weirton 05/13/88 304 542 Charleston Zone 1 08/22/88 304 691 Huntington Zone 1 10/01/88 304 353 Charleston Zone 1 10/01/88 304 545 Charleston Zone 1 10/08/88 304 481 Parkersburg Zone 1 11/15/88 304 284 Morgantown 07/15/89 [this is the whole list (typo in the original included in 304 land). In the future, I will send new exchange opening announcements as I get them] Doug ------------------------------ From: Bruce Klopfenstein Subject: Re: Illinois Bell Knocked Out For Four Hours! Date: 21 May 89 11:02:25 GMT Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh. From article , by telecom@eecs.nwu. edu (TELECOM Moderator): > Service to over 40,000 Illinois Bell subscribers in the northwest suburbs > of Chicago was disrupted for about four hours Thursday because of problems > with the computer in the switching center. > [goes on to note other details including the failure of the backup syqtem] Are the implications of this outage as serious as they appear to be on the surface? To a non-telephony insider, this appears to be about as big a crisis as one could imagine. Am I cynical in thinking that before this happened, Illinois Bell would have said that this incident was impossible? (Shades of Exxon?) -- Dr. Bruce C. Klopfenstein | klopfens@andy.bgsu.edu Radio-TV-Film Department | klopfenstein@bgsuopie.bitnet Bowling Green $tate University | klopfens@bgsuvax.UUCP Bowling Green, OH 43403 | (419) 372-2138; 352-4818 [Moderator's Note: While the numbers seem large, forty thousand subscribers out of four million plus in the northern Illinois area is one percent or less of the total. I'll grant you, it certainly shows how vulnerable we are to computer failures. Several months ago, we had a similar outage in the CO next to me (Chicago-Irving) which lasted about five minutes. And the latest joke about Exxon is a twist on the old folk song: "What do you do with a drunken sailor? Put him in charge of an Exxon tanker!" See you tomorrow, IBT willing! PT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 May 89 0:33:21 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: International Reach Out Plans Some discussion here about AT&T's Reach Out Plans recently prompted my contact at AT&T to send me some detailed information about the three international Reach Out Plans currently offered. As you will note, they differ from the plan offered domestically in the United States in the time of day they are in force, as well as how the charges are calculated. REACH OUT UNITED KINGDOM This plan offers 30 minutes of calling per month, for a flat rate of $22.00. Additional half hours are also $22.00, and are pro-rated at 73 cents per minute, which is less than the usual discount rates. Hours for calling are 1 PM to 6 PM, local time, meaning the call arrives in the UK between around 5 PM and 2 AM next day, depending on your exact time zone here. On Saturday and Sunday, the hours are 7 AM to 6 PM both days, meaning calls can be received there between around noon through 2 AM. There is a one time $10.00 sign up fee. REACH OUT PHILIPPINES This plan offers 30 minutes of calling per month, for a flat rate of $35.00 for the first half hour, and $33.50 for each additional half hour. Additional half hours after the first are pro-rated to $1.12 per minute. Again, this is substantially less than the normal rate or discount period rate for calls to the Philippines. Plan hours are Monday through Friday from 2 AM to 11 AM, meaning your call arrives there in the time frame of late afternoon through early morning next day, depending on the originating US time zone. On weekends the Philippines plan allows calls between 12:01 AM and 11 AM; then again between 5 PM and midnight; and after a two hour break, can be resumed beginning at 2 AM Monday morning. There is a $10 enrollment fee here also. REACH OUT ISRAEL This plan is the exception to the bulk, purchase by the half-hour plans. Instead, there is a continuing $5 per month 'subscription charge' which entitles you to purchase whatever time desired during plan hours at a much less than normal or discount rate. Plan hours and rates are as follows -- Monday through Friday: 5 PM to midnight = 85 cents per minute 12:01 AM to 8 AM = $1.05 per minute Saturday and Sunday: same as above, but an additional window -- 8 AM to 5 PM = $1.20 per minute There is no plan discount available 8 AM to 5 PM weekdays. While the UK and Philippines plans do save you money once you amortize the initial one time enrollment fee into your total charges, the Israel plan -- which also has a $10 enrollment fee -- will only save you money if your monthly billings are large enough to absorb the monthly $5 subscription charge and still save money. Based on the few cents per minute difference in the plan rates versus the least expensive economy rates, you would need a couple hours per month of calls to Israel to make it worth while to sign up. Like all discount phone rates, the hours are bound to be somewhat inconvenient for either the caller or the person called, with the exception of Saturday and Sunday calls. And while for the UK plan, persons originating calls from EST or CST zones would probably have the most compatibility in calling at times convenient to the UK, the opposite is true of the Philippines plan, where PST/MST zones would have the greatest flexibility at finding the other end up, awake and available. Regards Reach Out America, I've come to the conclusion that although we in the midwest probably have the most convenient calling window based on either direction of call other than calls straight 'up or down' within your own time zone; the fact is we wind up paying more for calls. At 11-12 cents a minute, calls have to be at least several hundred miles in distance before the rates would be any higher anyway. Folks on the east, west or southern coasts at least have the ability to make calls of greater distances. It reminds of me of the rationale used by telemarketing companies which locate in the middle west: we have the cheapest WATS rates of anywhere; after all, you can only call a couple thousand miles one way, or a thousand the other. Anyway, to sign up for any of the three international Reach Out Plans listed here, call AT&T at 1-800-222-0300. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Dave Levenson Subject: Re: MCI FAX Network Date: 21 May 89 14:12:53 GMT Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA In article , lars@salt.acc.com (Lars Poulsen) writes: > It would seem to make no sense at all to maintain a dedicated ... > use it as a price list for my MCI telephone calls ? > If the prices are different for phone and FAX, why ? If they are > lower than the phone prices, what's to stop me from pretending The fax network is actually a non-real-time (i.e. store & forward) fax delivery service.. It will accept your fax traffic using a fax modem. I don't think it will hear your voice! By compressing a lot of fax traffic into high-speed data packets, they can send it to a dis-assembly system near the destination and then re-sent from a fax modem to the recipient's fax machine. This makes it less expensive than voice, but not interchangeable. -- Dave Levenson {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave ...the man in the mooney ------------------------------ From: Dave Levenson Subject: Re: Cellular Phone & 911 Date: 21 May 89 14:17:35 GMT Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA In article , stjhmc!stjhmc.fidonet. org!ddodell@asuvax.asu.edu (David Dodell) writes: > I was curious if Enhanced 911 can pick up the phone number when you are > calling from a mobile phone (either cellular or IMTS)? Or is this one of Here in NJ, I have called my office (we have Caller*Id Service) from the car. No calling number is displayed (it says: Out of Area). When I dial 911, who I get seems to depend upon where the car is. If I'm driving in New Jersey, I reach the NJ State Police. When I call from New York City, I get the NYC 911 operator. While they may not get my mobile number, they do make some use of the mobile telephone system's knowlege of where I'm calling from, probably based upon which cell site is handling the call. The above applies to Cellular, using MetroOne in the NYC area. IMTS and other cellular systems may be different. -- Dave Levenson {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave ...the man in the mooney ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 May 89 0:19:16 CDT From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Pac Bell Gets Okay for 900 Audiotex Prefixes Californians, not normally a prudish lot, raised so much cain with Pac Bell and the California Public Utility Commission over the subject of 'dial-a-porn', that the CPUC has given its blessings to Pac Bell's plan to segregate allegedly harmful audiotex programs on the specially reserved, blockable 900-303 exchange, for which Pac Bell will *NOT* provide billing services. The plan is intended to allow Pac Bell to disassociate itself from offensive programming while simultaneously promoting other 900 services such as sports scores and horoscope readings that are considered more legitimate. Previously, Pac Bell subscribers wishing to block any audiotex programs had to deny service to all programs. Under the new scheme, blocking will be provided free of charge for any subscribers wishing to limit access to the 900-303 prefix for sex lines; the 900-505 prefix for random conference calls; or the 900-844 prefix for the more traditional recorded messages and entertainment services. Blocking will in fact be the *default condition* for 900-303 unless the subscriber specifically requests having it turned on. Under California's revised penal code, passed last year with support from Pac Bell, 'harmful' programming is deemed as any matter which appeals to prurient interests, represents sexual conduct which is patently offensive, and lacks serious artistic and literary merit. As such, it closely resembles the federal code for obscene speech. A Pac Bell spokesman was blunt in his assessment of the matter: "Our goal is to disconnect 'dial-a-porn'. But until/unless we have the legal authority to do that, we've designed out 900 service to solve the problems some consumers have had with 976. Will this plan work? Maybe not. Several information providers, led by Sable Commuications of Los Angeles, are challenging a federal statute for 'obscene' and 'indecent' interstate programming which could well have a bearing on the California law. Sable also notes they believe it is discriminatory for Pac Bell to provide billing services for some IP's while declining to do so for others of whom they disapprove. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Ron Natalie Subject: Re: Cellular Phone & 911 Date: 23 May 89 13:12:28 GMT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. The more interesting question is which 911 operator you get when you dial 911 from a cellular phone, since the cellular coverage areas almost always span more than one 911-service area. My guess is that it's just handled by the MTS operator. -Ron ------------------------------ =/From: Rob Warnock Subject: Re: Cellular Phone & 911 Date: 23 May 89 09:27:24 GMT Reply-To: Rob Warnock Organization: [Consultant] San Mateo, CA westmark!dave@rutgers.edu (Dave Levenson) writes: +--------------- | org!ddodell@asuvax.asu.edu (David Dodell) writes: | > I was curious if Enhanced 911 can pick up the phone number when you are | > calling from a mobile phone (either cellular or IMTS)? | ...When I dial 911, who I get seems to depend upon where the car is. | If I'm driving in New Jersey, I reach the NJ State Police. When I | call from New York City, I get the NYC 911 operator. While they may | not get my mobile number, they do make some use of the mobile | telephone system's knowlege of where I'm calling from, probably | based upon which cell site is handling the call. +--------------- In the Bay Area, the CA Highway Patrol apparently likes the help it's been getting from drivers with cellular phones... so now *all* cellular 911 calls go directly to the CHP. If it's not a CHP-servicable call they re-route you to the "appropriate" authority. Oddly enough, they seemed to consider a three-car accident I reported on US-101 ("The Bayshore Freeway") to be a "local" matter; they transferred me to the Palo Alto police! I don't know if they have ANI or not. They do ask for your name and cellular number (they know it's cellular), but that may be just for prank detection. [Does anybody know if they have access to cell site?] Rob Warnock Systems Architecture Consultant UUCP: {amdcad,fortune,sun}!redwood!rpw3 DDD: (415)572-2607 USPS: 627 26th Ave, San Mateo, CA 94403 ------------------------------ From: paul@nsacray.uucp Date: Wed, 24 May 89 15:34:40 GMT Subject: Automated Operators The problem with automated operators, at least the ones I've played around with is that after the question of whether or not they will accept the call is asked of the called party, the calling party can generate the DTMF (or say "Yes" for voice recognition). Simply cutting off the calling party from the call is also not a good idea, as sometimes the calling party is needed to generate additional info or at least speak to be recognized. Also, the voice recognition would have to deal with foreign languages in (e.g.) heavily Spanish speaking areas. Anyway, this technology has a long ways to go. -------- Paul Guthrie chinet!nsacray!paul Zippy says: OKAY!! Turn on the sound ONLY for TRYNEL CARPETING, FULLY-EQUIPPED R.V.'S and FLOATATION SYSTEMS!! ------------------------------ From: John Wheeler Subject: 404 area code now required dialing within 404 Date: 25 May 89 00:44:50 GMT Reply-To: John Wheeler Organization: Turner Entertainment Networks Library; Atlanta Semi-quoting page B1 of the Atlanta Constitution of May 24, 1989... Population growth...will require callers in North Georgia to dial the 404 area code after a <1> or <0> in addition to the number when making long-distance calls within that area code. Walter Sessoms, Southern Bell's vice president for Georgia, said the phone company has run out of central office codes... ...The new system would permit the use of digits reserved for area codes to be used as prefixes...Theoretically, the new system would create about 1.5 million new numbers for 404... Southern Bell has an application for a new area code pending, but it will not be issued until all the new available central (office) numbers are used up. There is currently a total of almost 2 million access lines in area code 404, about 1.5 million in the Atlanta calling area... -- Turner John Wheeler E N T E R T A I N M E N T ...!gatech!nanovx!techwood!johnw Networks Techwood Library * home of Superstation TBS * TNT * TBS Sports ------------------------------ From: "james.j.sowa" Subject: Re: Cellular Phone & E911 Date: 25 May 89 13:26:21 GMT Reply-To: "james.j.sowa" Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories In article westmark!dave@rutgers.edu (Dave Levenson) writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 173, message 5 of 7 >In article , stjhmc!stjhmc.fidonet. >org!ddodell@asuvax.asu.edu (David Dodell) writes: >> I was curious if Enhanced 911 can pick up the phone number when you are >> calling from a mobile phone (either cellular or IMTS)? Or is this one of This is from memory and may have changed but probably not to much. First of all E911 means two things: 1) an ability to route the calling number to the proper serving PSAP. This means if one house has Police A and Fire A and the next house has Police B and Fire A the 911 call would go to the primary answerer (maybe police) in this case both calls go to poilce A at the PSAP when it is determined it is a fire call all the PSAP attendant will do is press a button labeled fire and the call will route correctly to the proper Fire department . This function is now being applied to cellular as the next author states. >Here in NJ, I have called my office (we have Caller*Id Service) from >the car. No calling number is displayed (it says: Out of Area). >When I dial 911, who I get seems to depend upon where the car is. >If I'm driving in New Jersey, I reach the NJ State Police. When I >call from New York City, I get the NYC 911 operator. While they may >not get my mobile number, they do make some use of the mobile >telephone system's knowlege of where I'm calling from, probably >based upon which cell site is handling the call. >The above applies to Cellular, using MetroOne in the NYC area. IMTS >and other cellular systems may be different. >Dave Levenson Call routing should be done on serving antenna instead of cell since it would be a finer geographcal area to define. 2) After having the ability to transmit the calling number to the PSAP. The PSAP will then do a database lookup the interpret the ANI DN into an address of telephone of the calling party. This information aids in dispatch, redialing, aiding callers who don't know their location. It is an open item today as what to transmit to a PSAP from a cellular phone and how much information is needed at the PSAP - calling number? 10 digits - serving cell? x digits Besides, if the DN to address translation is done at the PSAP from their database, how could they have all the mobile DNs from all over their area translated into their database. (much less updated.) How would they translate roamers? Jim ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 May 89 12:54:43 EDT From: scott@dtscp1.UUCP (Scott Barman) Subject: Southern Bell dialing changes in 404 area code Organization: Digital Transmission Systems (a subsidiary of DCA), Duluth, GA Southern Bell announced on Tuesday (5/23) that beginning October 2, all long distance calls within the 404 area codes will require the caller to dial the 404 after the 1 (i.e. 1-404-xxx-xxxx). Southern Bell reports that they are running out of central office exchages in the 404 area becuase of an increase of 600,000 access lines (mostly in the Metro Atlanta area). It was reported that SB is doing this because it is a cheap, short term solution and its a prelude to adding a new area code to the area (Metro Atlanta will get its own area code). Programming is in effect now that will allow people to reprogram their auto-dialers and speed calling numbers now. Starting 10/2 calls will not go through and the caller will get one of those wonderful (and usually ear-splitting loud) recordings. They are trying to put off the inevitable. I understand that since I was living in New York when they made Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island area code 718. Initially, it really can be confusing and frustrating and I guess New York Tel. dropped a bundle in advertising. -- scott barman {gatech, emory}!dtscp1!scott ------------------------------ From: David Lewis Subject: Re: Area Codes - a few comments Date: 25 May 89 18:21:51 GMT Organization: Bell Communications Research In article , cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) writes: > >[Moderator's Note: Why 411-611-911 are not used as area codes is pretty > >obvious, since they equal Information, Repair Bureau, and Emergency in > >that order. But why can't numbers like 210-310-311-511 be used? Or numbers > >like 410-510-710? They at least resemble area codes and would not be so > >confusing to a phone user. PT] > Historically, the N10 codes were used by TWX (otherwise Telex II); whether > this is still true, I don't know. AT&T set up TWX to compete with Telex, > and used a hitherto-empty part of its name space to avoid interference. > Later, AT&T had to sell off TWX, but the N10 codes are still treated as > sacred. The last time I checked into the matter, which was maybe 15 years > ago, my local telco (New Jersey Bell) treated some N10 codes as "invalid > exchange" and others as "invalid area code", kind of randomly. > [Moderator's Note: But some readers have maintained, very vigorously, that > since Western Union central offices are in no way connected with or wired > through Bell central offices, their use of those numbers have no longer > any bearing on area codes. I put those codes (410-510-610-710-810-910) in > the master list of numerical area codes message run several months > ago, and finally took them out. What is the definitive answer on this? Will > someone from Bellcore or some other authoritative source please reply? PT] According to "Notes on the BOC Intra-LATA Networks -- 1986", Bellcore TR-NPL-000275... 700, 800, 900, and 610 are SACs, or Service Access Codes, which are currently assigned. 610, as stated elsewhere, is assigned in Canada for TWX service and is not used in the BOCs; but, as numbering assignments are according to the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), not the US Numbering Plan, 610 is unavailable in the US. The other N00 codes (200-600) have been reserved for use as SACs and will not be assigned as NPAs. N11 codes are reserved for special functions. N10 codes (aha, he finally gets to it) are among the remaining legally assignable NPA codes. As of the publication of Notes, 19 codes of the N0/1X format were unassigned. These included the 5 reserved for SACs, leaving the 7 available N10 codes plus 7 N0/1N codes. I believe the N10 codes will be the last to be assigned as NPAs. Disclaimer: This is taken from the reference; I don't work in Numbering Plan Administration. As far as I know, though, the TR represents the most recent policy (although some NPAs have been assigned since then). -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= David G Lewis "If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower." Bellcore 201-758-4099 Navesink Research and Engineering Center ...!bellcore!nvuxr!deej [Moderator's Note: Thank you for providing this information. I consider it an authoritative answer. Therefore, to those who have said otherwise, we are NOT 'running out of area codes' (we still have 7+2=9 left of the more or less conventional form). And I may be wrong, but I'll bet they hold 909 open until after the other 8 have been assigned, and Telenet will continue using it for switching calls in their network. PT] ------------------------------ From: nobody@cs.buffalo.edu Subject: Off-hook signal Date: 25 May 89 20:47:03 GMT Reply-To: Davin Milun Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science I'm sure t2$,g9[.Hz.H2ry simple, but I need a device (LED & resistor??) to tell me when another extension on my phone line is in use? Can I just put this together myself with an LED and resistor (if so, what resistance), or else is there a cheap one I can purchase? Mail replies, as posting seems unnecessary. Thanx in advance. Davin Milun Internet: milun@cs.Buffalo.EDU uucp: ..!{boulder,decvax,rutgers}!sunybcs!milun BITNET: milun@sunybcs.BITNET ------------------------------ From: intercon!kdb@uunet.uu.net Subject: Re: Cellular Phone & 911 Date: 25 May 89 23:36:56 GMT Reply-To: intercon!kdb@uunet.uu.net Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation I have had several occasions to use 911 from my cell phone. On all of them I might as well have not called. It seems that, at least in the Metro DC area, I always get Prince Georges County Police. Even when I am in Virginia. This has caused no end of problems when I was trying to report a serious accident on a little two lane highway that block both lanes. I got routed to PG County in Maryland who told me tough that I would have to get ahold of the proper VA department, they didn't know who are even have a phone number for me to try. Then I called the operator (a person who should know what the VA police's number is) who ended up passing me off to PG County again. After 20 minutes of trying to be a good guy I gave up. Went to a gas station and called it in from there. CellOne could do a better job of pointing calls in the correct direction. Oh well. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest Downloaded From P-80 Systems 304-744-2253