TELECOM Digest Thu, 23 Dec 93 05:04:00 CST Volume 13 : Issue 836 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: The Superhighway and Telcos (Mike Lanza) Re: Info Highway - 28 Companies (Jim Burkitt) Re: NEC NEAX 2400 Peculiarity (weberdd@clover.macc.wisc.edu) Re: Quantum Economics (was Union Losing Telco Jobs) (Andrew C. Green) Re: Being Paged by Mystery 800 Number (Bud Couch) Re: FCC: No! GTE!!! (Steven H. Lichter) Re: Privacy and Caller ID/Auto Callback? (Jay Hennigan) Re: Mobilink Service (Mark Bryan) Modem Monitoring Question (Mark Case) ISDN in 513? (Paul Joslin) Yellow Pages On-Line Anywhere? (Vamsee Lakamsani) X.25 to Mexico (Laurence Chiu) Intro Book on Telecommunications Wanted (Jeff Sokolov) Free E-Newsletter on Advanced Computing and Communications (David S. Lewis) Panasonic EKT2105 Information Wanted (Leonard Erickson) Chaos Digest Finished For the Year; Happy Holidays From Editor (J-B Condat) Administrivia: A Break For Christmas (TELECOM Digest Editor) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Dec 93 14:14:28 GMT From: Mike Lanza Subject: Re: The Superhighway and Telcos >> What we really need is a new packet-switched network [with faster dialups] > ... >> In addition, the market is crying out for ubiquitous one-number access, ... >> How about a new 950 service (950 is better than 800 since it avoids >> local access charges) ... > Holy modem tax, Batman! > There's a good reason you don't see one number access: it costs more. > When a long-distance company connects to the local phone network, it pays, > by modem standards, a stiff price, four or five cents per minute, or > roughly $3/hr at each end of the connection. If you call a 950 or 800 > number, whoever the carrier is pays that, even if you don't directly see > it on the bill. AT&T has one-number 950-1288 service, but it's only used > for on-line services that are already so expensive that an extra $3/hr > isn't a big deal. Yes, but only one local access charge -- for the user's side of the call -- need be paid if a packet-switched network takes that call and delivers it to the server (by X.25 or frame relay). Sprint's pricing for a service that does this, their "Data Call 800" service, is actually a fair amount more than their pricing for T1-delivered 800 service (i.e. Sprint delivers calls to their customer by T1, thus bypassing one local access charge). It's hard to compare these directly, but when I looked at it it seemed to come out to about $10 or $11 per hour for Data Call 800 versus about $8 or so for T1-delivered 800 service. I think Sprint could eliminate that differential if they really wanted to (and they should want to). Besides, the rep I spoke with about Data Call 800 was very unfamiliar with it and didn't seem to be interested in selling it. AT&T's 950-1288 goes for around $11 to $13 per hour as I recall. Again, that's way too high, when the packet networks start at about $6, and drop to as little as $2 with the highest volumes. > The 'modem tax' brouhaha from 1987 was about these connection costs. > The FCC, not totally unreasonably, said that packet networks look a lot > like long-distance phone companies, so they should connect to the phone > network in the same way. This would allow all sorts of swell features not > now available, e.g. Sprintnet could assign each of their providers a 700 > number so you could dial directly to the service you want, using the same > number regardless of where you're caling from, instead of having to dial a > local Sprintnet number, then go through a second dialing dialog to tell it > who you really want to talk to. But along with a real phone connection > comes real phone pricing, and nobody wanted to pay that extra $3/hr. So > the FCC backed off and left us with the current situation where packet > nets have a special rule that lets them connect to the phone network like > ordinary business customers, without paying any per-minute charge. I wonder if a packet network could push this "special rule" even further by using a 950 number and getting around the local access charges. The answer to this is probably no, but what are the local access charges for 950? Are they identical to 800, or are they cheaper? If they are identical, what's the advantage over 800? (Is dialing three fewer numbers really that big a deal?) > I suspect the main reason you don't see 9600 bps dial-up packet network > connections is that there's not much demand for them. By the time you > factor in the slowdowns due to network connection, and consider how much > cheaper normal long distance is compared to 10 years ago when the packet > nets were getting giong, it's about as fast to dial direct at 14.4K. C'mon! There *certainly* is demand for 9.6K as well as 14.4K connections. As I noted in my original message, most modems being sold these days are 14.4K. It's been a long time since 2400 bps modems were among the biggest sellers. As for dialing direct vs. packet, I agree that direct is almost as cheap, but that's only because the packet networks still have their heads up their butts with regard to high speed capacity. A caveat with respect to dialing direct -- I understand that the long distance carriers, Sprint and MCI in particular, are known to use compression schemes and echo cancellation schemes that make modem communication at 9.6 or 14.4Kbps very difficult or impossible. I'm not home now (away for the holidays), but I can dig up a message I pulled from CompuServe on this issue when I return on 12/29, if anyone is interested. > If you want to complain about slow data connections, complain about the > local telcos who have been slow to introduce ISDN, which provides dual 64K > bps connections, and have done so at prices that make it unattractive. > There's also a chicken and egg problem here: ISDN per-minute prices are, > by and large, the same as toll rates, but ISDN connections can be set up > and taken down very fast, so a connection of a few seconds makes sense. > If Compuserve, say, were set up so you called in via ISDN, it blatted a > few hundred K of screens and hung up, then you pondered off-line for a few > seconds, then reconnected, it blatted a few more hundred K and hung up, > you could actually be connected for only five minutes out of each hour, > and even at regular phone rates, the phone bill would be on the order of > 75 cents/hr. But since there isn't much ISDN, there's not much incentive > to make things work that way. Yeah, I've thought about this one a lot. Lightning-fast call setup, as well as a 64K data pipe, would be aweswome for online services. The problem here, though, does not lie just with the telcos. It also lies with the ISDN primary rate (2B+D) spec. It's basically one voice channel (which the customer already has today) and one 64K data pipe. That promises very little advantage over what he has now. On the other hand, in order to adopt ISDN the customer has to trash all his phones in favor of ISDN phones at $100 a piece at least. ------------------------------ Date: 22 Dec 1993 14:28:14 GMT From: JIM BURKITT Subject: Info Highway - 28 Companies Bob Rosenberg asked about 28 companies supporting a Info Super Highway. The December 20, 1993 issue of {Telephony} on page eight talks about the Cross Industry Working Team (XIWT). This group plans to issue a white paper early next year on architectural and technical requirements for the super highway. The members of the team are: Apple, AT&T, Bellcore, BellSouth, Cable Television Laboratories, Citicorp, DEC, GTE Labs, H-P, IBM, Intel, MCI, McCaw, Motorola, NYNEX, Pac Bell, Silicon Graphics, Sun, Southwestern Bell, CBEMA, Cisco, Financial Services Consortium, Hughes Network Systems, Science Applications International, Sprint, 3Com,West Publishing and Xerox. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 93 15:53:59 CDT From: weberdd@clover.macc.wisc.edu Reply-To: weberdd@macc.wisc.edu Subject: Re: NEC NEAX 2400 Peculiarity In TELECOM Digest V13 #833, Will Martin wrote: > When I make an outside-line call on our NEC NEAX 2400 system here at > work (dialing 9 and then the local seven-digit number), the system has > the annoying habit of giving me a ring-sound (in the handset or the > speaker, depending which is turned on) and then a click that sounds ? *exactly* like the far end picking up on the call. However, it is not > -- the ring sounds then continue until the called party answers or I > hang up. What is going on that causes this initial ring-tone that I > hear followed by that click? Is it the process of the unit selecting > an outside trunk? If so, why does it give me a ring first? I used to help in operating a 2400. It is difficult to offer an answer without knowing more about how that particular 2400 is set up. It's possible that the system is using "least cost routing", in which case the 2400 simulates second dial tone (after you dial 9) and looks at the entire dialed number before it decides which outgoing trunk to use. However, if that were the case, the system would not simulate ring tone. If you hear ring, it would be from the outgoing line. The 2400 uses a register card to actually recieve and decode the touch tones. After the 2400 has determined the correct trunk to use, connected the call to the trunk and signalled the destination number out, it doesn't need the register card anymore, so it drops the card out of the circuit. That may be the click you are hearing. On the other hand, any number of other things could be happening. The call could be being forwarded by some other switching equipment. The best way to find out is to ask the people who maintain the system. David Devereaux-Weber, P.E. weberdd@macc.wisc.edu (Internet) The University of Wisconsin - Madison (608)262-3584 (voice) DoIT - MACC Communications; B263 (608)262-4679 (FAX) 1210 W Dayton St. Madison, WI 53706 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1993 16:46:00 -0600 (CST) From: Andrew C. Green Subject: Re: Quantum Economics (was Union Losing Telco Jobs) Kriston J. Rehberg (krehberg@vnet.IBM.COM) writes: úÿ > The rest of the 300 or so "channels" [...] are used for things > such as Direct-To-Home viewing of Request or Pay-Per-View events, > [...] INTERACTIVE television, [...] and (in the case of our local > cable company) a fully monitored home security system that won't > depend on the telephone company anymore. Well, this was roughly the point where I spewed my coffee all over the keyboard. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I distinctly prefer my fully-monitored home security system to be dependent on our local telephone company than our local cable company, thankyouverymuch. It's just a question of reliability: in the darkness of our occasional blackouts I can always pick up the phone, hear the dialtone and see the nice backlit green keypad light up. Whereas the cable service seems to be routinely knocked out by everything but Rising Tensions in the Middle East. I honestly cannot remember any time when our home phone service was out of order, and upon reflection I can think of many everyday applications that rely on telephone lines being up and running 24 hours a day. While I do not doubt the technical ability of the cable companies to produce this promised _level_ of service, I have serious reservations about the ability (of _our_ current outfit, anyway) to provide any reasonable _quality_ of same. Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610-3498 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ From: bud@kentrox.com (Bud Couch) Subject: Re: Being Paged by Mystery 800 Number Organization: ADC Kentrox Industries, Inc. Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1993 23:57:38 GMT In article dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) writes: > Dave Niebuhr (dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov) wrote: >> storpis@kaiwan.com (Console Cowboy) writes: >>> I was paged five times in five minute intervals today by an 800 >>> number. Dialing the 800 number reveals a modem. It doesn't respond to >>> any prompts and drops carrier after approximatly five seconds. The >>> number is 8008841111. Who's doing this and why? > I don't know if this is an option, but some unscrupulous people were > billing back calls to 800 numbers with telco look-alike bills a few > years ago. This may be a scam to get you to call them. In this way, > they have proof that you did indeed call their number. Sounds fishy, > I know, but this scam was being done. Well, if a large charge shows up on our company bill, I'm sure that they will track it back to my extension, and I'll report on it here. In the meantime, let me offer my own WAG. I tried the number from my PC and found that it connected at *1200* bps, although my modem is a V.22bis (2400). This means that the machine at the other end is forcing the speed to be that low. Why? I suspect that the modem on the other end is an older (in modem terms more than two years is *old*) ZOOM modem, for their 1200 units had an interesting security feature: the entry password to the modem was not an ascii string, but a four number *touchtone* sequence.If the correct code wasn't entered within a few seconds of answer, the unit hung up. We may have just stumbled into someone's database "server" that has this security feature. Bud Couch - ADC Kentrox bud@kentrox.com (192.228.59.2) insert legalistic bs disclaimer here ------------------------------ From: ue554@freenet.victoria.bc.ca (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: FCC: No! GTE!!! Organization: Camosun College, Victoria, B.C. Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1993 20:51:05 GMT All the pending cases maybe moot since Clinton/Gore are moving towards allowing the companies to offer just about any service they want to including LD service. Can you just see Pacific Bell Screen Door/Cable and Telephone company? The above maybe my own ideas and not my employer. ------------------------------ From: jay@coyote.rain.org (Jay Hennigan) Subject: Re: Privacy and Caller ID/Auto Callback? Date: 22 Dec 1993 18:05:22 -0800 Organization: Regional Access Information Network (RAIN) In article winnie@flagstaff.princeton. edu (Jon Edelson) writes: > In the first message of this thread, a question was asked about > blocking Caller ID in a situation where a social worker was calling > from home. Rather then getting into the whole 'right to Caller ID > discussion' it seems to me that calls from someone representing the > social agency should be identified as calling from the social agency. > The social agency is 'responsible' for the call, and while I think > that people have the right to know who 'made' a call, I don't see why > a home number needs to be made known for a business call, as long as > the business is identified. Sounds like a perfect application for DISA via the government agency's telephone system to me. > > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I quite agree. An 'alternate ID message' should be provided for people in that category of employment who do some or all of their work from home. That should resolve many of the complaints about privacy we hear now. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1993 01:45:22 -0600 From: MARK.BRYAN@gte.sprint.com Subject: Re: Mobilink Service Pat and company, Mobilink is made up of several cell providers nationwide, Mobilnet being only one of the companies. Their goal is to provide a complete network for roaming and service 24 hours a day. Also to obtain service on your phone in a distance city if necessary. I have been told you can reach Mobilink at 800-877-5665. I was told the number in the ad is sent to this group for handling. However, in the event you cannot dial that 800 number from your calling are the same group is reachable at 813-282-6000 and ask for customer service. Mark Bryan GTE Data Services ------------------------------ From: mcase@wes.army.mil (Mark Case) Subject: Modem Monitoring Question Date: 22 Dec 1993 18:43:46 GMT Organization: USACE Waterways Experiment Station Hi folks, I am posting a question for a friend. Granted, it is a very vague question, but here goes anyway. Suppose there is a remote location at which there is a microwave transmitter and a modem, and suppose this location goes down. The question is: how can the location be monitored so that it may be determined whether the problem is with the modem or with the transmitter? Thanks in advance for any information. Mark Case ------------------------------ From: pjoslin@mbvlab.wpafb.af.mil (Paul Joslin (Sverdrup)) Subject: ISDN in 513? Date: 22 Dec 1993 19:41:08 GMT Organization: Model Based Vision Lab, Wright Laboratory Does it exist? It must, since bbs.combinet.com tells me it's been available at my home exchange (513 42X) since September. I called the local phone company business office, and was referred to a special ISDN number: +1 800 821 4919. I've tried this number several times a day for the last week, and it is always busy. Is this number not dialable from 513/ 25x? Is anyone out there? Paul R. Joslin +1 513 255 1115 ------------------------------ From: vamsee@softint.com (Vamsee Lakamsani) Subject: Yellow Pages On-Line Anywhere? Date: Wed, 22 Dec 93 18:06:36 CST Organization: Software Interfaces, Inc. It is very convenient to have the yellow pages accessible on-line. Do any US cities have this facility? Is there any reason not to make yellow pages accessible on-line? Vamsee Lakamsani vamsee@softint.com ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: X.25 to Mexico Date: 22 Dec 1993 18:42:32 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access Our company has a requirement to connect to a company in Mexico so that we are able to logon to their IBM mainframe from here. We would normally use the IBM Advantis network to achieve this but apparently IBM is not approved to provide SNA connections to Mexico yet. The customer is getting anxious and now wants to go X.25 via GE Net (Genesis?). This is okay except we would now have to get a leased line from the local Telco (Pacific Bell) and the company in Mexico would need to get a leased line from their premises to the nearest GE office. Thoughts around here are that the delays in making this connect will be the leased lines in Mexico followed by the leased lines in California! Does anybody have any thoughts on this? How good is the PT&T in Mexico (City) in providing comms? Laurence Chiu Walnut Creek, California Tel: 510-215-3730 (work) Internet: lchiu@crl.com ------------------------------ From: jsokolov@gte.com (Jeff Sokolov) Subject: Intro Book on Telecommunications Wanted Organization: GTE Laboratories, Incorporated Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1993 13:24:29 GMT I am looking for recommendations for introductory books on telecommunications. I'm familiar with Pierce's "Signals" but would like something more recent. Thanks in advance. Jeff Sokolov GTE Laboratories, Incorporated 40 Sylvan Road Waltham, MA 02254 (617) 466-4042 ------------------------------ úÿ From: callewis@netcom.com (David Scott Lewis) Subject: Free E-Newsletter on Advanced Computing and Communications Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1993 07:12:02 GMT HOTT -- Hot Off The Tree -- is a FREE monthly electronic newsletter featuring the latest advances in computer, communications, and electronics technologies. Each issue provides article summaries on new and emerging technologies, including VR (virtual reality), neural networks, PDAs (personal digital assistants), GUIs (graphical user interfaces), intelligent agents, ubiquitous computing, genetic & evolutionary programming, wireless networks, smart cards, video phones, set-top boxes, nanotechnology, and massively parallel processing. Summaries are provided from the following sources: {Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Boston Globe, Financial Times (London), Daily Telegraph} (the largest circulation daily in the U.K.) ... {Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report} ... {Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, The Economist (London), Nikkei Weekly (Tokyo), Asian Wall Street Journal} (Hong Kong) ... Over 50 trade magazines, including {Computerworld, InfoWorld, Datamation, PC Week, Dr. Dobb's Journal, LAN Times, Communications Week, Electronic Engineering Times, New Media, VAR Business, Midrange Systems, Byte} ... Over 50 research journals, including ALL publications of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies, plus technical journals published by AT&T, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Fujitsu, Sharp, NTT, Siemens, Philips, GEC ... Over 100 Internet mailing lists and USENET discussion groups ... plus ... Listings of forthcoming and recently published technical books and forthcoming trade shows and technical conferences. BONUS: Exclusive interviews with technology pioneers ... the next issue features an interview with Mark Weiser, head of Xerox PARC's Computer Science Lab. Send subscription requests to: listserv@ucsd.edu Leave the "Subject" line blank In the body of message input: SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST Do *not* include first or last names following "SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST" The next issue of the revived HOTT e-newsletter is scheduled for transmission in late January/early February. Please forward this announcement to friends and colleagues, and post to your favorite bulletin boards (especially university BBS). Our objective is to provide a high quality newsletter for over 1,000,000 subscribers. Thank you. David Scott Lewis Editor-in-Chief and Book & Video Review Editor IEEE Engineering Management Review (the world's largest circulation "high tech" management journal) Internet address: d.s.lewis@ieee.org Tel: +1 714 662 7037 USPS mailing address: POB 18438 / IRVINE CA 92713-8438 USA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 93 17:06:00 PST From: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Leonard Erickson) Subject: Panasonic EKT2105 Information Wanted I've got a friend who has one of these, still in the box, but with no documentation. It looks to me like it's a digital phone for use with a PBX. Can anybody give me any info on it, including what it's worth, and what the minimum system it'll run with is? Thanks, uucp: uunet!m2xenix!puddle!51!Leonard.Erickson Internet: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org ------------------------------ From: cccf@altern.com Subject: Chaos Digest Finished For the Year; Happy Holidays From Editor Date: Wed, 22 Dec 93 10:27:28 EST With the issue #1.73, ChaosD is down for '93 for the holidays. We'll be back with #2.01 about Jan. 3, '94. We will, however, continue to answer mail during the break. Thank for your support and assistance during the past year, and we look forward to the coming year. The French translation of Mark A. Ludwig's book, "Naissance d'un Virus" is now available at the editor address: Addison-Wesley France, 41 rue de Turbigo, 75003 Paris, France (Phone: +33 1 48879797 fax: +33 1 48879799) Don't hesitate to order it directly (circa 198 FF + porto). Bonne et heureuse annee a tous ... et le paradis a la fin de votre vie. Jean-Bernard Condat General Secretary Chaos Computer Club France [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And greetings to all of you from us here in the USA at this holiday season. Like yourself, this Digest is now winding down for the Christmas holiday, except I'll be back next week (maybe over the weekend) with at least a couple more issues to wind up the year. I hope the New Year is a happy one for you. PAT] ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Administrivia: A Break For Christmas Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1993 04:45:00 CST This is the last you'll see of the Digest for a couple days while my family and I spend the holiday together. I might have an issue or two of the Digest for you sometime Sunday evening or else Monday morning; then there will be a few issues during the week ahead as I try to clean out all my files here to end the year. Have a happy holiday, and remember, let's put the 'X' back in Xmas! :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V13 #836 ****************************** Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253