TELECOM Digest Fri, 11 Mar 94 13:43:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 125 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Unitel Carrier Vote Proposal Criticised (Bell News via Dave Leibold) Expanded 900 Service in Canada (Bell News via Dave Leibold) Experience With a Telemarketer (Dave Niebuhr) Competition and Technology (Stewart Fist) "Nevada Plan" Information Needed (Tad J. Hunt) Latest Telephone Scumbag Use (Dave Niebuhr) ISDN BRI to IXC? (John McHarry) Video Conference Bridges (John McHarry) Mintel Emulation Software for MacIntosh Wanted (Franck Nazikian) Re: Erlang B and Required Trunks Functions (Stu Jeffery) Re: Information on Used Telecom Equipment Dealer Wanted (Dennis R. Hilton) Re: Digital Cellular Phones (David Boettger) Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? (Bill Mayhew) Re: Unzipping ISDN File in Archives (jmdchicago@delphi.com) Re: Local CID Showing Out of Area (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Country Code For San Marino? (Bill Hofmann) Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number (Eric Andruscavage) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 10 Mar 1994 23:08:42 -0500 Subject: Unitel Carrier Vote Proposal Criticised Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 7 Mar 94] Bell votes NO to Unitel's balloting proposal Bell strongly objects to the procedure, the price and the principle of "balloting" customers to ask them to vote for the long distance carrier they would prefer to do business with. Last Wednesday, Unitel Communications asked the CRTC to implement balloting to "provide residential and business customers with the opportunity to select their preferred long-distance carrier." The procedure, countered Bell, would be "complex and costly, one not in the public interest" -- a position Unitel itself previously advanced. The price, pointed out Bell, would involve some $15 million in mailing costs alone. But the principle of this referendum, said Bell, "ignores the fact that competition and free choice are already here in Canada -- and have been here for almost two years now. Consumers can pick up the phone and select any alternate long distance carrier they want today." "While Unitel wraps itself in the flags of competition and choice, what it is really proposing is the imposition of another layer of regulatory process in what is -- and should remain -- a free market decision," the company said in a public statement. Furthermore, said Bell, "We don't think customers will buy into the idea of a cumbersome, disruptive, and ultimately costly process that purports to give them what they already have: full choice. "It's like asking customers to fill out a ballot to decide what grocery store to shop at; they go to the one they believe offers them the best service and the best value. We doubt that customers want to be subjected to a referendum process for this kind of everyday, free market decision." ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 10 Mar 1994 23:09:06 -0500 Subject: Expanded 900 Service in Canada Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 7 Mar 94] Advantage 900 now interactive Advantage 900 service has just become interactive, and less _risque._ The CRTC has granted approval of an enhanced Advantage 900 [tm] service. The enhancements include premises-based Advantage 900 and premium pricing which have been added to the already available network-based Advantage 900. With Advantage 900, callers are invited to dial certain 900-prefixed numbers so they can, for example, catch up on the latest news, get help while using their computer, or show their support for a political candidate. Information providers who qualify with the CRTC guidelines for content (porn purveyors won't make the grade) can have callers pay for Advantage 900 on a per-call basis, with the charges appearing on their telephone bill. Stentor developed the new premises-based Advantage 900 in response to customer demand for a more interactive way to communicate with callers. With premises-based Advantage 900, businesses and organization can offer pre- recorded, live and interactive programming from virtually anywhere in Canada. Callers have easy, direct-dial access to the customized information they need. Calls can terminate at the business's or organization's location, instead of at a telephone company office. With premium pricing, businesses, governments and organizations with Advantage 900 have the flexibility to set the price charged to Advantage 900 callers. They can also arrange to have the Stentor- owner companies, like Bell, bill and collect charges on their behalf. Previously, only network-based Advantage 900 has been available. With network-based Advantage 900, all calls are routed to recorded messages which are stored on the local telephone company's equipment, so callers had access only to one-way information. With approval from the CRTC, Stentor now has strict program content guidelines and consumer safeguards for Advantage 900 to protect callers from incurring unwanted charges. For example, the guidelines do not permit adult programming -- so called "gab" lines -- or programs that assign personal identification numbers (PINS) which must be used in subsequent calls. Callers will also hear a preamble message describing the program, the call charge and the service provider's name. If callers hang up in the first 18 seconds of the call, they will not be charged. The maximum allowable charges for Advantage 900 are $3.00 per call for programs intended for children and $50.00 for all other programs. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 06:43:14 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Experience with a Telemarketer I had an interesting experience with a persistent telemarketer last night. I'm listed in the phone book but not under my name. The first call came in (labelled Out-of-Area on my CID box) and the caller was told that there was no one in the house named "insert a name" there; less than a minute another call came in with the same ID and I took the call and told the woman that there was no one living in my house with the name she mentioned and that her information was obviously incorrect (true since it doesn't reveal my name). Call number three was the shortest. As soon as I said hello, she hung up. Using the pseuodnym is handy since it eliminates the "wheat from the chaff" type of telemarketing calls. Yes, I do accept some calls but only from companies that I deal with. Sears is an example. I'll get calls from them to take out a service contract on some appliance that I've bought from them; my fuel oil company trying to sell me fuel oil (yes, it does do that), etc. Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: Stewart Fist <100033.2145@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Competition and Technology Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 11:14:05 GMT Jerry Leichter writes: > I have great respect for competition, but I have yet to see a sound > argument that the advance in services available *since* deregulation > is signficantly different from the advance *before* deregulation - > AFTER CONTROLLING FOR THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVANCE IN APPLICABLE > TECHNOLOGY. I couldn't agree more. I've just spent a lot of time analysing the long-distance charges (and the changes thereof) from country A to country B using a range of figures produced by the OECD, for a commissioned report. It is difficult stuff to analyse, but one thing became quite clear. There's been no more drop in international long-distance call prices in advanced (OECD) countries with competitive regimes than there has in those with monopoly regimes. I must say I was surprised at these findings, because the monopolies actually did slightly better -- although the difference wasn't significant. My guess is that this results from a monopoly (at one end of a connection) having a duopoly to deal with (at the other), and therefore they can deal in such a way as to retain mutual higher prices from the duopoly end to the monopoly, but not from the monopoly end to the duopoly. The other guess, is that the duopolies and full competitive regimes spend so much on marketing and advertising that it wipes any 'competitive' advantage out. Certainly telephone companies are now the major financial supporters of television networks because of their levels of ad expenditure. One of the problems with Adam Smithian economics and the value of competition, is that it assumes that the price set by the suppliers results from the sale of a scarce resource. The whole of modern economic theory rests on the theory that price is a balance between competiting suppliers bidding down the price (to near real-cost levels) and competing buyers who will effectively pay ever higher prices for advantage in accessing the scarce resource. Eventually a balance is reached between the buyers buying, and the sellers selling. The trouble is that once you lay in a 36 fibre 1.2 Gigabit/sec cable between a couple of reasonable size towns, and you shove 32kbit/s ADPCM along it, you get a theoretical 1.3 million simultaneous calls, at an amortised price of about $US6 million a year for distances of about 1000 km. Which works out to about $5 per year per voice circuit. How does competition operate in an environment like this? Obviously, at these cost levels and with this capacity, a single cable, or a couple can satisfy most of the requirements of our largest cities - and the total expenditure on the cable is chickenfeed. Is it then in the interests of the competing companies to battle fiercely for market share by dropping prices, or by using the profit creaming to fund marketing plans and advertising? When you dig down to the bottom, the problem is that in an era where long-distance connection abundance is the norm (except that in many cases this is being deliberately knobbled) the normal competitive market forces do not apply in the way that conventional economics says it should. ------------------------------ From: jjmhome!hunt@uunet.uu.net (Tad J. Hunt) Subject: "Nevada Plan" Information Needed Date: 11 Mar 1994 12:09:55 -0500 Organization: Murray Enterprises I am looking for information related to what has been referred to as the Nevada Plan -- an arrangment where a long distance company pays the local termination charges to the owner of the phone number instead of the local phone company but that number can only be reached by using that long distance carrier. I would like to know if any special phone equipment is necessary to operate under such an arrangement. And who can I contact at AT&T or some other carrier to discuss this? I believe that speedway.net, an Internet services provider, is set up this way. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 08:42:45 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Latest Telephone Scumbag Use There is a scumbag on Long Island (area code 516) who is preying on women at home with the use of telephones. This dirtbag is calling the women and telling them that they have kidnapped their husbands and won't release them until the woman performs sexual acts with him. Even worse is that not only does he call at various hours during the day, but he calls during rush hours when the husband is more than likely unavailable. One call had a twist: he told the woman that he had kidnapped her mother and was going to rape her if she wife didn't comply. The police have advised that all calls should be reported immediately and if the homeowner has Caller ID, that should be checked to see if a number appears. Fat chance on this since Caller ID isn't 100 percent deployed to all exchanges and all possible telephone numbers. A better way would be to use the "Trap and Trace" feature even if it costs $0.75(US) per use and I believe it is available on all lines the same as per-call or per-line blocking. Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is an old one; it has gone around for many years. I remember hearing the phone company and police warn people against this ruse thirty years ago. I think you have to be awfully dumb to fall for it, but then, a lot of people are awfully dumb which is why it always seems to work so well with each new generation. One woman completly messed up the game when she got called: after being told her husband had been kidnapped and what she would have to do to get him back her answer was, "Keep the old %$^&^* ... I don't want him back." PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 11:46:01 EST From: John McHarry Subject: ISDN BRI to IXC? If I have an ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) from my local exchange carrier and want to place an interexchange data call, how does the LEC interconnect with the IXC? Somebody told me that this has to be hooked to a switched 56kb trunk, but I don't see why the LEC couldn't just send it in a regular Feature Group D and tell the IXC it was a data call in the SS7 message. Am I missing something? ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Video Conference bridges Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 11:49:33 EST Who makes video conference bridges? What types of compressed video can they work with? Any thoughts on what is good, bad, etc.? John McHarry mcharry@access.digex.net ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 02:03:14 GMT From: nazikian@DGICII.mty.itesm.mx (Franck Nazikian) Subject: Minitel Emulation Software for MacIntosh Wanted Thank you very much for your help! I finally could solve my problem of Minitel emulation for P.C. Now, I've got another request: where can I find a Minitel emulation software for Macintosh, available on the Internet? Best regards, CII ITESM Franck NAZIKIAN Sucursal de Correos "J" MONTERREY N.L. 64849 MEXICO Tel: (52-8)-358-20-00 exts.50-76 Fax: (52-8)-328-40-81 Internet: nazikian@davinci.mty.itesm.mx ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 00:02:35 -0800 From: stu@shell.portal.com (Stu Jeffery) Subject: Re: Erlang B and Required Trunks Functions In TELECOM Digest V14 #121 josmon@dellgate.us.dell.com (John Osmon) writes: > I am a programmer in the Telecom Department here at Dell, and my > latest project is to pull trunk usage data and produce usage > predictions for said trunks. > This isn't really my field, so I had a co-worker write the request for > me: > We need a way to calculate the number of voice circuits needed to > provide standard levels of service using the Retrial method. Ideally > we would plug into a formula the following: > - offered CCS of traffic > - grade-of-service desired (P.01, P.001, P.05) > The formula would then calculate the number of trunks needed WITHOUT > resorting to lookup tables. > If available, formulas for Erlang B method would also be useful. > These would be most useful as assembler, C, or XBase sub-routines. > Does any one know where I can find these? There are several ways of solving the equations with a recursive form of the Equation. I have seen several Traffic Engineering books with Basic programs. Here is one example in C that I wrote. /* * This program will compute required number of circuits * for designated Grade of Service, using Erlang B equation */ /* * include files */ #include #include main() { double C, Traffic, GOS, Prob_of_cong, B; int Trunks, A_max; while ( 1 == 1) { printf( "Offered Traffic: " ); scanf( "%lf", &Traffic); printf( "GOS: " ); scanf( "%lf", &GOS ) Prob_of_cong = 1; Trunks = 0 while ( Prob_of_cong > GOS) { Trunks = Trunks + 1; Prob_of_cong = (Prob_of_cong * Traffic) / (Trunks + (Traffic * Prob_of_cong)); } printf( "Number of ckts %i and conjestion %5.4f\n", Trunks, Prob_of_cong ); printf (" \n"); } } Sample output Offered Traffic: 10 GOS: .01 Number of ckts 18 and conjestion 0.0071 Offered Traffic: 10 GOS: .02 Number of ckts 17 and conjestion 0.0129 Offered Traffic: 10 GOS: .05 Number of ckts 15 and conjestion 0.0365 Offered Traffic: 20 GOS: .01 Number of ckts 30 and conjestion 0.0085 Offered Traffic: 20 GOS: .02 Number of ckts 28 and conjestion 0.0188 Offered Traffic: 20 GOS: .05 Number of ckts 26 and conjestion 0.0372 Stu Jeffery Internet: stu@shell.portal.com 1072 Seena Ave. voice: 415-966-8199 Los Altos, CA. 94024 fax: 415-966-8199 ------------------------------ From: sgiblab!kaiwan.com!troi!DRHilton@uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com (Dennis R. Hilton) Subject: Re: Information on Used Telecom Equipment Dealer Wanted Date: 11 Mar 94 04:46:32 GMT Reply-To: sgiblab!kaiwan.com!troi!drhilton@uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com Organization: kaiwan.com Internet Access (714) 638-2139 In article , Kenneth Leung wrote: > I am looking for dealers of used telecom equipment such as AT&T Merlin > phone sets and used AT&T PBXs. Call information for Long Beach, CA, and ask for Native Son (or Sun) communications. Best, Dennis R. Hilton ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 07:32:00 +0000 From: david boettger Subject: Re: Digital Cellular Phones In article , stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > In , jrg@rahul.net (John Galloway) writes: >> But if this key is fixed (since it is not transmited I assume it is) >> then all the cellular blue box builder need to is disect a phone to >> get it. This might not be a trivial opeation, but these crooks are >> pretty smart fellows. > Are you assuming that the key is the same for all phones? What good is a key that's the same for all phones? > If the key is different for each phone, then the crook would have to > get a hold of a particular phone to dissect it to get the key. And if > they have physical possession of the phone, there is little need to > get the key in order to make fraudulent calls, right? Yup. That's the idea. David Boettger boettger@bnr.ca ------------------------------ From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 16:34:10 GMT As pointed out, the underlying symbol rate for 14.4 Kbps modems is still 2400 baud. Nonetheless, my practical experience in running our modem bank connecting 13 hospitals in six cities here in NE Ohio, is that 14.4K is much more troublesome than 9600 bps data calls over POTS (plain old telephone service) lines. I use good quailty Multitech or DSI rack type modems on my end, but the user community can have almost any sort of equipment. The Multitechs support 14.4K v.32bis while the DSIs are 9600 v.32 max modulation. There is definitely a correlation between good name brand equipment and the success of the connection. My chief problem is that users call my system with their modems set to demand 14.4K rate. Our systems will connect, but the error correction rate is so high that througput is almost zero. Apparently, whatever heuristic method is used by the modems doesn't see anything wrong with the connection and thus force a fallback. I do have my end programmed to accept and/or request a fallback. I've also tried calling from some of the troublesome locations and thus am sure that their modems have fallback enabled too, yet the connection will remain stoically locked at 14.4K doing copious error correction with abysmal throghput. I've gone over the prblem with Multitech and didn't get anything more than the patented Tom and Ray Magliozi mechanic's shrug as a response. >From those same troublesome locations, virtually all calls forced to initate with 9600 moduation complete with hardly any error correction and good througput. I don't have any current means of measuring it, but what I am beginning to suspect is that there is phase jitter present on these lines. The modem training sequence can do echo cancellation, group delay equalization and amplitude equalization, but the training sequence can't compensate for rapidly varying phase shift on the line. The nature of the problems I have doesn't seem to depend on the length of the circuit or number of central offices involved. What puzzles me is that the modems don't fall back when the performacne gets to be so bad. It would appear that the error correction engine needs to have some sort of input the the egine that handles modulation. I am not imtimately familiar with v.32bis / v.42bis specifications, but some handshaking between the two parts of the modem would seem to be a most reasonable and logical thing to do. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-0095 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu amateur radio 146.58: N8WED ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 01:58:00 EST From: JMDCHICAGO@delphi.com Subject: Re: Unzipping ISDN File in Archives sshaver@nde.unl.edu (jeff shaver) wrote: > I recently ftp'ed the ISDN.deployment.data.zip file from the Telecom > Archives, but I can't unzip it. PKZip 2.04(g?) tells me it's not a > zip file. Any ideas? Thanks for your help! The file may have been zipped using an older version of PKZip. PKWare came out with a new version of the zipping software, which is not bak- wards compatible with the older version. It may need the older version to unzip it properly. (This created downloading hell on a lot of bulletin boards here recently.) Another possibility is that the FTP was done using ASCII, not binary, resulting in a corruption of the file as it came over the system. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Whatever the cause, I now have another copy of it here in a MIME version and will send it to whoever writes me to ask for it. This one is supposed to work with 2.04 PKUNZIP. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 06:35:55 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Local CID Showing Out of Area > stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) wrote: > In , richard.dervan@atlwin.com (Richard > Dervan) writes: >> I had an interesting experience last week. I got paged by my computer >> indicating it had received a voice message for me. Since I was >> expecting a message from my sweetie, I went to a pay phone, called my >> computer, and picked up the message. >> When I got home, I saw OUT-OF-AREA on my CID box. > Did you use coins to place the call? Any other method of payment > (such as calling card, collect, etc) is likely to cause OUT OF AREA on > a Caller ID box, even if both ends of the call are in the same CO. When CID was deployed in my area (516 area code), I tried calling home from a pay phone and the number was displayed. However, when I call home while I'm having my car serviced at a local service station, the number doesn't show. The difference is that the pay phone on the corner is NYNEX owned, and the other one is a COCOT. Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: wdh@netcom.com (Bill Hofmann) Subject: Re: Country Code For San Marino? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 17:09:38 GMT I just checked out the report from Martin Kealey about San Marino's country code change. According to Sprint International Operator, the country code is indeed 378. Also, on the former Soviet Union, I just heard from Lithuania's embassy about telecom there. Some highlights: * city codes have been shortened: Vilnius now is "2", not "0122" other city codes are shortened in a similar way. * long distance access code is 82, intl is 810 * operator is 8p194, 8p195 (English), 8p196 (AT&T) There are access codes to former USSR cities, but I don't have the data in front of me. Bill Hofmann wdh@netcom.COM Fresh Software and Instructional Design +1 510 524 0852 ------------------------------ From: eric@access.digex.net (Eric Andruscavage) Subject: Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number Date: 11 Mar 1994 12:53:29 -0500 Organization: Zeta Data, Laurel, Maryland, USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: ... this? Because they take advantage > of a class of people who have absolutely no other choice in how > their phone calls are placed; i.e. prisoners. Does this mean that prison phones are blocked from calling 1-800-COLLECT or the 800 number for AT&T long distance? I would like to say that I once got a collect call from a prisoner (wrong number, I hope) and the operator made it clear that it was a collect call from a federal prison. Since we normally accepted collect calls, I would have taken the call if this hadn't been made clear. I wonder if MCI or AT&T would provide the same service. Eric Andruscavage First thing - let's kill all the Shakespeareans DBMS Design/Programming/Training/Answers Questioned Laurel, Maryland * 301/206-2030 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is a Class of Service available in modern switches to accomodate telephones used by prison inmates. For quite a long time all the phones at Cook County Jail including the administrative ones have been on their own centrex: 312-890. But the phones used by prison- ers are very restricted. All calls have to be dialed zero-plus. All one-plus calls are intercepted with 'call cannot be completed as dialed ...' Stuff like 10xxx/800/950/etc. is totally blocked out. Those calls all go to intercept if dialed as one-plus and just vanish in the ether, neither completing or getting denied if dialed as zero-plus. Zero-plus any regular area code and number brings a telco operator on the line whose display clearly indicates the circumstances and the *only* way she can process the call is on a collect basis. No credit card or third number billing is allowed, and as you pointed out, the operator plainly tells the called party that the call is collect from (name), a prisoner at Cook County Jail. If someone knew the numbers on the phones in the cellblocks and tries to call in, an intercept says the number is in service for outgoing calls only. The phones all have rotary dials, of course, so there can be no games with touch-tones. Dialing to other extensions on the centrex is blocked, as are calls to the 0 operator, 411, 611, and 911. In the regulations pertaining to equal access and the use of 10xxx, etc, there are exceptions built in for certain circumstances, prisons and jails being one such circumstance. Gee, and *you* thought the college phone system in your dorm was pretty restrictive :) Look how bad the 'students' have it at the College of Hard Knocks and Practical Experience. :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #125 ****************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Area # 700 EMAIL 03-11-94 15:51 Message # -2543 From : TELECOM Moderator To : ELIOT GELWAN PVT RCVD Subj : TELECOM Digest V14 #126 ÿ@FROM :TELECOM@DELTA.EECS.NWU.EDU From telecom-request@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Fri Mar 11 16:39:23 1994 Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by uu9.psi.com (5.65b/4.0.061193-PSI/PSINet) via SMTP; id AA00737 for eliot.gelwan; Fri, 11 Mar 94 16:39:23 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA01886; Fri, 11 Mar 94 14:51:04 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA01876; Fri, 11 Mar 94 14:51:01 CST Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 14:51:01 CST From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) Message-Id: <9403112051.AA01876@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #126 TELECOM Digest Fri, 11 Mar 94 14:51:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 126 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Country Code Listing (Lars Poulsen) BCE Buys More Atlantic Interests (Bell News via Dave Leibold) Mexico Link For Canada Direct (Bell News via Dave Leibold) Re: Clipped Again (Maxime Taksar) MCI Wow It's Hot Hotline (Jonny Quest) Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number (Steve Cogorno) 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: Fri, 11 Mar 94 09:58:08 +0100 From: lars@eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Country Code Listing Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK In article is written: > Can anyone send me a list of current two and three character country > codes. I have most of them, but what with the breakup of various > countries and what-not, I figure I'm missing a few (codes, that is) I found this list at my local IP service provider's FTP server. The three-digits codes are NOT telephone country codes; the only place I have seen them used, is in MS-DOS. Postal Address: ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency DIN Burggrafenstrasse 6 D-1000 Berlin 30 phone: +49 30 26010 Fax: +49 30 2601231 NOTE: Entries for Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia Hercegovina not yet complete. AFGHANISTAN AF AFG 004 ALBANIA AL ALB 008 ALGERIA DZ DZA 012 AMERICAN SAMOA AS ASM 016 ANDORRA AD AND 020 ANGOLA AO AGO 024 ANGUILLA AI AIA 660 ANTARCTICA AQ ATA 010 ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA AG ATG 028 ARGENTINA AR ARG 032 ARMENIA AM ARM 051 ARUBA AW ABW 533 AUSTRALIA AU AUS 036 AUSTRIA AT AUT 040 AZERBAIJAN AZ AZE 031 BAHAMAS BS BHS 044 BAHRAIN BH BHR 048 BANGLADESH BD BGD 050 BARBADOS BB BRB 052 BELGIUM BE BEL 056 BELIZE BZ BLZ 084 BENIN BJ BEN 204 BERMUDA BM BMU 060 BHUTAN BT BTN 064 BOLIVIA BO BOL 068 BOSNIA HERCEGOVINA BA BIH BOTSWANA BW BWA 072 BOUVET ISLAND BV BVT 074 BRAZIL BR BRA 076 BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY IO IOT 086 BRUNEI DARUSSALAM BN BRN 096 BULGARIA BG BGR 100 BURKINA FASO BF BFA 854 BURUNDI BI BDI 108 BELARUS BY BLR 112 CAMBODIA KH KHM 116 CAMEROON CM CMR 120 CANADA CA CAN 124 CAPE VERDE CV CPV 132 CAYMAN ISLANDS KY CYM 136 CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC CF CAF 140 CHAD TD TCD 148 CHILE CL CHL 152 CHINA CN CHN 156 CHRISTMAS ISLAND CX CXR 162 COCOS (KEELING) ISLANDS CC CCK 166 COLOMBIA CO COL 170 COMOROS KM COM 174 CONGO CG COG 178 COOK ISLANDS CK COK 184 COSTA RICA CR CRI 188 COTE D'IVOIRE CI CIV 384 CROATIA HR HRV CUBA CU CUB 192 CYPRUS CY CYP 196 CZECH REPUBLIC CZ CZE 203 CZECHOSLOVAKIA CS CSK 200 DENMARK DK DNK 208 DJIBOUTI DJ DJI 262 DOMINICA DM DMA 212 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC DO DOM 214 EAST TIMOR TP TMP 626 ECUADOR EC ECU 218 EGYPT EG EGY 818 EL SALVADOR SV SLV 222 EQUATORIAL GUINEA GQ GNQ 226 ESTONIA EE EST 233 ETHIOPIA ET ETH 230 FALKLAND ISLANDS (MALVINAS) FK FLK 238 FAROE ISLANDS FO FRO 234 FIJI FJ FJI 242 FINLAND FI FIN 246 FRANCE FR FRA 250 FRENCH GUIANA GF GUF 254 FRENCH POLYNESIA PF PYF 258 FRENCH SOUTHERN TERRITORIES TF ATF 260 GABON GA GAB 266 GAMBIA GM GMB 270 GEORGIA GE GEO 268 GERMANY DE DEU 276 GHANA GH GHA 288 GIBRALTAR GI GIB 292 GREECE GR GRC 300 GREENLAND GL GRL 304 GRENADA GD GRD 308 GUADELOUPE GP GLP 312 GUAM GU GUM 316 GUATEMALA GT GTM 320 GUINEA GN GIN 324 GUINEA-BISSAU GW GNB 624 GUYANA GY GUY 328 HAITI HT HTI 332 HEARD AND MC DONALD ISLANDS HM HMD 334 HONDURAS HN HND 340 HONG KONG HK HKG 344 HUNGARY HU HUN 348 ICELAND IS ISL 352 INDIA IN IND 356 INDONESIA ID IDN 360 IRAN (ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF) IR IRN 364 IRAQ IQ IRQ 368 IRELAND IE IRL 372 ISRAEL IL ISR 376 ITALY IT ITA 380 JAMAICA JM JAM 388 JAPAN JP JPN 392 JORDAN JO JOR 400 KAZAKHSTAN KZ KAZ 398 KENYA KE KEN 404 KIRIBATI KI KIR 296 KOREA, DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KP PRK 408 KOREA, REPUBLIC OF KR KOR 410 KUWAIT KW KWT 414 KYRGYZSTAN KG KGZ 417 LAO PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC LA LAO 418 LATVIA LV LVA 428 LEBANON LB LBN 422 LESOTHO LS LSO 426 LIBERIA LR LBR 430 LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA LY LBY 434 LIECHTENSTEIN LI LIE 438 LITHUANIA LT LTU 440 LUXEMBOURG LU LUX 442 MACAU MO MAC 446 MADAGASCAR MG MDG 450 MALAWI MW MWI 454 MALAYSIA MY MYS 458 MALDIVES MV MDV 462 MALI ML MLI 466 MALTA MT MLT 470 MARSHALL ISLANDS MH MHL 584 MARTINIQUE MQ MTQ 474 MAURITANIA MR MRT 478 MAURITIUS MU MUS 480 MEXICO MX MEX 484 MICRONESIA FM FSM 583 MOLDOVA, REPUBLIC OF MD MDA 498 MONACO MC MCO 492 MONGOLIA MN MNG 496 MONTSERRAT MS MSR 500 MOROCCO MA MAR 504 MOZAMBIQUE MZ MOZ 508 MYANMAR MM MMR 104 NAMIBIA NA NAM 516 NAURU NR NRU 520 NEPAL NP NPL 524 NETHERLANDS NL NLD 528 NETHERLANDS ANTILLES AN ANT 532 NEUTRAL ZONE NT NTZ 536 NEW CALEDONIA NC NCL 540 NEW ZEALAND NZ NZL 554 NICARAGUA NI NIC 558 NIGER NE NER 562 NIGERIA NG NGA 566 NIUE NU NIU 570 NORFOLK ISLAND NF NFK 574 NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS MP MNP 580 NORWAY NO NOR 578 OMAN OM OMN 512 PAKISTAN PK PAK 586 PALAU PW PLW 585 PANAMA PA PAN 590 PAPUA NEW GUINEA PG PNG 598 PARAGUAY PY PRY 600 PERU PE PER 604 PHILIPPINES PH PHL 608 PITCAIRN PN PCN 612 POLAND PL POL 616 PORTUGAL PT PRT 620 PUERTO RICO PR PRI 630 QATAR QA QAT 634 REUNION RE REU 638 ROMANIA RO ROM 642 RUSSIAN FEDERATION RU RUS 643 RWANDA RW RWA 646 ST. HELENA SH SHN 654 SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS KN KNA 659 SAINT LUCIA LC LCA 662 ST. PIERRE AND MIQUELON PM SPM 666 SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES VC VCT 670 SAMOA WS WSM 882 SAN MARINO SM SMR 674 SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE ST STP 678 SAUDI ARABIA SA SAU 682 SENEGAL SN SEN 686 SEYCHELLES SC SYC 690 SIERRA LEONE SL SLE 694 SINGAPORE SG SGP 702 SLOVAKIA SK SVK 703 SLOVENIA SI SVN SOLOMON ISLANDS SB SLB 090 SOMALIA SO SOM 706 SOUTH AFRICA ZA ZAF 710 SPAIN ES ESP 724 SRI LANKA LK LKA 144 SUDAN SD SDN 736 SURINAME SR SUR 740 SVALBARD AND JAN MAYEN ISLANDS SJ SJM 744 SWAZILAND SZ SWZ 748 SWEDEN SE SWE 752 SWITZERLAND CH CHE 756 SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC SY SYR 760 TAIWAN, PROVINCE OF CHINA TW TWN 158 TAJIKISTAN TJ TJK 762 TANZANIA, UNITED REPUBLIC OF TZ TZA 834 THAILAND TH THA 764 TOGO TG TGO 768 TOKELAU TK TKL 772 TONGA TO TON 776 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO TT TTO 780 TUNISIA TN TUN 788 TURKEY TR TUR 792 TURKMENISTAN TM TKM 795 TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS TC TCA 796 TUVALU TV TUV 798 UGANDA UG UGA 800 UKRAINE UA UKR 804 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES AE ARE 784 UNITED KINGDOM GB GBR 826 UNITED STATES US USA 840 UNITED STATES MINOR OUTLYING ISLANDS UM UMI 581 URUGUAY UY URY 858 USSR SU SUN 810 UZBEKISTAN UZ UZB 860 VANUATU VU VUT 548 VATICAN CITY STATE (HOLY SEE) VA VAT 336 VENEZUELA VE VEN 862 VIET NAM VN VNM 704 VIRGIN ISLANDS (BRITISH) VG VGB 092 VIRGIN ISLANDS (U.S.) VI VIR 850 WALLIS AND FUTUNA ISLANDS WF WLF 876 WESTERN SAHARA EH ESH 732 YEMEN, REPUBLIC OF YE YEM 887 YUGOSLAVIA YU YUG 890 ZAIRE ZR ZAR 180 ZAMBIA ZM ZMB 894 ZIMBABWE ZW ZWE 716 Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products Phone: (011-) +45-31 49 81 08 Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B Telefax: +45-31 49 83 08 DK-2650 Hvidovre, DENMARK Internets: designed and built while you wait ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 10 Mar 94 23:08:28 -0500 Subject: BCE Buys More Atlantic Interests Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, Bell Ontario, 7 Mar 94] BCE acquires Bruncor and MT&T shares BCE, our parent corporation, has increased its stake in two phone companies in the Atlantic provinces. BCE now owns 8,902,015 shares of Bruncor Inc. of New Brunswick, representing approximately 41.04 per cent of Bruncor's issued and outstanding common shares, and 9,925,564 common shares of Maritime Telegraph and Telephone Company (MT&T) of Nova Scotia, representing approximately 35.4 per cent of MT&T's issued and outstanding common shares. ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 10 Mar 94 23:08:54 -0500 Subject: Mexico Link for Canada Direct Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 7 Mar 94] Mexico joins Canada Direct For Canadians soaking up Mexican rays, calling home just became a whole lot easier. Canadian tourists or business people can now use their Calling Card or Call Me Card, thanks to Telmex's activation on February 16 of Canada Direct service. Canada Direct service allows Canadians travelling on foreign soil to call home with the assistance of Canadian operators. The service avoids the potential for confusion when dealing with an operator who has little or no command of English or French. To call home from Mexico with Canada Direct, callers dial 95 800 010 1990 to connect with a Canadian operator. With the Calling Card information supplied by the caller, the operator validates the card and completes the call. Canada Direct is also available in 87 other countries. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 11:06:39 -0800 From: Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS Subject: Re: Clipped Again In article , padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) writes: > This makes no sense to me. Today there is *no* privacy in phone calls > so the question must have been worded so as to imply that there is for > people to believe that Clipper provides *less*. This is actually something that deserves being addressed. At the moment, there *is* privacy in phone calls, in the sense that it's difficult for a (hypothetical) agency of the government to do complete, automated traffic analysis of any given telephone. Clipper will make this possible to an agency that does not mind skirting inconvenient laws and that can get easy access to most, if not all, phone traffic in the US. The NSA has a very good possibility (and has a history [read {The Puzzle Palace} by James Bamford for details]) of engaging in such activities, so this is not merely hypothetical. In any case, I think this has strayed from general telecom topics and probably belong in comp.society.privacy, comp.risks, and/or talk.politics. crypto. Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS mmt@RedBrick.COM PGP key by request ------------------------------ From: nboddie@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Jonny Quest) Subject: MCI Wow It's Hot Hotline Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept. Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 18:46:33 GMT Does anyone know this number? I saw it a few days ago and lost it. ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 10:40:26 PST TELECOM Digest Editor Noted: > Most hitchikers didn't fare as well with him. Maybe you just weren't > his type. :) And what type is that? I certainly hope that is not driven by homophobia. Since we are discussing politics here, I would like to point out that just because he was convicted of murder and imprisoned does not mean that he shouldn't be able to run a 900 number business. If people want to call, that's their prerogative. How is it different from Angela Davis (who is a very well respected professor in academic circles) writing a book while she was a political prisoner? Both are telling their versions of the truth, and if you want to hear it, fine. If you don't, then don't call. Steve cogorno@netcom.com #608 Merrill * 200 McLaughlin Drive * Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1015 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Homophobic Response: Thank you for sharing your version of the truth with us. To compare Angela Davis and her crimes with people like John Wayne Gacy and Jeff Dahmer (talk about homophobia! the one killed homosexuals, the other one ate them ...) is a bit of a stretch in my opinion but you are entitled to make that comparison if you wish. I am not certain how Ms. Davis would feel about the comparison. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #126 ****************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253