ú Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #168 TELECOM Digest Thu, 11 Mar 93 11:43:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 168 Index To This Issue: Moderator: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Archives and the World-Wide Web (Frederick Roeber) Rural Network Setup (Steven Shulman) CT2 Digital Mobile Phones in Brisbane (Tom Worthington) IS-41 Roaming Question (John McHarry) AT&T Billing Practices --> Followup (Christopher Wolf) What is Telecom Gold? (Ted Koppel) Call Forward Don't Answer/Busy Line and Call Waiting (Mark Baker) Number Replacement (Vance Shipley) Public Service Usage for 900 Numbers (Joe Wiesenfeld) ATM and SS7 (Martin B. Weiss) Australia Privacy Document (Dave Leibold) Bell Canada Further Restricts Payphone Card Calling (Dave Leibold) Another Quiet Evening at Home (John Higdon) Bomb Scare (1970s) Forgot Area Code (Carl Moore) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: roeber@vxcrna.cern.ch Subject: Telecom Archives and the World-Wide Web Reply-To: roeber@cern.ch Organization: CERN -- European Organization for Nuclear Research Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 11:40:05 GMT I'd like to mention to everybody that the Telecom Archives are available on the World-Wide Web, a global hypertext network. From the standard "Information by Subject" page, go to "Computing" and then "telecom archive." Currently, the archive structure seen is merely the directory structure. However, if people submit documents in html (hypertext markup language), the document structure will be visible. This might be useful for a country code/city code list, for example, or for files that contain references to other information, either in the archive or elsewhere on the net. If you are not familiar with the WWW, but would like to explore, I would recommend the "xmosaic" X-windows web browser available by anon ftp from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu under Web/xmosaic. If you use the web much at all you'll probably want to set up your own home page, but to start, try the CERN home page (under the "Documents" menubar item). Its "other subjects" entry is the "information by subject" mentioned above. If you have image viewing software (like xv), you might be interested in "Information by Subject" --> "Literature & Art" --> "Renaissance Culture / Vatican exhibit." This set of text files and jpeg images is an "electronic exhibition" from the Library of Congress. Xmosaic will happily plug into other viewing software, and this makes walking through the exhibition very easy. Frederick G. M. Roeber | CERN -- European Center for Nuclear Research e-mail: roeber@cern.ch or roeber@caltech.edu | work: +41 22 767 31 80 r-mail: CERN/PPE, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland | home: +33 50 20 82 99 [Moderator's Note: My thanks to Mr. Roeber for bringing this to our attention. The Archives (available using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu) includes all the back issues (12 years worth!) of TELECOM Digest and it is gradually becoming more and more accessible and easier to use thanks to the various programs like Web, Gopher and others now avail- able. And of course, our dialup sites have helped a lot also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: shulman@underdog.ee.wits.ac.za (Steven Shulman) Subject: Rural Network Setup Organization: Wits Electrical Engineering (Undergrads). Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 10:16:50 GMT I'm required to evaluate the feasibility of setting up a rural network using cellular telephony as an honours project. The rural location is not financially over-endowed and I was wondering if anyone had design ideas on how to minimise the cost (and if so what the cost could be) of setting up a rural network like this using GSM and cellular telephony. Please mail me or reply to the NET with any ideas. Thanks, Steve ------------------------------ From: tomw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au (Tom Worthington) Subject: CT2 Digital Mobile Phones in Brisbane Organization: Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 15:17:55 GMT Telecom Australia News Release MEDIA INFORMATION Tuesday 2 March 1993 TALKABOUT - WORLD'S BEST ANNOUNCED FOR BRISBANE Telecom Talkabout, one of the world's most advanced personal communication services, will make it's Australian debut in Brisbane later this month, announced Telecom Australia today (Tuesday 2 March). Mr Albert Sommer, National Manager for Talkabout Services Dyranda Hortle or Chadd McLisky Telecom Australia Tel: 07 3691055 Tel: 03 2521500 * Talkabout is a registered trademark of Telecom Australia ATTACHMENT A: HOW TALKABOUT WORKS: TALKABOUT is a personal communications service which works with battery-powered, compact and lightweight high-quality personal telephones. To operate it in and around the office and home, a small private base station is connected to the existing telephone installation on the premises and typically would be placed discreetly on a desk or table. Users are freed from their work station or the fixed telephone at home, able to move around as they continue their conversations. For public calls, there is a network of about 600 highly-visible base stations found throughout the Brisbane metropolitan area. Host businesses include major shopping centres, restaurants, hotels, railway stations, fast food outlets, supermarkets, service stations and post offices. They are also located on main shopping streets and major roads. The personal telephones can bc used up to a range of 100 metes away from the base station on which particular calls are registered. The three pencil-torch-sized batteries which power the personal telephones provide up to 10 hours of continuous communications, rechargeable battery packs are also available . Experience overseas suggests the average duration of calls on this type of service is about two minutes. Telecom Australia, with it's network partner, GEC Plessey Telecommunictions (GPI), enhanced overseas technology to develop a world first with Talkabout's ability to enable the user to make and receive calls when out and about. It achieved this by working closely with the service's major equipment manufacturers. Telecom's industry partners are GEC Plessey Telecommunications (GPT), a world leder in public and business communication systems; and the giant US specialist supplier of radio equipment, systems, components and services, Motorola. Talkabout is a personal communications service that meets owing consumer demand for portable and flexible services that can be affordably used in all the places that people want to use the phones most often. That is the office, the home, and out and about at places of entertainment and work. Talkabout compliments Telecom's existing cellular mobile services which provides for high out and about mobility needs which justifies the associated costs. ATrACHMENT B: TALKABOUT PACKAGES AND PRICES: TELECOM Australia will make Talkabout available in a range of packages, with options to suit businesses and individuals, such as managers and supervisors, sales and service representatives, the self-employed and others working from their homes, for example, and domestic users. The personal telephone costs $499 while options include a private base station, battery re-charger, voice-mail facility for taking messages and communications to and from the user. Talkabout's basic package of the personal telephone is especially suited to people who are consistently out and about. They can respond to a message immediately wherever they see a Talkabout sign. Talkabout Priority teams the personal telephone with a pager for $699, while Talkabout Plus, at $999, includes the personal telephone, a private base stations and a battery re-charger. A special introductory offer, available until June 30 1993, includes free connection to the Telecom Talkabout network, as well as 60 minutes of regional peak hour calls free in the first month of use. Around the office and home, the personal telephones are an extension of existing telephone installations rather than an additional service, so calls through private base stations cost the same as those made on a conventional telephone and are included on the usual Telecom account number for that telephone. A $10 monthly subscription is paid for the use of the public network. Regional calls made while out and about cost 29 cents a minute and all out and about calls are recorded on a separate account. On this network, 50 minutes of regional peak-hour calls everY month will cost less than $15. The subscription fee varies according to the communications needs of the user. Talkabout Access, for example, enables the user to receiYe calls or messages when they are out and about. When the personal telephone is registered on a base station, calls to the user's personal number will be directed to them. At other times this option automatically stores messages to which access can be gained whenever it suits the user. Access costs $8 a month. *Telecom Talkabout, Talkabout Access, Talkabout Priority, Talkabout Plus are registered trademarks of Telecom Australia ------------- Posted as a community service by Tom Worthington, Director of the Community Affairs Board, Australian Computer Society Incorporated. ------------------------------ From: mcharry@freedom.cwc.com (McHarry) Subject: IS-41 Roaming Question Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 8:52:05 EST Reply-To: mcharry@freedom.cwc.com The IS-41 recommendation is emerging as a major way cellular radiotelephone systems interconnect to handle roamers. This allows user profiles to be sent from the home system to the visited system over an SS7 network. I have a small question: Is the subscriber's primary interexchange carrier (PIC) information sent to the visited system, and does it honor that selection? Related to that, does anyone know which cellular systems lack Equal Access? I believe any system in which an RBOC holds an interest must implement Equal Access, but that leaves many others, including (I think) McCaw systems that have the option of making other arrangements. John McHarry (mcharry@freedom.otra.com) ------------------------------ From: cmwolf@mtu.edu (CHRISTOPHER WOLF) Subject: AT&T Billing Practices --> Followup Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 09:58:41 -0500 (EST) This is a follow-up to a post I made several weeks ago about AT&T's Acus service, and billing problems with the system. Seems that after I made the post here, it someone got back to the AT&T Public Relations Department, and they spent my entire vacation trying to reach me to make sure all my questions had been satisfactorily answered. Seems that while the bill may say that I will be charged more than 10%, the computer will actually only charge 10% when it actually adds it on. In other words, it works out "in the end". Queries as to why the printed warning amount is incorrect were completely misunderstood ("...But sir, it does add the right amount!" "Why does it print the wrong amount, then?" "...But sir, it does add the right amount!" "But, why doesn't it print the right amount?" "..But sir..." etc etc ). So i gave up. Which is probably what they wanted. AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, they asked me several times during the conversation if I would publish a "correction" to my previous post. I assume I am supposed to correct the fact that it will all work out "in the end", as they have not fixed one of the original problems I complained about, namely, the computer printing wrong amounts on the warning. Oh! The power of E-Mail. Christopher Wolf (cmwolf@mtu.edu) ------------------------------ From: tkoppel@cassandra.cair.du.edu (Ted Koppel) Subject: What is Telecom Gold? Organization: CARL Systems Inc, Denver, Colo. Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 15:28:17 GMT I have in front of me a business card from a gentleman in Great Britain. It has all of the normal stuff: Name Title, Department Address City Telephone # Telex # Fax # and then a line that says: Telecom Gold followed by an alphanumeric string in the format: NN:aaannn (where a=alpha and n=numeric) What is it? Ted Koppel -- ted@carl.org or tkoppel@cassandra.cair.du.edu ------------------------------ From: mcb@ihlpl.att.com Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 09:53 CST Subject: Call Forward Don't Answer/Busy Line and Call Waiting There have been a couple of mentions lately about the interactions (or lack thereof) between the Call Forward Don't Answer (CFDA) and Call Forward Busy Line (CFBL) features and the Call Waiting (CWT) feature. I thought I'd try to clear things up. Keep in mind this discussion applies to 1A ESS(tm) and 5ESS(r) Switching Systems. I can't speak for other vendors. Actually, I'm not sure I can speak for AT&T either, but here goes ... Until just recently (within the last year or so), if you had the CFDA and/or CFBL features and CWT on the same line, CFDA would only forward if you did not answer and were not being call waited. In other words, if you did not answer a second call which call waited you, the second call would not forward. CFBL would not do anything as CWT had precedence. Within the last year, some but not all RBOCs have purchased a feature called Call Forward after Call Wait. With this capability active in your central office the features now interact differently. If you do not answer a second call which call waited you, the second call will be forwarded to your CFDA number. If you are already being call waited by a second call or can not be call waited (e.g. your phone is ringing), new calls will be forwarded to your CFBL number. This is much more useful for forwarding to a voice mail service. I hope this helps. Mark Baker - AT&T Network Systems ------------------------------ From: Vance Shipley Subject: Number Replacement Organization: Xenitec Consulting, Kitchener, Ontario, CANADA Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 08:22:07 GMT I spoke to someone at Bell Canada today about "Number Replacement". This is apparently a new service they can apply to your line which will allow outgoing CLID from your lines to show a more appropriate number. For example I have two lines with equiavalency at home; 555-1234 hunts to 555-1235. I would have Number Replacement on the second line set to 555-1234. Thus when someone used automatic call back, etc on a call placed from my second line they would ring in on my first and consequently take advantage of the fact that I have two lines. Good News: No monthly charge. Bad News: An $18.75 service charge applies. :( Vance Shipley, vances@xenitec.on.ca ------------------------------ Date: Thu 11 Mar 1993 13:15:33 -0500 From: jwiesenf@dg-webo.webo.dg.com (Joe Wiesenfeld) Subject: Public Service Usage for 900 Numbers In a recent reply, the Moderator noted: > the City of Chicago is considering a 900 number with no charge > attached to calling it to be used for announcements to the citizens on > a mass-calling basis. That night be a very good idea for the public > transit system also. PAT] I would propose that the use of 900 numbers for this type of public service is a poor choice. Those of us who block 900 service would not be able to access the public service messages. Perhaps a new category of phone service should be created. ------------------------------ From: mbw+@pitt.edu (Martin B Weiss) Subject: ATM and SS7 Date: 11 Mar 93 13:27:36 GMT Organization: University of Pittsburgh Many of the IXC's and LEC's are making significant investments in SS7 to provide new services and improved call setup time, etc. As I understand it, ATM defines a Virtual Circuit setup procedure as well. How are SS7 and ATM services supposed to interact? If the SS7 network has to be scrapped, how will IN services be offered? Martin Weiss Telecommunications Program, University of Pittsburgh @DATAPHONE@Internet: mbw@pitt.edu BITNET: mbw@pittvms ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 01:46:36 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Australia Privacy Document I received a document regarding telecom privacy issues in Australia, namely the one mentioned by Arthur Marsh a while ago in the Digest. At present, it is available through the Fidonet under the file name AUSTPRIV.ARJ which Fido nodes can file request here at 1:250/730. Size of package is 94.5k. The same contents are also available in the LHA compression by requesting AUSTPRIV.LZH instead of .ARJ when making the file request. The size came out larger at approximately 110k, however. Thanx to Arthur Marsh for sending this file my way. I don't know when I'll be able to submit it for the TELECOM Archives, but this is a start. Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 22:15:26 -0500 From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Dave Leibold) Subject: Bell Canada Further Restricts Payphone Card Calling [from Bell News (Bell Canada, Bell Ontario division) 22 Feb 93] Payphone fraud prompts more restrictions on overseas calling. A continuing problem with payphone fraud to some overseas countries, has prompted Bell to restrict calling card, credit card, or cash calls from Millennium payphones in Bell Canada territory to China, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. The restriction became effective the weekend of February 13, and applies to all Canadian, American and international calling cards. Also affected are Visa, Mastercard, American Express and enRoute credit cards. Investigators continue to indicate that Bell is losing money from calling card and recently credit card fraud. Current figures show that a significant and growing amount of the payphone fraud in Ontario and Quebec to China, Pakistan and Bangladesh was with the use of stolen or counterfeit credit cards. Over the past year, Bell has introduced a number of measures to deal with the growing payphone fraud problem, including restricting the use of calling cards from payphones to overseas destinations, and blocking calling card calls from payphones or cellular phones to all 809-area (Caribbean) countries. Those customers, including consulates, who are frequent callers to these three countries, are being notified by letter explaining the situation and offering dialing options. [end of article; content is that of Bell News] Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98 INTERNET: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 03:07 PST From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Subject: Another Quiet Evening at Home Organization: Green Hills and Cows Once again, the lack of Caller-ID has enabled me to spend a quiet, productive evening at home. Since I could not screen out the one call I was avoiding (from a client for whom I had no answer yet), I just answered no calls. I have, in essence, two numbers for talking: a published, public line and a more private line for good clients, friends, and associates. The first line is always answered by a machine; the second is never answered except by me. One evening last week, I just turned the bell off. Selective call block (which features a recording that says, in essence, "the party you are calling does not want to talk to you...",) is not horribly subtle. Screening with a machine on a line that is not intended to be machine-answered does not do the trick. No, folks, Caller-ID would have returned the use of my phone to me this evening as nothing else would have. Oh, well, the work needed to be done anyway and I did not waste my time talking on the phone. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 10:32:27 EST From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Bomb Scare (1970s) Forgot Area Code In the 1970s (middle to late?) there was a case I saw in a newspaper (Wilmington, Del.) where an attempted bomb-scare call to a building in New York City was received at a Cedar Grove, NJ service station. Its attendant replied "You've reached a service station in New Jersey. What am I supposed to do?" and the line went dead. Police theorized that the caller was in New Jersey and forgot to dial the NYC area code. (Notice the use of "forgot to dial"; I am warning you NOT to say "should have dialed", because out of context it could be inter- preted to mean that the call should have been placed!) I think a good guess for the phone prefix for the intended and actual reception of the call is 239. At that time, there would be no N0X/N1X prefixes (except in 213 in California), and no area codes 908,718,917. Whether the call was direct-dial, cash from a pay phone, or 0+ (and assuming the call did indeed start in 201), you would only have to insert area code 212 to distinguish between a call within 201 and a call to NYC. [Moderator's Note: Ah yes, bomb threats and the early seventies Vietnam era. It got to the point we were getting 'em once a month at the credit card billing office in those days. The callers always claimed to be Weathermen or some other radical group. The background Muzak would stop and a voice on the speaker in each office would say "It is necessary for all employees to leave the building at this time. Please leave immediatly and wait outside until instructed to return." All the chickens which had been roosting at their desk-nests would flutter and cackle and carry-on as they flooded down the stairwells and out onto Canal Street along with their fellow nesters from the Social Security Administration's back-office on the 11th floor, for whom I think the bomb threats were intended most of the time. A half-dozen of us (our lives were not as valuable, perhaps?) would always be called and told to report to the phone room and work the switchboard for the duration. Kids in school call in bomb threats on warm spring days; so do office workers, believe me. A couple of ours were inside jobs. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #168 ****************************** Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253