TELECOM Digest Tue, 8 Mar 94 00:40:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 118 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Competition and Technology (Fred Goldstein) Re: Elementary Area Code Question (Mark E. Daniel) Re: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? (Stefan Bethke) Amateur Radio Communications With Cuba (Jack Hamilton) USWest Per-Call CLID Unblocking (William Petrisko) Cellular Phone Questions (Andy Malis) Having Trouble With "Command Ring Decipher" (Dale Worley) Re: Traffic Overloads in Manual Service Era (Tom Watson) Proceedings From Conferences Wanted (Lars Kalsen) Telephone MIS (Tom Friedman) Re: Dialing in Italy (Alfredo E. Cotroneo) IEEE INFOCOM'94, June 12-16, Toronto (Mark J. Karol) 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. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 17:04:18 -0500 From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Subject: Re: Competition and Technology Jerry Leichter says, > Now, what bothers me about this whole list is that *everything of > significance on it is available due to technological advances, not > deregulation*. While it's certain that some technological progress would have been made in the absense of competition, I had some experience in an area where competition made a lot of difference. Witness the digital PBX. In 1975, the Bell System offered only electromechanical PBX switches. The fanciest was the 812, a reed-relay machine with random-logic electronic control (transistors instead of relays). At least that's how I remember it; it's been a while! A few vendors had electronic analog machines on the market (semiconductor crosspoints, wired logic) but the workhorses of the Bell System were the 701 stepper, the 770 crossbar (400 or so lines), the 801 and the 812. All were heavily dependent upon 1A2 keysets for a variety of features. This was labor- intensive and required big wire and closet space. That was the year in which Rolm introduced its first CBX and a year before Northern's SL-1 entered the US market (but was announced in Canada if not here). A few other digital switches were also coming on the market, like the Farinon DTS (later Harris). Danray introduced a huge processor-controlled analog crosspoint switch. AT&T/Bell, nursing its old products, was caught off guard. They rushed to market with the Dimension 400, and soon afterwards the Dimension 2000 and Dimension 100. These were CPU-controlled analog machines, with (shall we say) modest traffic capacity. Features lagged behind many competitors. These were only offered for rent. Tariffs were set by state regulators. In order to hold down rates and be competitive (because AT&T development and manufacturing costs were high, and most states refused to allow them to sell competitive gear at a loss), AT&T declared that these would be the flagship switches for many years to come, with just software updates. But they were already behind the market. In 1979, they designed "Antelope", basically a digital Dimension with more traffic capacity. But it wasn't introduced, lest it upset regulators. AT&T introduced its first Digital PBX in January, 1983, the week that PBXs were deregulated. While it was called the System 85, it was really the old Antelope, with slightly updated software (I think FP8 instead of FP12; Feature Package numbers aren't necessarily sequential.) Not that long afterwards, System 75 ("Gazelle"), an all-new design, came out. Dimension was discontinued. AT&T needed several years to become competitive in the PBX space, but now their Definity line (G1 and G3 are a renamed and updated Gazelle, respectively) is a worthy competitor. Would they have worked so hard absent competition? Hah! In monopoly countries, PBX features lagged -- even in Canada, the SL-1 offered by Bell Canada was way behind the US version. I won't mention the growth in the modem and answering machine marketplaces that occured as a result of competition. Progress _inside_ the network is often a result of economic and technological forces. Fiber optics save _them_ money. But terminal competition, I beg to argue, is the key reason for rapid progress. fred ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 13:08:48 EST From: mark@legend.akron.oh.us (Mark E Daniel) Subject: Re: Elementary Area Code Question In article is written: : [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Elaborating on that idea then, why bother : to use '1' at all? Why not just say if seven digits, then the first Because it's one of those spoiled simple things. It goes back to the fact that there used to only be a 0 or a 1 in an area code. People are used to dialing 1 for any sort of toll call. I've heard several complaints from those here in Ohio because we just recently came upon what they call local plus calls where you don't dial 1 but you pay like .05 a minute to connect. Actually I recall not being too happy about that. It could be dealt with a recording that said you are about to make a toll call, hang up now if you don't like that ... and they could denote a * code for those that know that already thus not giving up much speed of connection. Mark E Daniel (Loving SysOp of The Legend BBS) Inet: mark@legend.akron.oh.us medaniel@delphi.com (Direct INet) ------------------------------ From: stefan@sixpack.six.de (Stefan Bethke) Subject: Re: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 09:37:11 GMT Reply-To: stefan@sixpack.six.de (Stefan Bethke) Organization: Promo GmbH, Hamburg, Germany In article , larson@net.com (Alan Larson) writes: > The compression of u-law encoding does not reduce the data rate > during quiet time. It reduces the number of bits needed for an > apparent dynamic range, but it does it constantly during the connection. There is a ITU recommendation G.726 (ADPCM) that specifies methods for compressing speech (low quality), voice (medium) and modem/fax signals (high) down to 48, 32, 24 and 16 kbit/s. This methods are intended for better bandwith utilitisation on inter-office lines (not subscriber lines). If the switch knows the type of a particular connection (i.e. the customer has a voice-grade line), the 5-/A-Law encoded signal can be compressed. Compression can be changed even while the connection is in use (signalling for this is not in the scope of G.726). So the telco could cut down bandwidth on this call when the signal allows for it. This of course doesn't work for modem connections because the quality degradation of the transmission line would harm data transmission of all but the slowest modems (V.21). I wonder if such mechanisms are already in use? Stefan Bethke ------------------------------ From: jfh@netcom.com (Jack Hamilton) Subject: Amateur Radio Communications With Cuba Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 04:25:34 GMT The following article was in the Amateur Radio Newsline this week: CUBA AND THE ARRL Cuban American hams are angrily denouncing ARRL acceptance of an invitation for United States hams to join their Cuban counterparts in future operating events. They are making their displeasure known on voice, on CW and on packet. The crisis began after the league issued an official bulletin saying that the Cuban national society had invited American amateurs to participate in a joint operation in the 1994 ARRL June VHF QSO Party. It said that ARRL Oklahoma Section Manager Joe Lynch, N6CL, received the invitation to lead the group during his visit to Cuba the week of February 7th. Lynch, who is also the VHF editor of {CQ Magazine} was in Cuba as a member of a Methodist Church work team. While there, he extended greetings from ARRL officials and presented Federacion Radioaficionados de Cuba President Pedro Rodriguez, CO2RP, with a certificate of participation for the June 1993 ARRL VHF QSO Party. Joe also presented an author's certificate to Arnie Coro, CO2KK, for his article in December 1993 issue of the League's {QST Magazine.} But many Cuban expatriate hams living in south Florida say that Rodriguez is nothing more than a puppet of Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro. They claim that Rodriguez is a member of the Cuban military who was given a ham call sign and a new political job: the job of keeping Cuban hams following the Castro party line. This they say at the risk of losing their ham radio privileges and possibly going to jail. The Cubans hams living in the United States say that hams outside Cuba should not be holding hands with the FRC. Instead they should be pressuring their national societies to force the FRC to loosen the reign that dictator Castro has placed on the Cuban ham community. If it does take place, the joint VHF operation will place from Bellomonte, Cuba. Officials of the FRC say they have also taken under consideration a proposal from an American group for a joint operation from Cuba on the High Frequency bands in 1995. ----------------------- The electronic publication of the Amateur Radio Newsline is distributed with the permission of Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, President and Editor of Newsline. The text is transcribed from the audio service by Dale Cary, ND0AKO, and is first published on GEnie. Editorial comment or news items should be E-mailed to 3241437@mcimail.com or B.PASTERNAK@genie.geis.com. Voice or FAX to +1 805-296-7180. Articles may be reproduced if printed in their entirety and credit is given to AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE as being the source. For further information about the AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE, please write to us with an SASE at P.O. Box 463, Pasadena, CA 91102. Thank you, Jack Hamilton Postal: POB 281107 SF CA 94128 USA jfh@netcom.com Packet: kd6ttl@w6pw.#nocal.ca.us.na ------------------------------ From: bill@NETSYS.COM (William Petrisko) Subject: USWest Per-Call CLID Unblocking Organization: Netsys Inc. Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 17:58:07 GMT Someone mentioned that USWest (well, Phoenix AZ) has a per-call un-blocking code (for those who have their lines permanently blocked.) That code is *82 ... and it does work. Question is, was this advertised anywhere (wasn't in my phone bill inserts)? William Petrisko (WP5) Preferred: bill@wjp.net Also works: bill@netsys.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Mar 1994 13:02:48 -0500 From: malis@maelstrom.timeplex.com (Andy Malis) Subject: Cellular Phone Questions As a prospective new cellular user, I have a bunch of questions that perhaps some kind soul(s) could answer: 1. Is there a Cellular FAQ? I looked unsuccessfully in the Telecom Archives and via archie. 2. A number of places locally are selling the Motorola 550 "flip phone" for about $50. Any advice regarding this phone, either good or bad? Does it following the Motorola programming manual found in the archives (file "motorola.programming")? 3. Anyone out there with experience and/or advice regarding either Cellular 1 or Nynex Mobile in the northern Massachusetts/southern New Hampshire area? I'm interested in coverage (especially with a .6 watt hand-held), and rate plans. Thanks much for any help. Replies by direct email would be appreciated. TIA, Andrew G. Malis malis@maelstrom.timeplex.com +1 508 266-4522 Ascom Timeplex 289 Great Rd., Acton MA 01720 USA FAX: +1 508 264-4999 ------------------------------ From: worley@village.com (Dale Worley) Subject: Having Trouble With "Command Ring Decipher" Date: 7 Mar 1994 13:15:33 -0500 Organization: Village of Cambridge, Public-Access Internet I have "distinctive ringing service" on a line, that is, I have two directory numbers that both call in on the same line, and each number has a different ring pattern (in this case, "long" and "short short"). I have a decoder box, brand name "Command Ring Decipher", that sorts out incoming calls based on the ringing pattern, and routes them to two different jacks, one of which goes to my phone and one to my Fax machine. The problem is that my phone's answering machine sometimes takes an inordinate number of rings to pick up. After testing this, I discovered that the ring decoder usually works on the first ring (like it's supposed to), but occasionally takes up to four rings before it starts feeding the incoming call to the destination jack. Does anybody know what might be causing this (other than the ring decoder being defective), and what I should do about it? Thanks, Dale ------------------------------ From: tsw@cypher.apple.com (Tom Watson) Subject: Re: Traffic Overloads in Manual Service Era Date: Mon, 07 Mar 1994 18:13:20 -0800 Organization: Apple Computer (more or less) Your discussion about overloads is quite enlighting ... I relate an experience described to me in the early 1980's. The scene is an answering service, equipped with the standard of the day (pre divestiture) 557 coard boards answering 'secreterial lines' (taps of a customers line). The answering service in question had the first few (the number four comes to mind) lines of the local cable TV service. There were times when the cable TV service for the town went out, and if it happened during an interesting event (like the Super Bowl, or the Winter Olympics) the lines would light up and the answering serivce operatators would need to give some comforting thoughts to the annoyed customers waiting for their TV to get signal again. The problem is that the same speil would need to be given to everyone who called, and as they say "time is money..." so one of the operators got innovative. They (yes, it was mostly women) would take four of the cords and position them almost in the jacks associated with the lines in question. Then with the talk keys down on the four lines, and the lines all lit up, she would plug in all the lines at once, just like a conference call (but unknown to the Cable TV customers), then with the best "recording" voice she had announce something like "The Cable TV service for the town is presently unavailable, we anticipate the service to be fully restored at xx:xx, we appreciate your patience, thank you.", then unplug the cords. The process was repeated quite often, until the traffic decreased, when things returned to "normal". When related this story, I nearly rolled on the floor with laughter. You see "manual operations" continue to this day, even with overloads!! Tom Watson Not much simpler!! tsw@cypher.apple.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That technique, of responding to several calls at one time using several cords and open keys was common when the cordboard operator had to make an emergency announcement. About 1969-70 I went back to work for University of Chicago a second time, with a part time job operating a dormitory PBX and front desk two nights per week on the midnight shift. This was an old, old, old hotel called Plaisance Apartments at 61st and Stony Island Avenue. Its been torn down now for over twenty years and the lot remains vacant on that corner. One night about 2 AM there was a fire in one of the dorm rooms; someone fell asleep with a cigarette I guess; it was put down on the report as 'careless use of smoking materials'. Well, the Fire Department pulling up outside of course woke up quite a few of the 250 or so residents of the building and as expected within a minute or so of their arrival the switchboard -- normally totally dead all night long in that building -- was lit up like the proverbial Christmas Tree we hear so much about ... since the building was rated (by Fire Department standards) as 'Class A Fireproof' -- which means simply that a fire will stay confined in the area where it started *provided the door to the apartment involved is kept closed* it was not to the advantage of the Fire Department to order an evacuation, particularly at 2 AM on a cold winter night with the exception of the residents on the same floor who came downstairs to wait in the lobby and get away from the heavy smoke. Probably a third of the residents -- mostly those on the upper floors of the building -- slept through it all, finding out only the next morning when they came downstairs. (The lobby and the whole building stunk badly of smoke for almost a week; other than water damage in the apartment *directly under* the one that caught fire and a lot of soot in the hallway on the affected floor the damage was minor as those things go.) But the ones who did wake up were quick to jump on the phone to call down to the front desk and ask what was up. The Fire Department person in charge at the scene told me to tell the residents on other floors *who asked about it* (which must have been about half the building!) that ' ... there is a fire in a different part of the building; it is under control; you are requested to keep awake and alert; open your window for fresh air as needed and stay in your apartment unless notified otherwise; if you prefer to leave then use the stairs, do not use the elevators, and wait in the lobby with other residents ...' I took four or five cords -- whatever I could grip in my hands at one time and with the associated keys open just went along shoving the cords into lighted jacks, giving that message and moving on to some others. I rang everyone on the affected floor of course and woke them up, telling them to leave with the firemen who were up there going door by door to lead them over to the stairs. Of course I had to call the building manager in his apartment (he lived in the building) and tell him what was going on and I had to call the building engineer in his apartment and tell him so he could meet the firemen with the master keys to get in where the fire was burning; take all the elevators *above* the floor where the fire was located and lock them out of service up there; and pull the power in the affected area so the water damage would not short out the electrical lines and cause a further hazard. Water seeks its own level; in this case most of it ran down the hallway and into the elevator shaft (*that* is why you always park the elevators locked out of service *above* the place where the fire is located) and for the six hours or so it took to pump out the shaft and dry out the cables the elevators were out of service meaning the residents had to walk up and down eleven flights of stairs. The next day U of C evicted the dumbo who started the fire and later the university sued him for damages caused; I think it amounted to about $8000. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dalk@login.dkuug.dk (Lars Kalsen) Subject: Proceedings From Conferences Wanted Date: 7 Mar 94 19:26:19 GMT Organization: DKnet Hi, I am interested in some publications - Proceedings - from the follwing two conferences from 93: 4th IEE Conference on Telecommunications USENIX Symposium on Mobile and Location independent Computing Can anyone help me with the exact titles on the publication - and maybe where to get them. Please E-mail me if you have some information. Lars Kalsen dalk@login.dkuug.dk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Mar 1994 11:57:47 -0700 From: Tom.Friedman@metrokc.gov Subject: Telephone MIS Seattle Metro is looking into upgrading our system that tracks customer telephone call handling management information (currently a US West system), and incorporating a new staffing scheduling component, based on the data from the information system. Does anyone out there know of some current, successful apoplications in these areas, either transit specific or other applications? Contact Tom Friedman at tom.friedman@metrokc.gov or (206) 684-1513. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: 07 Mar 94 15:58:28 EST From: Alfredo E. Cotroneo <100020.1013@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Dialing in Italy Carl, Within Italy, in the same district, you dial just the telephone number (as in the US): e.g. 266 6971 if you want to reach us from Milano. If you dial from outside a district you have to dial the area code first, and then the number: 02 266 6971 often wrote as (02) 266 6971, is our number in Milano if you dial within Italy, but from outside the district of Milano (02). An exception is made for the mobile/cellular phones, for which you have to dial always the "area code". (0337 for commercial cellular, and 0330 for residential cellular, 0336 for old 400 MHz car phones, 0333 [GSM ?]) The rules above -- except the cellular phones codes -- are for most, (if not all), European countries. If dialing from abroad, you have just to remember Italy's country code which is 39. The CCITT way of writing our number in Milano is +39 2 266 6971 (or +39-2-266 6971). The '+' stands for your int'l long distance access code (in the US it will be 011). In Italy there are different service numbers, which are dialed with no area code, but can be dialed only within Italy: e.g. 12 is telephone directory (just one for all Italy), 176 is for telephone enquires for the Mediterranean and Europe (including North Africa), 1790 is for overseas telephone info. Toll free numbers start with 167 (equivalent to 1-800), 1-900 like numbers start with 144 (just recently introduced). 113 Police/Ambulance, 112 Carabinieri, etc. The numbers quoted for accessing the AT&T, MCI, and Sprint operators from Italy are special toll free numbers set up by agreement between Italcable (the Italian overseas carrier) and the US carriers. These numbers are called "Countrydirect": 172 1011 ATT 172 1022 MCI 172 1877 Sprint but also: 172 1054 Argentina 172 1061 Australia 172 1055 Brasil, etc. for other 21 countries. Hope this explains a little bit our numbering system. Alfredo E. Cotroneo, President NEXUS-Int'l Broadcasting Association PO Box 10980, I-20110 Milano, Italy Phone: +39-337-297788 / +39-2-2666971 email: 100020.1013@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: news@cbnewsi.att.com Date: Tue, 8 Mar 94 03:49:01 GMT Subject: IEEE INFOCOM'94, June 12-16, Toronto Organization: AT&T Announcing . . . . IEEE INFOCOM'94 The Conference on Computer Communications June 12 - 16, 1994 The Westin Harbour Castle Toronto, Ontario, Canada Now in its 13th year, IEEE INFOCOM is the premier international technical conference devoted to computer communications and networking. Papers presented at INFOCOM represent the leading edge of understanding and development in this fast-moving field, and are accepted only after a rigorous review process. The half-day and full-day tutorials are given by leading experts and afford the participant an opportunity to stay current with the latest advances in computer communications and networking. In addition, in 1994 INFOCOM is offering for the first time a full-day Gigabit Networking Workshop, consisting of informal short presentations on "hot topics" and full paper presentations on applications enabling the large-scale deployment of gigabit networks. IEEE INFOCOM'94 is sponsored by the IEEE Computer and Communication Societies. The Gigabit Networking Workshop is sponsored by the IEEE COMSOC Technical Committee on Gigabit per Second Networks. o Gigabit Networking Workshop Sunday, June 12, 1994 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM (followed by a committee "business" meeting, 4:00 - 5:00 PM) Abstracts for presentation at this workshop are due on April 1, 1994. Selected papers will be considered for a forthcoming issue of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC). Contact the program chair James Sterbenz (914-784-6489 or jpgs@acm.org) for complete information on submission guidelines. o Tutorials Sunday, June 12, 1994 2:30 - 6:30 PM 1. "Supporting Real-Time Applications Over Internet," Lixia Zhang, Xerox 2. "Recent Advances in the Algorithmic Analysis of Queueing Systems," David Lucantoni, AT&T Bell Labs Monday, June 13, 1994 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM 3. "Advanced Topics in Broadband ATM Networks," Ender Ayanoglu and Malathi Veeraraghavan, AT&T Bell Labs 4. "Wireless Communications Networks," Donald Cox, Stanford University 5. "High-Speed Networks: Multimedia Applications, Infrastructure, and Protocols," Fouad Tobagi, Stanford University 6. "The State of the Art in Network Management," Yechiam Yemini, Columbia University o Plenary Session Tuesday, June 14, 1994 8:30 - 10:00 AM "Multimedia Information Networking in the Nineties," Maurizio Decina, Politecnico di Milano/CEFRIEL o Technical Sessions Tuesday, June 14, 1994 10:30 AM - 5:00 PM Wireless Networks Performance Congestion Control Design of Optical Networks Issues in High-Speed Protocols Virtual Path Routing in ATM Networks Discrete-Time Queues and ATM High-Performance LANs Multicast Switch Architecture Performance Analysis of Video Services Admission Control Multi-Stage Optical Networks Wednesday, June 15, 1994 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM Circuit Switching Traffic Shaping Performance Analysis of Buffering Schemes Lightwave Networks Wireless Networks Performance Congestion Control Image, Audio and Video Transport Resource Management DQDB Protocol Design, Analysis and Interoperability Switched LANs Network Multicast Routing Interconnection of LANs/MANs/WANs Real-Time Systems Optical Network Routing Thursday, June 16, 1994 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM Network Routing Traffic Modeling Admission Control High-Performance LANs Transport over ATM Queueing Models Congestion Control Multi-Stage Optical Networks Security and Database Systems DQDB Scheduling FDDI Switching Performance Analysis of Switches Network Routing Protocols for WDM Networks o Panel Tuesday, June 14, 1994 5:15 - 6:45 PM "Switch-Based LANs: A Fast Evolving Networking Paradigm" Organizer/Moderator: Yoram Ofek (IBM) Panelists: Maurizio Decina (Politecnico di Milano/CEFRIEL) Alexander Fraser (AT&T Bell Labs) HT Kung (Harvard University) Nick Maxemchuk (AT&T Bell Labs) Jonathan Turner (Washington University) o Committee General Chair: Mark J. Karol, AT&T Bell Labs, tel: 908-949-8590, email: mk@boole.att.com Vice-Chair: Al Leon-Garci, University of Toronto Technical Program Chair: Magda El Zarki, University of Pennsylvania, tel: 215-898-9780, email: infocom@ee.upenn.edu Technical Program Vice-Chair: Khosrow Sohraby, Univ. of Missouri at KC Tutorials Chair: Kai Y. Eng, AT&T Bell Labs Treasurer: Ender Ayanoglu, AT&T Bell Labs Local Arrangements: Terry Todd, McMaster University Celia Desmond, Stentor Standing Committee Chair: Harvey Freeman, LANWORKS, Inc. To receive an electronic copy of the INFOCOM'94 Advance Program send Email to: infocom@ee.upenn.edu To receive a printed copy of the INFOCOM'94 Advance Program send a FAX to Mark J. Karol, INFOCOM'94 General Chair, (908) 949-9118 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #118 ****************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253