TELECOM Digest Sun, 8 Jul 90 16:50:13 CDT Volume 10 : Issue 468 Inside This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Interstate Rates [John R. Covert] Pentagon Moved to Area Code 703 [Greg Monti via John R. Covert] Public*Phone [John Higdon] Plain Ol' Telephones [Ron Pfeifle] Using the "O" Operator to Defeat 800 ANI and Caller*ID [Steve Rhoades] Touchtone History [Roy Smith] HPPI (High-Performance Parallel Interface) Info Needed [R. Manghirmalani] Motorola 9000 Handheld [Rick Farris] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Jul 90 10:44:58 PDT From: "John R. Covert 06-Jul-1990 1345" Subject: AT&T Interstate Rates AT&T's new rates as of 1 July 1990: Residential Reach-out-America: Night & Weekend Plan: Makes the night period begin at 10 PM instead of 11 PM. $7.15 per month includes first hour of N/W calling. $6.60 per additional hour, billed at .11 per minute. N/W/Evening Plan: $7.80 per month includes the Night & Weekend Plan. Provides an additional 15% discount on evening rates during the 5 PM to 10 PM period. Hourly charge Boston to Washington $7.43 Charlotte $7.62 Los Angeles $7.63 Honolulu $10.94 24-Hour Plan: $8.70 per month includes the above plans, provides a 10% discount on daytime rates, and increases the extra evening discount to 25%. Hourly charge Boston to Washington $6.56 Charlotte $6.73 Los Angeles $6.73 Honolulu $9.65 Calling card inclusion: $2.00/month. AT&T handled calling card calls obtain the discount. Call charges and the .80 calling card surcharge are discounted by the appropriate 10%, 15% or 25% during the day and evening period. During the Reach Out night and weekend period, no surcharge applies, and call charges are applied to the base and overtime rates. Only available in certain areas. Standard Rates: Mileage Initial Minute Additional Minutes Rate Periods 1-10 .18 .1206 .10 .17 .1139 .0975 D: M-F 8A-5P 11-22 .1975 .1340 .1130 .1975 .1340 .11 23-55 .1975 .1454 .12 .1975 .1454 .12 E: Sun-Fri 5P-11P 56-124 .2160 .1457 .12 .2150 .1454 .12 125-292 .2160 .1457 .1215 .2150 .1457 .1215 N: Every day 11P-8A 293-430 .23 .1457 .1250 .23 .1457 .1225 All day Saturday 431-925 .2390 .1495 .13 .2390 .1495 .1260 Until 5P Sunday 926-1910 .2490 .1496 .1325 .2490 .1496 .13 1911-3000 .2490 .1496 .1350 .2490 .1496 .1325 3001-4250 .31 .2077 .1650 .30 .2010 .16 4251-5750 .33 .2211 .1750 .32 .2144 .17 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Jul 90 15:58:06 PDT From: "John R. Covert 07-Jul-1990 1858" Subject: Pentagon Moved to Area Code 703 From: Greg Monti Date: 6 July 1990 Pentagon Moved to Area Code 703 Prefixes of the Pentagon-Department of Defense telephone Rate Area have been moved from Area Code 202 to Area Code 703. Up until now, the Pentagon has been one of those rare odd men out in the North American Numbering Plan. The Plan, at least for the US, states that area codes don't cross state lines. The Pentagon, located on land owned by the Federal Government in Arlington County, Virginia, got the 202 Area Code, presumably due to it being the only major Government agency with its headquarters in Virginia at the time Area Codes were established. It got 202 like the other agencies. (Many more Federal agencies have been located in Northern Virginia since; they all have 703 numbers.) Only phones which are extensions of the Pentagon PBX had 202. Private, outside lines, pay phones and private businesses in the Pentagon have 703 numbers. For local callers, the Pentagon's Area Code has been unimportant due to the 7-digit dialing used for local calls in the Washington area. With the advent of 10-digit dialing for local calls across state and Area Code lines, which becomes mandatory 1 October 1990, confusion could have reigned if nothing were done. Would local callers dial 10 digits for local calls which cross *state* boundaries or *area code* boundaries? Suppose your local call crossed only one of the two boundaries? (From DC to Pentagon, you would cross a state line, but not an Area Code boundary. From Virginia, you would cross an Area Code boundary but not a state line.) What would be the dialing rule then? That confusion has been eliminated. The following 202 prefixes have been moved to 703: 545(?), 692, 693, 695, 696, 697 and 746. One old Pentagon prefix, 202-694, could not be moved because there already is a 703-694 prefix in Stuart, Virginia. A new Pentagon prefix, 703-602, was opened, presumably to absorb the users booted off of 694. Previously, the Pentagon was its own Rate Area for billing purposes. Now that its Area Code is the same as the surrounding county, it may be moved into the Alexandria-Arlington Rate Area. The new 602 prefix is already listed in the Northern Virginia and DC directories as Alexandria-Arlington. To test whether the move was complete, sample Pentagon prefixes were dialed from both 703 and 202 phones (all local) as both 7 and 10 digits. As of 30 June 1990, none of the sample Pentagon prefixes could be reached by dialing 202-NXX-XXXX from Virginia but all of them could be reached by dialing 703-NXX-XXXX from Washington, DC. All could be reached by dialing just seven digits from either place since that is still allowed until October. Dialing 703-694 from a DC phone produces an immediate, "you must first dial a 1" intercept without even waiting for the last four digits. 1-703-694-XXXX would be the correct way to dial Stuart. Presumably, 202-694 will be closed, if it isn't already, or kept for some other purpose. Greg Monti, Arlington, Virginia; work +1 202 822-2633 ------------------------------ Subject: Public*Phone Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: 7 Jul 90 22:09:38 PDT (Sat) From: John Higdon An amusing COCOT incident: Needing to reach Pac*Bell over some matters with my residence phone, I spotted what looked like a standard Pac*Bell pay phone. It turned out to be a [Public*Phone] (tm) with colors and logos that are borderline actionable in their resemblance to Pac*Bell. They have blue rectangles in the upper left corner and an embossed logo on the coinbox cover that from more than ten feet away looks exactly like the puckered asshole logo of Pac*Bell. Anyway, I dialed 811-5700 and was told that I had dialed an "invalid number" by the grainiest digital excuse for a voice you have ever heard. Then I dialed 211 and explained that I couldn't reach 811-5700. She asked me to hold and then I heard a touchtone digit which made the phone go dead. A moment later she came back and said that the phone did not indicate any money lost. I told her I didn't put any money in and that 811-5700 should be a free call anywhere in the state of California. She went off the line again, and then came back and said that I would have to use another phone. I explained that there were no other phones anywhere in the vacinity and that I was going to express my displeasure over the inconvenience with the store proprietor. Suddenly, her tone changed and she said, "just one moment." The next thing I heard was "Pacific Bell, may I help you?". So, as the guru and mentor would say, "what have we learned, my children?" Perhaps, the COCOT robber barons are just a bit sensitive about suckers--er, customers complaining about their one-arm bandits to those who might have the power to have them removed. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! ------------------------------ From: Ron Pfeifle Subject: Plain Ol' Telephones. Date: 4 Jul 90 20:41:51 GMT Organization: Teleride Sage, Ltd., Waterloo, Ontario What happens on a two-wire telephone line when a call is being completed in terms of the two wires? I'd like a description like: The CO signals such-and-such across the wires. Because of this-and-that the telephone rings. When the receiver is picked up, A-and-B happens which tells the CO that the phone is off-hook. At this point voice out goes through wire blah, voice in comes through wire bleh, etc.. I just want to know what such-and-such, this-and-that, A-and-B etc... are for a two-wire subscriber line in terms of signals on those wires. Thanks, Ron Pfeifle : Teleride Sage Ltd : Waterloo, Ontario : watmath!tslwat!ronp ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Jul 90 09:54:22 PDT From: riot!slr@csvax.caltech.edu Reply-To: "Steve L. Rhoades" Subject: Using the "O" Operator to Defeat 800 ANI and Caller*ID When calling an 800 number from my Pasadena, CA exchange (818-794 - 1AESS), I have found that I can prevent the called party from receiving my number simply by routing the call through the "O" operator (Pac*Bell's TOPS). Normally, when I call one of MCI's, SPRINT's or AT&T's 800 numbers, my number will show up on the called party's call detail. If I simply Dial "O", and "have trouble reaching 800-xxx-xxxx" the call detail doesn't have my number. (Yes, the TOPS operator does have it.) I've only tried this with the above-mentioned 800 providers. My question: Is this just a fluke ? Is there some type of convention for TOPS to pass the calling number to the 800 service provider ? Has anyone else tried this ? Does it work elsewhere ? On a related question: For those of you with Caller*ID, what happens when you get a call routed through the "O" operator ? (the called party being someone that you would normally get a calling number from on your Caller*ID display). Steve US mail: Post Office Box 1000, Mount Wilson, Calif. 91023 UUCP: ...elroy!cit-vax!riot!slr Internet: slr@riot.caltech.edu voice-mail: (818) 794-6004 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Jul 90 15:05:47 EDT From: Roy Smith Subject: Touchtone History When were the first touchtone phones installed? I always thought the answer was that were introduced at the 1964/65 New York World's Fair. The fair opened in the summer of 64, so those were probably installed in late 63 or early 64. However, I recently watched a documentary about the desegregation of the University of Alabama (the incident in which Governor George Wallace vowed to "stand in the schoolhouse door" to prevent two black students from registering for classes) which proves me wrong on that theory. A touch-tone phone was clearly visible in President Kennedy's oval office in numerious bits of footage shot at the time. The year was 1963 and the students were trying to register for the summer session, so I would put the date at about May or June 1963. The phone that Kennedy used most of the time was a multi-line key set with a rotary dial (looked like about 25 lines) and a speakerphone attachment. Sitting on the table behind his chair were about 3 or 4 single line desk sets, one touch-tone, the rest rotary. Was touch-tone in general use in May 1963, or did the President just have a pre-release model? Another bit of interesting telecom related trivia was a shot of the US Deputy Attourny General (I forget his name) on location at the U of A wanting to place a private phone call to JFK to discuss tactics as the situation developed. You see him getting into his car and asking (telling, really) the press to get back so he can have some privacy. Then you see another shot of him, sitting in the car, talking on the phone. You clearly hear him saying something like "OK, they can't hear me now", and clearly hear JFK's voice responding! This is all real on-location footage, not some recreation. It's not clear if the phone line was tapped, there was a bug in the car, some sound man had a good parabolic mike, or if some reporter had simply slipped a mike into the car window without the DAG noticing. ------------------------------ From: Ravi Manghirmalani Subject: HPPI (High-Performance Parallel Interface) Info Desired Organization: Vicom Systems, Inc., Fremont, CA Date: Thu, 5 Jul 90 19:41:16 GMT I am currently researching the usability of HPPI (High-Performance Parallel Interface) for high speed local area networks. The only reference I have found, so far is "Overcoming Network Bottlenecks - Wayne Hathaway", UNIX Review Vol. 8, No. 4 (April 1990). I am interested in knowing about any available hardware/software products as well as any ongoing research/development work for HPPI concerning networking, disk-controllers, protocols, as well as their relationship to traditional networking, etc. Any leads would be greatly appreciated. ravi@vicom.com {ames|apple|sun}!vsi1!ravi (415) 498-3377 ------------------------------ From: rfarris@serene.UUCP (Rick Farris) Subject: Motorola 9000 Handheld Date: 8 Jul 90 02:50:07 GMT Reply-To: rfarris@serene.uu.net (Rick Farris) Organization: Serenity BBS, Del Mar, California Greetings, I finally took the plunge and acquired a cellular phone. I needed a handheld (or at least transportable) because I bought it not for use in the car, but to enable clients to reach me when I'm working on-site at another clients premises. I looked at the Radio Shack CT-301, as recommended by various c.d.t'ers, and it certainly was attractive at $500. The Motorola 9000 (which I ended up buying) seemed much nicer but was priced $400 higher. I even looked at the Motorola Micro-TAC, (for about $1100), because the idea of being able to carry a phone in my shirt pocket was alluring. Unfortunately, contrary to the rumors that abound here, the Micro-TAC is nowhere near small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. In particular, with the battery attached, it is quite thick. As the salesman pointed out to me, the Micro-TAC was really designed to fit in a woman's purse -- if a phone is big enough that it won't fit in your pocket, then you'll have to carry it in your hand or your briefcase, and there's not much sense to pay the big premium for the size of the Micro-TAC. That narrowed it down to the CT-301 and the Motorola 9000. (Ok, there was an OKI for about $700 that looked nice, but it didn't the quality feel of the Motorola, nor did it have the battery life nor come with as many accessories. Although the 9000 was $400 more expensive than the CT-301, it came with two antennas and two battery packs and a carrying case, which narrowed the price difference somewhat. The fact that programming information is readily available here in c.d.t for the CT-301 was a big draw for it, but finally, quality won out and I purchased the Motorola 9000 handheld. So now I'm here in c.d.t begging for more information about my phone. Does Motorola sell manuals for my phone? (To the public, I mean.) Does anyone else have a 9000 who would be willing to share info about it? After my phone was delivered, I realized that they hadn't told me the six-digit security code (normally unchangeable by the user) which is used to modify the three-digit lock code and to access various other features. I called the sales office and the supervisor there told me that she was sure my code was 000000 because that is what they set them all to! Does anyone know how to change it? Thanks! Rick Farris RF Engineering POB M Del Mar, CA 92014 voice (619) 259-6793 rfarris@rfengr.com ...!ucsd!serene!rfarris serene.UUCP 259-7757 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V10 #468 ****************************** ----- Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253