TELECOM Digest Thu, 6 Jan 94 09:13:20 CST Volume 14 : Issue 13 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson MCI's ATM Communications Response (Dan L. Dale) A Tale of Two Dialtones (Paul Robinson) Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: Fax Services Wanted (Arlington Hewes) Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers (Robert L. Ullmann) Cable Channels and Satellites (Miles Thomas) 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: Wed, 5 Jan 94 22:55 EST From: Dan L. Dale <0005517538@mcimail.com> Subject: MCI's ATM Communications Response SUBJECT ARTICLE: Setting the record straight on the Communications Week article "User's Want Data Details for MCI" (12/20/93) DATE: January 4, 1993 On December 20, 1993, Communications Week published a front-page article entitled "Users Want Data Details From MCI". This article criticized MCI for not publicly disclosing detailed plans for ATM service offerings. Customers may ask about the article and MCI's overall strategic data direction related to emerging technologies such as ATM. Communications Week extensively quoted Paul Weichselbaum, MCI's vice president of data marketing, along with many telecommunications managers from a variety of companies. Mr. Weichselbaum has written to Communications Week regarding their news coverage. His letter to the editor seeks to place his comments in the appropriate context and accurately explain MCI's approach to ATM. The complete text of the Communications Week article and MCI's response is included below. The article began by stating MCI "will renege on a promise to detail its ATM plans by year's end, frustrating users who are trying to understand the carrier's data strategy". The article continued to criticize our lack of an ATM switch vendor and the lack of service and pricing details. It is important that MCI assist customers in placing emerging technologies in the proper perspective. Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) are two emerging technologies that will play an important role in the next generation of data service offerings from MCI. ATM employs fixed-length cells to carry data, voice, and video at speeds suitable for wide area connections. This technology has the potential to support new applications and consolidate traffic. ATM will obviate the need, at least technically, for the multiple separate networks (such as data, voice, and video-conference) most companies maintain. This technology could allow corporations to build a single enterprise wide area network carrying all their communications traffic. For better or worse, ATM is often looked upon as a networking panacea. The reality is that ATM is one of several solutions that may or may not be appropriate for a customer at this time or in the near future. The following are key points to remember when discussing MCI's view of ATM technology: MCI believes ATM, in its current state, is more of a technology than a service; MCI has found that most of our customer's current application can be served with existing data services. ATM's full potential and value will be realized through the implementation of future applications; ATM technology must mature; standards must be developed and finalized. The technology is quickly maturing; product and hardware life cycles are short. The first generation switches are not adequate to offer a robust central office based service offering. MCI continues to actively work with switch vendors to influence second generation technology. As noted above, experience has shown that the vast majority of customer applications do not require transport rates in excess of 1.544 Mbps. ATM is traditionally associated with transport speeds in excess of 45 Mbps. Although potential standards are being evaluated for ATM below 45 Mbps speeds, other issues must be resolved before ATM becomes a truly viable service offering. MCI understands these issues and is working with manufacturers and standards bodies to arrive at solutions that will allow carriers to offer interoperable, network based ATM service offerings. Various trade publications have echoed MCI's concerns. John McQuillan's recent article in Business Communications Review ("Where are the ATM Applications?", pp 12-14, November 1993) noted that "...there are simpler and less expensive alternatives to ATM". He continued to state that "...while the ATM community has been focused on ATM at 45 Mbps rates and up, customers spend most of their money at T1 rates and below". Mr. McQuillan is widely recognized as a leading industry expert on ATM technology. Readers of the Communications Week article may form the impression that MCI is behind everyone else since we have not publicly disclosed specific ATM service plans. MCI has chosen not to tell our ATM story via the media. There are two primary reasons for this. MCI cannot control the media and their spin to a story. In addition, our discussions with vendors and end users impact the formulation of ideas and thinking about what our ATM service directions should be; we want to keep that information away from the competition for the time being. MCI is not at a competitive disadvantage related to the understanding of ATM technology. MCI is actively participating in the ATM Forum and other standards bodies. We actively participate in the development of standards and applications related to ATM. MCI is also investigating current ATM research and technical design issues. We have implemented a trial ATM network to study ATM. Our trial network has allowed the engineering lab to study flow control interactions between higher layer protocols and ATM switches. We have also found that the high speed access lines and bursty nature of today's high performance applications such as file transfer and distributed database applications can easily overrun small buffers that are often found in ATM switches. These detailed simulations have allowed us to understand the impact of existing buffer management schemes on TCP flow control mechanics and the resulting useful throughput that can be achieved. Although MCI has not announced an ATM switch vendor, switches from leading ATM vendors have undergone evaluation in MCI's Network Engineering Laboratory. Testing continues on second generation switches. We have found that ATM technology is quickly maturing and switch hardware life cycles are short. To further the development of ATM, MCI has provided feedback to ATM switch manufacturers on the key issues we have learned. Our methodical approach will allow us to influence the technology changes in the next generation of switches. This approach will ultimately be advantageous to our customers. More than a dozen ATM products have been announced in 1993 - and more will be available in 1994. Hardware vendors interested in ATM technologies include Cabletron, Cisco Systems, Motorola Codex, Newbridge, Northern Telecom, StrataCom, and Wellfleet to name a few. At the present time, most switch vendors only provide a partial set of service characteristics associated with ATM (e.g. access classes and the timing, bit rate and connection mode attributes, etc.). Industry analysts generally agree with MCI's view that ATM standards must be further developed to address additional areas of concern to a perspective end user such as the lack of flow control between switches, no LAN bridging specifications, and a lack of quality of service definition. In addition, many service features offered by vendors are proprietary in nature. Only when these issues are addressed, will the full potential of ATM be realized. Once again, other industry analysts and periodicals mirror MCI viewpoint. For instance, an article in Data Communications magazine ("ATM at Your Service?", pp 85-88, November 1993) noted that "without standard service definitions, carriers may end up developing their own approaches, a scenario that could lead to the same troubles that have plagued ISDN: lack of interoperability and spotty geographic coverage." The press and general public is often unaware of the work MCI has undertaken with ATM. Our focus is on driving service related issues with standards bodies and vendors; not to engage in public debates, create unfulfilled service expectations, pre-announce products, or provide proprietary service solutions in the absence of industry standards. The above is not meant to provide you with all the details on MCI's strategic data direction or our work with ATM. It is meant to inform you that MCI is actively undertaking initiatives to develop expertise with the technology. MCI's pragmatic approach will allow us to effectively develop, market and support the existing and emerging services required by our customers. These considerations will ultimately prove to be in the customers' best interest. COMMUNICATIONS WEEK ARTICLE: Communications Week via First! : WASHINGTON MCI Communications Corp. will renege on a promise to detail its ATM service plans by year's end, frustrating users who are trying to understand the carrier's data strategy. "I just wish I knew what its data strategy is," said Thomas O'Toole, director of communications systems for Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh. "MCI always, for some reason, has struggled with a data strategy." In briefings delivered several times during the year, MCI has glossed over its plans to offer asynchronous transfer mode services. MCI officials have said the company will provide ATM services, but they have given no details on prices, operating speeds, network management capabilities, switching platform or classes of service. That kind of information is already available from AT&T, Sprint and WilTel-MCI's main competitors. "We clearly have a different approach," said Paul Weichselbaum, MCI's vice president of data marketing. In May, Weichselbaum said that by the end of this year, MCI would select an ATM switch vendor, begin field trials and provide service details (Communications Week, May 31). It is clear that MCI will not meet those goals. MCI now expects to select its ATM switch vendor during the first half of next year and roll out a service late next year, Weichselbaum said in an interview with Communications Week. He would not discuss service characteristics or say when such information would be available. Weichselbaum explained the delay by saying that MCI has tested ATM switches, but found that they did not measure up to its expectations. SMDS Late Too MCI also has vacillated on its plans to offer a switched multimegabit data service, which it announced in October 1992 for general availability in mid-1993. During the May briefing, Weichselbaum said MCI was postponing SMDS availability because of software delays. MCI canceled an SMDS beta test that had been planned with Rockwell International Corp., Seal Beach, Calif. MCI was supposed to reschedule the test, but has yet to do so, according to Chuck Ramey, Rockwell's manager of network hardware-telecommunications services. Weichselbaum said this month that SMDS will be generally available in the first half of next year. He said users are trying the service now, but he declined to name them. Users said MCI's failure to provide details on its ATM plans or roll out SMDS indicates that the carrier's data strategy is in disarray. "If they want to be seen as a leader in the industry, they need to provide information on [ATM] pricing and service levels pretty quickly," said Blair Sanders, senior member of the technical staff at Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas. During a recent interview, MCI chairman and CEO Bert Roberts insisted that MCI has a strong data strategy. If there's confusion, he said, MCI may not be doing a good job of communicating its plans. "Sometimes it's a market perception, but in this case, I think it's a real issue," said Rosemary Cochran, principal with Vertical Systems Group, Dedham, Mass. Details, Details The information on data services MCI recently supplied Domino's Pizza in response to a request for proposals was "far less detailed" than that received from AT&T and Sprint, said Daniel Gonos, telecommunications manager at the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based pizza company. "I'm not sure whether it's a learning curve with MCI, or that it's just trying to be careful," Gonos said. "But it's clear, for whatever reason, that MCI is behind everyone else." Jeffrey Marshall, director of communications for Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., New York, said MCI has done a good job articulating a broad data strategy, but that the details are missing. Other MCI users said they are satisfied with the information they have received from MCI. "I think it's been up-front since the beginning with ATM," said William Johnson, director of communications at Woolworth Corp., New York. "It wanted to make sure it had its act together before implementing a program. I don't think it's at that point yet. We need more details, but we can wait." Donald Moore, communications technology manager at Aldus Corp., a Seattle-based software maker, said ATM is still far enough in the future that his company can wait for details. Moore said, however, that he was told that MCI already has selected its switch vendor but won't publicly disclose its choice. Apparently, confusion over the switch vendor extends to Roberts, who said earlier this month that MCI has selected an ATM switch vendor. MCI representatives later denied that Roberts made that statement. Weichselbaum argued that MCI has a solid data portfolio, and that the carrier has yet to find an application that can't be handled by its existing services. He said ATM is not necessary today because frame-relay, SMDS and other switched data services offer users what they need. MCI tries to encourage companies to consider data services like frame-relay or SMDS, rather than ATM, Weichselbaum said. But MCI will bid on request for proposals in cases where users insist on ATM. "We would have to install switches if the bid were approved," he said. This approach bothers some users, who said they would prefer to use an established network. "We don't mind being a test pilot, but if it's a matter of getting into an airplane that's never been made before, we're a little shy about that," said Marshall of Bear, Stearns. MFS Datanet Inc., Sprint and WilTel already offer ATM-based services. AT&T has detailed its service, which will be available in mid-1994. "There's no compelling application that absolutely requires ATM today," Weichselbaum said. "We don't want to do it because everyone else is doing it." Industry analysts said MCI is too wrapped up in its purchase of BT North America Inc., San Jose, Calif., to focus adequate attention on its data strategy. Roberts confirmed that the company was preoccupied for at least two months working out the details of their joint arrangement. [12-22-93 at 14:59 EST, Copyright 1993, CMP Publications, Inc., File: c1222056.2mp] MCI RESPONSE TO THE COMMUNICATION WEEK ARTICLE: MCI's Paul Wiechselbaum, vice-president data marketing, wrote the following letter to the editors of Communications Week. The letter will probably be published in the 1/10/94 issue. MCI takes great exception to the tone and content of your December 20, 1993 article, "Users Want Data Details From MCI." You quote me as saying "we clearly have a different approach [to ATM]," without giving your readers the opportunity to understand or evaluate that approach. First, MCI approaches ATM not as a high technology company, but rather as a service company; we employ high tech products in the provisioning of our services. We want to offer data services to the marketplace that will help customers compete more effectively. In our opinion, ATM in its current state is more a technology than a service; it's a fast-bit pipe using ATM multiplexing. CommWeek editors seemed to agree with this point, given the November 22, 1993 editorial, "Bridging the Gap of ATM Theory and Reality." Our market research shows that it will be a couple of years before the multimedia promise of ATM can be fully deployed as a broadly available, economically compelling and completely standards-based service. We've found that most of our customers' current applications can be served with existing services. In other words, ATM's full potential is required for future market applications and much less so for current ones. At the same time, our discussions with ATM switch vendors over the past three years have convinced us that the technology is maturing quickly and product life cycles are short. With first generation switch technology only a pale imitation of what ATM could be and the market still immature, we are taking the time to try to influence second generation technological changes to our customers' advantage. We believe we can enter the market with a much richer ATM service well before it gains much momentum and the longer we can wait before making this investment, the more likely it is that a particular vendor of ATM technology will have something better to offer than we've seen to date. Our experience with frame relay reflects the merits of such an approach. While we were among the last to offer a commercial frame relay service, the fact that our HyperStream Frame Relay continues to be unique in the marketplace a full 18 months after introduction -- with its sustained burst capabilities, usage and mileage sensitive pricing, and asymmetrical provisioning -- is telling. Such capabilities give our customers greater control and ultimately, save money over competitive offerings. HyperStream's success has convinced us that our market strategy is on target. Given this experience, we don't feel compelled to mimic other carriers in the ATM arena; our focus is on the market. Your broad generalization that "users want data details from MCI" is misleading. CommWeek knows very well that MCI's data strategy is much broader than just ATM. And we are certainly telling customers what our ATM directions are and how these fit with our overall data plans. However, to date we've chosen to do this in private customer briefings. These briefings serve to validate our current conclusions on ATM services while enabling us to protect competitive advantages we gain as a result of those discussions. MCI clearly does have a different approach to ATM. We believe it's a methodical, realistic, customer-oriented and responsible one. It reflects the market window available to us as well as the technology cycles we're seeing and shaping. The feedback from our customers has been both positive and constructive. It's unfortunate that our rationale for pursuing this different strategy was not fully represented in the story. Paul J. Weichselbaum Vice President Data Marketing ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 01:00:49 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: A Tale of Two Dialtones Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA It was the best of dials, it was the worst of dials ... I originally had four phone lines coming into my house. The family member who needed the fourth line didn't need it any longer, so I had it shut off. Recently, another relative had to move in with us and wanted their own phone line. Since I had a circuit left I called the phone company to have them turn that on ($47.00) from the office instead of their paying another $65.00 to have another circuit installed (when the new wire was installed, the old wire, which the installer discovered was spliced, was pulled and replaced with a six-pair cable; see "Dial Tone is No Extra Charge" printed last year.) I do my own wiring so I had put in the wire and turn on was scheduled for the 5th. Earlier in the day I had made a call from my computer line. I went to work and called home to check up on my mother who is recovering from Cancer. The phone doesn't answer. This is unusual. Over several hours I tried it, off and on, and got no answer. Tried calling the special number in the hall (it's used for my 800 number) no answer. I was worried a little, so when I got home I discovered nothing unusual. I picked up the phone and got dial tone. I did, however, discover later that the hall phone / answering machine's power had become unplugged, which meant it wouldn't even allow me to dial out. Plugged back in it gave me dial tone. Note this is the electrical plug, in addition to the telephone line. I went down to the basement demarc and finished wiring the new phone line. No problem and I get a dial tone. I dialed my home number and it was busy. Dialed the special number that runs to the hall phone and it just rang (as stated above). I must have, in running the 50 or so feet of wire down to the basement, miswired the phone onto my line. But since each circuit goes through its own gas fuse, I thought I had done it correctly. I left the phone on a busy signal and went to the other phone. Dial tone. All I did was hook up the new phone. This doesn't make sense. Then it hit me. I hung up the new phone, went back to the regular phone, and dialed the regular number. The new phone rang. Went upstairs, got the paper with the new phone number C&P supplied me when I placed the order. Dialed that number and my old phone rang! I never touched my original connection, so the problem is with the phone company. This is what happened: in ordering the new service, the phone company put the new service on the original number, and put our old service on the new line! Well, tomorrow morning I'll call and make a stink about it. There are at least six or more outlets running wires into the original connection for me to change them all, so I'll complain and insist they fix it. Beyond that, for all I know they may charge me for moving my phone service to a different pair! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 07:54:38 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped It was announced yesterday that Southern Bell has agreed to drop the U$1.00/line/month surcharge for tone dialing in the Orlando area that had been in effect since the introduction of touch-tone dialing service. It is not known exactly when this change will take place other than it is expected "within 60 days". Warmly, Padgett ------------------------------ From: Arlington Hewes Subject: Re: Fax Services Wanted Date: Wed, 05 Jan 1994 19:48:15 -0800 > Greetings, I am looking for a low cost service which I can use to send > faxes around the world. I have prime requirements to send fax to NA > and the Asia Pacific regions. Send a note to tpc-faq@town.hall.org and check out the TPC.INT project. mtr ------------------------------ From: ariel@world.std.com (Robert L Ullmann) Subject: Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers Organization: The World in Boston Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 04:03:45 GMT tnixon@microsoft.com (Toby Nixon) writes: > right. A "+" and the country code, a space, the city code (optionally > enclosed within parenthesis to indicate that it is optionally dialed > if you're within the same city code), then another space, and the No, not exactly. Numbers in parens should not appear in the + form. If they do, they mean _do_not_ dial this to the international caller: a London number might be +44 (0) 71 123 4576. BTW: IMHO, BT does a disservice to the UK consumer by always listing city codes with the leading "0"; the consumer is going to have trouble understanding that the "0" is an access code, not part of the city code. I think the +1 code for the NANP being the same as the 1- access code for long distance within the NANP isn't a coincidence. ATT invented the international plan ... When I first saw country codes in the telephone book years ago, I wondered why the USA code wasn't listed. (Some droid figured: "but you don't NEED that from the USA". Never mind businesses trying to figure out how to list themselves.) To this day the phone books list places like Izmir, Turkey (+851 according to NYNEX Boston 1993) but omit the USA and Canada. No wonder most ordinary people don't *understand* the system! Back then I called the operator: "What is the country code for the USA?" Oper: "Sir, you don't NEED the country code to dial the USA." Me: "sigh, can I have the overseas operator?" Overseas op: "Sir, you don't NEED ..." Me: "may I have your supervisor please?" Super: "hmmm, I don't know that. Why would you need it?" Me: "suppose I want to place an ad in an international magazine?" Super: "hmmm" Me: "can we ask the overseas operator in, say, London?" Super: "sure!" London: "It is ONE. But why would YOU need it? ..." Robert Ullmann Ariel@World.STD.COM +1 617 693 1315 ------------------------------ Date: 05 Jan 94 23:07:02 EST From: Miles Thomas <70624.130@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Cable Channels and Satellites lars@eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) wrote > The largest satellite operator (German ASTRA which has a near monopoly > on service to Germany, Scandinavia and I think Be-ne-lux as well) has > two birds in the same nominal slot (and a third one planned) so that > you can get 24 channels without re-aiming the dish. This has allowed > the sale of very inexpensive receiver systems (I have seen a low end > system with 18" dish on sale for USD 155 including 25% VAT!! A normal > price is about twice that for a system with built-in descrambler with > 2 "smart card" slots). This kind of pricing for "wireless cable" led > to sharp reductions on cable service prices. The ASTRA sats also broadcast to the UK, Spain etc etc. Its actually owned by a company in Luxembourg, SES. The two birds are actually 0.25 of a degree apart, which is close enough for a dish toi see both (it has to be within 1 degree to see it). I understand that they plan to add a third, ie one at 0.25, one at 0.5 and one a 0.75. The only reason that they aren't spaced any closer is that it would require constant manoeuvering to stop the sats hitting each other as they wiggle slightly in orbit. Just for you info, the Marcopolo high power sat used for BSB with the infamous dinner plate or sqarial antennae has been retargeted onto Scandanavia for their DBS services. Miles Thomas ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #13 *****************************