TELECOM Digest Thu, 6 Jan 94 10:12:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 14 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Announcing networkMCI (Dan L. Dale) "Caller Pays" Cellular Airtime (Paul Robinson) Dialing Changes for Delaware (Carl Moore) Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services (Feedlebom) Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated (Art Walker) Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated (Dave Reus) Re: California ANI Question (David Josephson) Re: Sprint (Dvorak) Modem Offer - Not Again! (Dan Osborn) Re: 500 Channel Cable TV (Gary W. Sanders) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Al Varney) Re: Help Needed With v.42bis (Janusz Purwin) Re: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident (Carl Moore) Re: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident (Jim 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 22:56 EST From: Dan L. Dale <0005517538@mcimail.com> Subject: Announcing networkMCI MCI UNVEILS LONG-RANGE VISION: networkMCI Opens Nation's First Transcontinental Information Superhighway; Announces $20 Billion in Strategic Initiatives Washington, D.C., January 4, 1994--MCI today unveiled a sweeping strategic vision under which MCI and associated partners are expected to invest more than $20 billion to create and deliver a wide array of new branded services to teleconsumers, businesses, research facilities and government customers. "Our notion of the future of telecommunications and MCI is going to have a brand name: networkMCI," said Bert C. Roberts, MCI chairman and CEO. "This strategic vision is the sum of all our plans and opportunities in the new emerging markets with services that consumers, businesses and governments will want at their fingertips as we move into the 21st Century. As a core strategy, it leverages the tremendous opportunities brought on by the convergence of telephony, entertainment and the computer." Transcontinental Information Superhighway Today the company announced, as an initial element of the networkMCI vision, the inauguration of the nation's first trans- continental information superhighway. Often talked about as a key ingredient to keeping America competitive in tomorrow's world economy, the MCI superhighway's roadbed uses SONET fiber optic technology at speeds 15 times faster than any SONET network available today. MCI said that the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) is the first user of its New York to Los Angeles SONET fiber system. The NSFNET Backbone Service is the fastest and most powerful of the university, government and commercial networks known collectively as the Internet. "Some people may be surprised to learn that MCI developed these intercity links for the Internet six years ago," said Roberts. "The NSFNET service today reaches nearly 15,000 networks around the world that participate in the Internet." "The Internet doubles in size annually and now links over two million computers serving some six million users," said Vinton Cerf, President of the Internet Society. "When electronic mail interconnects are taken into account, nearly 20 million users conduct their business from labs, homes and offices over the Internet. MCI and its partners, IBM, Merit and ANS, pioneered the use of 45 megabit per second technology for the NSFNET Backbone Service. NSFNET now carries a volume of information that approximately equals the holdings of the Library of Congress EACH MONTH, and MCI's announcement indicates the potential to carry more than 50 times that much traffic." SONET, which stands for Synchronous Optical Network, is a high-speed transmission technology that MCI is using to hasten the widespread availability of broadcast quality videophones, electronic data interchange (EDI), long distance medical imaging, multimedia education, movies on demand, and a single-number Personal Communications Service (PCS) that will use the same pocket-sized telephone anywhere in the world. High-speed SONET technology was deployed in half of MCI's network at year-end 1993, far outpacing its long distance rivals. Under the development program announced today, SONET will be available throughout MCI's domestic network by the end of 1994 and on international routes across the Atlantic and the Pacific by 1995. The company said it will further increase carrying speeds on existing fiber from 2.5 gigabits (billion bits) per second to more than 10 gigabits per second by 1995. MCI Metro As another element of its long-range vision, the company announced the creation of MCI Metro, a wholly owned subsidiary that is expected to invest $2 billion in fiber rings and local switching infrastructure in major U.S. metropolitan markets. Through its metropolitan area facilities, MCI will connect directly to customers and begin providing alternative local telecommunications services. Referring to these connections as "digital on/off ramps" to the nationwide information superhighway, Roberts noted that they would be a vital addition to America's economic infrastructure for the 21st Century. Construction has already begun in Atlanta, with completion expected there by mid- year. Roberts announced the appointment of two key executives to lead this subsidiary. Executive vice president Gary M. Parsons will be chief executive officer of MCI Metro, and senior vice president Nate A. Davis will become its chief operating officer. The subsidiary owns properties and rights-of-way in several hundred cities. "MCI Metro will ensure the availability of superior local access facilities at reasonable cost," said Roberts. "During the last decade, MCI was instrumental in bringing the benefits of competition to the long distance marketplace. During the next decade, we must secure those same benefits for customers of local telephone service. In addition, these digital backbone facilities will strongly position MCI in the emerging markets of interactive multimedia and wireless PCS." networkMCI Roberts said that networkMCI is being introduced to the public via a national advertising campaign utilizing television, magazines and newspapers to explain the company's vision to consumers, businesses, investors and potential partners. "When we announced our global alliance with BT (British Telecom) last year, we said that the added financial flexibility would allow us to invest in America's infrastructure, economy and future," said Roberts. "With networkMCI, we have cast a strategy to deliver on that promise, and then some." MCI expects that other partner companies with complementary skills and resources will participate in projects within the overall networkMCI vision, through equity stakes, joint ventures or other business arrangements. "As telecommunications, computing and television converge, no one company will have the infrastructure and the skills to do everything alone," said Roberts. "Partnering is smart strategy for the 1990's, and MCI has proven repeatedly that it doesn't have to own and control another party in order to work together effectively." MCI cited a number of customer usage trends underlying the decision to make the additional multibillion dollar investments. The company has been growing more than twice as fast as the long distance industry as a whole, and is winning the lion's share of growth in the booming market for international calls to and from the U.S. Data traffic is another major growth factor, with business customers' usage of data communications expected to surpass voice by 1998. In wireless communications, the superior performance of the emerging PCS technology is expected to help drive the total number of wireless devices in the U.S. to 70 million by the turn of the century, which will increase network usage. "Beyond the long-term vision," Roberts continued, "there are a number of immediate benefits that networkMCI brings to the everyday, workaday MCI network. We have created this long-term strategy to meet the demands of a nation of teleconsumers who use telecommunications more frequently and in more ways than ever before. American businesses of all sizes want competitive advantage from their communications. And potential partners in this arena want to create new opportunities. With networkMCI, there will be a clear path to follow." MCI, headquartered in Washington, D.C., offers a full range of domestic and global telecommunications services through one of the world's largest state-of-the-art networks. With annual revenue of more than $12 billion, the company is the second largest long distance provider in the U.S. and has more than 65 offices in 55 countries and places. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 01:23:50 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: "Caller Pays" Cellular Airtime Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Recently, someone announced that Colorado would be having calls to 579 exchange charged for as "caller pays" cellular airtime in addition to toll charges. It's been asked whether or not people could call this number from out of state. The AT&T Operator quoted me the standard 26c for a call to 303-579. But let's not forget that long distance calls are going to net between 2 and 5c in local termination charges from the carrier anyway, so the caller is paying something for the connection. The person who mentioned this told that U.S. West offered a number to call 1-800-USW-BILL for questions. Surprizingly enough, this number does work from Maryland. That 800 number apparently handles surcharged lines including 900, 976 and cellular airtime. The clerk, a person with a very strong foreign accent, indicated that the 579 exchange is a "caller pays" exchange. If someone (in Colorado) calls a 579 number, the caller pays for the airtime. If the user of a 579 number calls someone, they pay for their airtime. I asked whether this was something akin to a 900 or 976 number, trying to explain to the woman what I meant (a number where the called party gets a fee for each incoming call) and apparently she got the gist of what I was trying to point out, in that the caller is surcharged for a call made to the number. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 10:14:41 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Dialing Changes for Delaware I have heard from Carl Drake, over whose name a letter had been sent to Delaware customers regarding new area code 610 in Pennsylvania. He says the Delaware PUC (public utility commission) ordered 1 + 10D for long distance within Delaware; permissive is to start April 1 and mandatory is to come Jan. 7, 1995 (latter is the same as the full cutover for 610 in Pennsylvania). (Delaware is area code 302.) ------------------------------ From: feedle@kaiwan.com (Feedlebom) Subject: Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 07:00:14 GMT Robert L. McMillin (rlm@helen.surfcty.com) wrote: > (something about Zzzzzzygot Dial-a-joke which was trashed by my reader) Interestingly enough, it's still in the new 1994 Pacific Bell white pages. It's gotta have some kind of record for being the last number in the phone book ... close to 15 years in a row, always the last number in the white pages. "839-3000, Not particularly funny, but that's the number you've reached ..." ------------------------------ From: walker@unomaha.edu (Art Walker) Subject: Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 08:09:25 GMT David A. Kaye (dk@crl.com) wrote: > I could have sworn that Toshiba or possibly Mitsui has a remote > control device which has thumbwheel switches for day of week, date, > time, and channel number, so that a person can read across the front > of the unit, "Monday - 7th - 7:00 to 7:30 - pm - channel 4" and be > done with the confusion. Has anyone seen one of these? As an aside, what most people *really* want is a VCR that all you have to do is walk up to it, say "tape letterman tonight", and that's it. Art Walker (walker@guinness.unomaha.edu) (walker@beeble.omahug.org) ------------------------------ From: dave@geis.geis.com Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 14:12:00 GMT Subject: Re: How Are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated On 5 Jan 1994 dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) wrote: > I could have sworn that Toshiba or possibly Mitsui has a remote > control device which has thumbwheel switches for day of week, date, > time, and channel number, so that a person can read across the front > of the unit, "Monday - 7th - 7:00 to 7:30 - pm - channel 4" and be > done with the confusion. Has anyone seen one of these? I've seen one of these in my local (Frederick, MD) Montgomery Wards store: It is a slim device that has several LCD windows and a thumbwheel by each. One for Month, Day, Channel, and Time.... and a TRANSMIT button. It was pretty cheap, so I opened the box and looked at the docs that came with it: It was clear to me that this device only worked with the specific brand of VCR as it had no options for setup for different brands. Can't remember what brand it was tho! Dave Reus ------------------------------ From: davidj@rahul.net (David Josephson) Subject: Re: California ANI Question Organization: a2i network Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 09:09:15 GMT In stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > In , reb@ingres.com (Phydeaux) writes: >> Hi! In a discussion the other day, one of my colleagues told me that >> "ANI is illegal in California." I'm sure he meant CNID, but he >> understands the difference and was pretty emphatic about this. I'm >> sure someone here knows for sure. > ANI is not illegal in California. As the Digest Editor noted, with > very few exceptions, if you can call an 800 number, the recipient can The CPUC tariff is the law. CPUC denied Pacific Bell's tariff filing that would have offered CNID. Only that which is tariffed is permissible. > interstate commerce, and any laws that the state may have do not apply > to them (BTW, there are no laws regarding ANI in CA that I am aware of > anyway). > I even have a couple of customers in CA that receive ANI delivery from > me, either in real-time via inband DTMF, through voice mail and pager > mail, and of course on their bills (just like any 800 service today). > Perhaps the state may have something to say about that in the future > if they choose to do so, but they have not chosen to do so up to now. Yah, what could they do, make it illegal for a CA subscriber to obtain an interstate service from you? Not too likely. > And there is blocking available -- if callers choose not to have me or > my customers pay for their telephone calls (which is what they are > doing when they call an 800 number), we will never get their number. > I guess this is a form of per-call blocking :-) (I suppose you could > even have per-line 800 ANI blocking if you got a toll restrictor and > programmed it to block 800 numbers :-)) I wonder if the per-number (56# or whatever it was?) CNID blocking from here would block a INWATS ANI/CNID? David Josephson [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: *Nothing* blocks ANI delivery. Nothing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dosborn@Internet.cnmw.com Date: Thu, 06 Jan 94 08:37:25 EST Subject: Re: Sprint (Dvorak) Modem Offer - Not Again! Pat: I too signed up of the Sprint Modem offer. However, I apparently signed up too late. I talked to a Sprint Rep on Oct 6 about the Dvorak offer and then switched to Sprint under the assumption that I would be receiving a modem. I then waited for it to appear in the mail. In November, I received a bill from Sprint on an existing (but forgotten) Sprint account that I had. It listed only the $7 charge for my calling plan but no actual calls. I called Sprint to enquire about this and I was told to try the 1-700 number to verify my long distance carrier. It was still AT&T! This would explain why I had not received my modem; I hadn't made any calls on Sprint yet. Well, the Sprint rep told me the easiest way to rectify this was to call my local company (Cincinnati Bell) and tell them to switch me. This I did. Still, I waited and waited and waited for my modem. When I called at the end of December to enquire about the status of my modem, I was informed that since I had signed up after Oct 1st, I was too late -- there were no more modems to be had. Wanting to minimize the amount of hassle (my life is currently preoccupied with the birth of my second daughter), I just asked Sprint to credit my account with the amount of the LD switching fees so I could switch back. I'm relating this tale of woe so that (with clear conscience) David could send me his "extra" modem. (I'm sending him a copy of this directly). I will gladly pay for shipping. And should he ever receive a nasty-gram demanding the return of the modem, I will return it to/for him. After all, he would be doing me a favor, and I want to minimize his hassle. Dan Osborn * dosborn@internet.cnmw.com * (513) 247-4623 * FAX: (513) 489-0819 Cincinnati Microwave Inc. * One Microwave Plaza * Cincinnati, OH 45249-9502 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well now, that's very gracious and generous of you to agree to take that extra modem off his hands. :) Meanwhile, back in California, I am wondering what is going on with the lawsuit against Sprint the guys were starting based on alleged misrepresentations of the product being shipped, etc. Can anyone bring us up to date on that side of it? PAT] ------------------------------ From: gary.w.sanders@att.com Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 14:34:52 GMT Subject: Re: 500 Channel Cable TV Organization: AT&T In article rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (Bill Pfeiffer) writes: > No, the same programmers will determine what you watch, just like a > restaraunt manager decides what choices are on their menu. Current tv > technology offers you a choice among the available programming. > On-demand exists now. Nobody holds that channel selector but you. > How does the medium of delivery change the fact that someone else > still creates the programming? Not totally true. With 500 channels you now open the way for more programmers. What cable system is going to give a small time programmer access to one of its 50 channels? Not many unless the programmer has a proven track record. However with 500 channels they can try many different programmers and let the consumers decide what is popular. How many cable companies are carrying the "outdoor channel" 24h/day? How many people have even heard of this? If you have a satellite dish check out F2/3. Programming is so/so at best. A few good shows and lots of commercials for gold prosper club. This service has little chance on a 50 channel system but I am sure would get on a 500 channel system. >> If the cable companies think that they can compete with a fixed 500 >> channel system against on-demand video dialtone, they are doomed to go >> the way of the dominant telecommunications company in the US of 100 >> years ago, Western Union, namely technological and competitive >> obsolescence. Price of the dialtone will be the factor here. Many cable pay-per-view companys have gone under or been forced to merge with others to survive. Why? Cost. Why would someone pay $8 to watch a movie when just about every street corner has a video store with $1-$2 movies. Early PPV also generated negative views of PPV with over priced and poor quality of service. Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) gary.w.sanders@att.com AT&T Bell Labs 614.860.5965 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 09:01:04 CST From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous Organization: AT&T In article johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) writes: > Does anyone actually have Anonymous Call Rejection in service now? Is > it useful? It impresses me as one of those features which you get for > about a week, then get rid of because it's utterly worthless. Perhaps > I'm suffering from a failure of imagination, but I find it difficult > to understand the mindset of people who are too scared to answer the > phone if they don't know in advance who the call is from. > People who are concerned about annoyance callers should consider Call > Block, which lets you enter a list of numbers from which you won't > receive calls. You can either enter explicit numbers, or tell it to > add whoever just called, even if the call had CLID blocked. It's > available the same places as other CLASS services, including some > where CLID isn't, because it doesn't present the privacy problems. I don't HAVE ACR (or other CLASS services) on my residential lines. However, the first public announcement of the service was over two years ago by Bell Atlantic, at a National Communications Forum in Chicago. Ray Albers discussed the service, indicated the pricing and played a recording of the announcement he received attempting to call such a line after dialing a *67 prefix. The first service was in C&P Maryland, but it has probably been offered elsewhere in Bell Atlantic by now. In discussions about this service, I don't recall "... too scared to answer ..." being a reason for wanting the service. It was primarily a tool to avoid unwanted calls (not repeated annoyance calls, just unwanted ones). [I recognize some folks treat any unwanted call as an "annoyance", but the intent is to avoid calls even from phones that have never called before, so that Call Block is not a reasonable option.] In fact, Bell Atlantic was offering ACR for a small monthly fee even to those who did not have any other CLASS features! The idea was that the caller doesn't KNOW if you have Caller ID, but you might be willing to use ACR as a primitive means of screening out a "class" of callers -- those that suppress Caller ID delivery. They won't ring your phone OR generate call waiting tones while you are on another call. If you have call forwarding on a line with ACR active, the call will not forward. Also note that telco can elect to turn on supervision when connecting to the ACR announcement, so the call will be considered "completed" for billing purposes. Also note that Bell Atlantic was offering ACR on a user-controlled basis; customers can turn it on and off as desired. See Bellcore TR-NWT-000567 for other details. Al Varney ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 9:59:16 EST From: PURWIN@XANADU.XYPLEX.COM (Janusz Purwin tel 508-952-4711) Subject: Re: Help Needed With v.42bis Well don't worry about if it does work or not. Firstly V.42 requires that both modems have to have that feature enabled. Secondly it is most useless feature ever put into modem. Its good for marketing people to brag about and give false advertising about how faster modem will transmit data without pointing out when it happens. The V.42 uses Limpel-Ziff compression scheme that is based on generating dictionary as you transfer a file. What that mean is, it will not compress as you type. The compression ratio is related to the type of file you will send. The text will compress to about 25 % of its original size any other files like binaries have much lower compression rate. But here is the catch normally ALL files are compressed by PKzip, ARC or ARJ LHA GIF programs. Those are using precisely same algorithm as V.42. So those files are not compressible. If you try to compress them again the file size will be larger than original. The only time you might get any benefit from compression is when you get screens of text send to you. Again you will trade size of the file versus time (it takes time to compress on a fly) versus link speed. ... So the benefits of V.42 for the user are minimal! Happy compressing Jan! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 9:24:08 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident I do see that Brendan's mother is staying in Philadelphia, and it's possible Brendan had to be transferred to a hospital in Philadelphia due to the severity of his injuries. Of the places I named, two are near Philadelphia: Newtown, Bucks County, 215-968 prefix Newtown Square, Delaware County, 215-353 & 356 prefixes (and at least one other; goes to 610 later) Newton Hamilton, zipcode 17075 in Mifflin County, is in central Pa. West Newton (zipcode 15089 and phone prefix 412-872) is in western Pa. in Westmoreland County. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 22:52 CST From: Jim Thomas (tk0jut1@mvs.cso.niu.edu) Subject: Re: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident Carl Moore writes: > Where in Pennsylvania is Newton? I know of West Newton, Newtown > Hamilton, Newtown Square, and Newtown. Sorry for the typo. It was NEWTOWN. Here's an excerpt from the conversation with Newtown police: According to Newtown police, the accident was called in at 1:45 p.m, and police arrived at 1:49 p.m. According to a police spokesperson, Brendan was driving on Eagle Road, on which there is a stop sign at the Rightstown road intersection, where the accident occured. According to the police spokesperson, there was one passenger with him who was treated and released. Brendan was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The patient information number: (215-662-3308) Jim Thomas [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is just a reminder to readers that Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer, the Moderators of CuD are collecting notes for Brendan from netters everywhere and will forward them at an approp- riate time. Please send along your notes to them. Brendan remains in very critical condition, and as of yet the doctors have not made any statements about an estimated time for his recovery or the extent of the physical damage he has suffered. It is believed that full-recovery is unlikely, and that partial rehabilitation may well be several weeks or months. Very grim, very sad news. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #14 *****************************