TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 Jan 94 08:22:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 40 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Earthquake Telecom Outages (John Coe) Earthquake and 818 AC (Chris Labatt-Simon) Question on Trunks and T1's (PacBell) (Ken Stone) Connecting to Remote Serial Port Over WAN (Steve Pinkston) How Long Will Cell Sites in LA Run Without Standard Power? (David Kiviat) Real Time Audio Compression (Alfredo E. Cotroneo) Invitation to Participate in ICSI94 (Walace Sartori Bonfim) Wireless PBX Information Wanted (Kevin Tanner) Pac*Bell Permanent Virtual Connection Service Tariff (Robert L. McMillin) Pay Phone Inband and Out of Band Signalling (Alex Jeannopoulos) Internet ISDN Connection (ossandon@delphi.com) Itemized Phone Bills in the USA (Pawel Dobrowolski) Using Radio For T1 Links (Jim Mercer) Value of Service Pricing (Fred Goldstein) How Cold is Co-o-o-old? (Christian Weisgerber) 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: coej@jmbpo4.bah.com (John Coe) Subject: Earthquake Telecom Outages Date: 18 Jan 1994 20:01:43 GMT Organization: Booz, Allen, and Hamilton Has anyone come across any preliminary official reports on telecom outages due to the LA earthquake? In particular, I'm interested in reports of facility damage and traffic overloads. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Someone at GTE (I won't say who, but it is *not* Steven Lichter, and I stress that point to certain GTE executives!) is sending me reports from GTE telling about their prob- lems. Just a few of their problems include: The Granada Hills Directory Assistance Office Building partially collapsed. Personnel were evacuated and DA functions moved elsewhere. At Santa Monica Toll a ruptured fuel tank has left the office with fuel all over the floor and everywhere else. On Tuesday they were waiting for Fire Department clearance to get in and begin a cleanup and restoration of normal functions there. Paccoima CO has major damage to the building. Emergency personnel evactuated the building and employees are now being let back in as needed to do what they can to restore service. San Fernando has a large crack in the power room wall and the building foundation is badly compromised. The Santa Monica 1AESSS has a leaking fuel supply, and the Sunset office in Santa Monica has broken water pipes. Bel Air, Camarillo and Ellwood CO in Santa Barbara have no commercial power and are running on generators. In Granada Hills, there was some damage to the switch resulting in blown power supplies and about half the switch had no dial tone on Monday and Tuesday. Pacoima #2 EAX is totally out of service. An emergency trailer has been set up to serve 11,364 customers. In that same office, the gen- erator was knocked off its foundation and has been damaged severely. They intend to cut lines to GTD-5 if #2 cannot be restored. The above are just a few of the problems, and apparently among the worst, although I may have overlooked some in the lengthy fax which was sent to my attention Tuesday. Even the offices not severely damaged are operating under considerable strain since nearly every office had at least some minor damage and disruption of service or record-keeping systems, etc. GTE is attempting to serve the public under extreme emergency conditions while trying to resolve their own internal emergencies as well. Coin Telephone Trailers have been set up in several of the hardest hit areas. AT&T officials have met with GTE executives and offered their full assistance with restoration efforts. PAT] ------------------------------ From: pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) Subject: Earthquake and 818 AC Date: 18 Jan 1994 17:07:59 GMT Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, USA Yesterday I learned of the earthquake because of my calling a tech support department in the 818 area code. I received a message back saying "We're sorry, your call cannot be completed at this time due to the earthquake in the area". This morning around 9:30 (EST) I called again, and got the same message. I then tried the 800 number and got through. When I just tried the 818 number again, at about 11:30 EST, I got the message that all circuits are busy. Guess they're starting to let calls through again. Of course I won't try to dial again for another couple of days, so I don't tie up the phone lines unecessarily. On another note, I just wanted to mention how great technology is. I've been following the earthquake info on the Internet Relay Chat and on CompuServe. The compassion that I'm finding in both of these places is great to see. Many people are e-mailing from both in CA and out of CA getting in touch with relatives and friends for people over the phone. Chris Labatt-Simon Internet: pribik@rpi.edu Design & Disaster Recovery Consulting CIS: 73542,2601 Albany, New York PHONE: (518) 495-5474 FAX: (518) 786-6539 Subscribe to the Lotus Notes Mailing List - e-mail me for info.... [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My GTE contact had this to say regards choking of inbound traffic: AT&T has cancelled 87 percent of the traffic into their Sherman Oaks, Gardena, Oxnard and and Los Angeles (92T) tandems. They have cancelled 50 percent percent of the traffic into the San Bernardino tandem and *all* of the traffic into the Los Angeles 03T tandem. MCI and Sprint have both cancelled 75 percent of their traffic into Santa Monica and Thousand Oaks. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Question on Trunks and T1's (PacBell) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 11:20:46 -0800 From: Ken Stone I'm interested in going thru a process to consolidate copper trunks to digital ones and then consolidating T1's into a PacBell onsite fiber terminal (ie let them demarc T1's for me at the T1 side of their mux in our phone room). What I need to know is if there is if there is any obligation for PacBell to provide us with T1's via a fiber terminal/mux and if so, where is the breakover point in T1's when this becomes the better solution ? Also, with respect to the copper trunks, is there any type of service that I can't bring in via T1 ? Right now we have seperate groups of trunks for FX, outgoing, DID, WATS, etc ... Thanks, Ken Stone (HP, San Diego) ------------------------------ From: pinkston@kentrox.com (Steve Pinkston) Subject: Connecting to Remote Serial Port Over WAN Organization: Kentrox Industries, Inc. Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 23:36:03 GMT I hope someone can help me with this. This is a modified version of an earlier post, with some additional definition. Thanks to the people who have responded so far. I will summarize and post the responses at a later date. I'm looking for a way to be able able to communicate with a specific serial port on a remote device, so that I can connect to a non-ip-addressable device that is connected to that port. To be more specific: I have two LANs that are interconnected via bridges and T1/FT1 WAN links. I have a PC on the remote LAN that has an unused serial port ("COM2"). I want to be able to use that port as a terminal server port so that I can connect to the (9600 bps async) console port of a non-ip -OR- SLIP device located near that PC, in this example a smart CSU. In effect we would be making the remote PC a small terminal server. It has been suggested to me that there may be software solutions to this. Windows or DOS solutions would be satisfactory. Any help or pointers to resources would be greatly appreciated. Steve Pinkston Technical Support Specialist ADC Kentrox Portland, OR, USA pinkston@kentrox.com ------------------------------ From: davidk@netcom.com (David Kiviat) Subject: How Long Will Cell Sites in LA Run Without Standard Power? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 04:46:47 GMT My impression of several cell sites after poking around the outsides is that they are battery powered with an external connector for portable generators (not kept on site). I am curious as to how long they will continue to function if the operator is unable to connect a generator. What is the plan on charging these things-can the system operator just charge them in an hour or so and then tow the generator to another site or does it take longer? What will happen to the system if lots of these lose power? How many generators do operators generally keep on standby? There are going to be lots of frustrated reporters in LA if the cell system collapses. ------------------------------ From: alfredo@quickt2.it12.bull.it (Alfredo E. Cotroneo) Subject: Real Time Audio Compression Date: 19 Jan 1994 04:28:50 -0600 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway I am just wondering if there is any device/algorithm which may compress audio in real time, and let say use e.g. 4 kHz bandwidth for an original audio bandwidth of 8 kHz, or likewise for higher bandwidth? To my knowledge there are such devices which compress audio signals and then transmitt it in digital form over a digital (radio, satellite or cable) link, but I never heard if that could be done over an audio channel itself. Any pointer on both digital and compressed-audio links will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Alfredo E. Cotroneo, Bull HN Italia, I-20010 Pregnana MI, Italy work: A.Cotroneo@it12.bull.it personal: 100020.1013@compuserve.com phone: +39-2-6779 8314 / 8427 | fax: +39-2-6779 8289 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 14:12:21 -0300 From: walace@ntiaa.embrapa.ansp.br (Walace Sartori Bonfim) Subject: Invitation to Participate in ICSI94 Dear reader, Due to the wide spectrum of people that might be interested in the subjects to be discussed during the III International Conference on Systems Integration, we decided to post this call for papers in your mailing list. We encourage you to participate in this event as a paper author. The paper arrival deadline is March 3, 1994. Please forward this message to whoever you think it might be of interest and we appreciate your effort to post it. Thanks, Prof. Fuad Gattaz Sobrinho Conference Chairman ----------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Papers The Third International Conference for Systems Integration Sao Paulo City - Brazil July 30th - August 6th, 1994 ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Integration of Society for the Social, Economical, Scientific and Technological Development. This conference focuses on the integration of technologies, processes and systems, and the development of mechanisms and tools enabling solutions to complex multi-disciplinary problems dealing with agriculture, housing, telecommunications, financing and business, public services, education and software. The conference will provide an international and interdisciplinary forum in which researchers, educators, managers, practitioners and politicians, involved within the production process, can share novel research and development, education, production, trading, management and political experiences. Papers should deal with recent effort in theory, design, implementation, methodology, technics, tools and experiences of integration. Topics to be addressed include, but are not limited to: Technical and Scientific Aspects: - Integration, Modeling, Characterization and Automation of Process and Systems - Reengineering and Simplification of Processes - Computational Environments and Software Factories for Engineerind, Design, Manufacturing and System Development - Rol of Human Engineering in Integration - Experiences within National or Continental Software Projects - The Implication of Systems Integration for Manpower Skills - Quality Control and Certification in Organizational and Process Integration. Social, Political and Economical Aspects: - Experiences in Modeling, Development, Evolution and Integration of Enterprises - Experiences in Management and Identification of Value-Add Chains within Agriculture, Housing, Telecommunications, Financing and Business, Public Services, Education and Software - Public Policies and City Management - Management of Multi-dimensional Integration. Infrastructure Aspects: - Qualified Information Resources - Education and Training - Science and Technology - Enterprise Development. Information and Instructions for Authors: All papers must be in English or Portuguese, typed in double spaced format, and may not exceed 6,000 words. Each submission should provide a cover page containing author(s), affiliation(s), complete address(es), identification of principal author, and telephone number. Also include SIX copies of complete text with a title and abstract. Notice of acceptance will be mailed to the principal author(s) by March 15, 1994. If accepted, the author(s) will prepare the final manuscript, in English, in time for inclusion in the conference proceedings and will present the paper at the conference; otherwise, the author(s) will incur a page charge. Authors of accepted papers must sign a copyright release form. The proceedings will be published by the IEEE Computer Society Press. Send SIX copies of your paper(s) to: Prof. Peter A. Ng IIISis - USA Office - New Jersey Institute of Technology University Heights Newark, NJ 07102 USA For Further Information, Contact: Prof. Peter A. Ng Prof. Fuad Gattaz Sobrinho Fone:(1) (201) 596-3387 OR Phone:(55)(192) 41-4504 Fax: (1)(201) 596-5777 Fax: (55)(192) 41-3098 Email: ng_p@vienna.njit.edu Email: iiisis@ccvax.unicamp.br >>>>>>>>>> Paper Arrival Deadline: March 3rd, 1994 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< CONFERENCE COMMITTEE Conference Chair Fuad Gattaz Sobrinho IIISis Program Chair Peter A. Ng NJIT Finance & Business Co-Chair Alcir A. Calliari Banco do Brasil Agriculture Co-Chair Ney B. Araujo ABAG European Co-Chair Herbert Weber University of Dortmund Pac!fic Co-Chair Fumihiko Kamijo IPA Middle East Co-Chair Asuman Dogac METU South America Co-Chair Julio C. S. P. Leite PUC/RJ North America Co-Chair Bruce Berra Syracuse University Tutorials Co-Chairs Oscar Ivan Palma Pacheco EMBRAPA Murat M. Tanik SMU Organization Co-Chairs Rita de Cassia A. Marchiore IIISis Carole Poth NJIT Steering Committee Chair Peter A. Ng NJIT Honorary Advisors Raymond T. Yeh C. V. Ramamoorthy Laurence C. Seifert Honorary Conference Chair Irma Rossetto Passoni Sc&Tech, Info. and Comm. Comission of Brazilian Congress. Sponsored by IIISis - International Institute for Systems Integration, BB - Banco do Brasil, TELEBRAS, FINEP, CNPq, FBB, with colaboration of NJIT, SUCESU, EMBRAPA, ABAG, ACM e IEEE Computer Society. Instituto Internacional de Integracao de Sistemas - IIISis - Brazil. ------------------------------ From: kevin_tanner@wiltel.com Subject: Wireless PBX Information Wanted Date: Wed, 19 Jan 94 00:18:35 PST Organization: WilTel Greetings all, Can anyone out there provide information on companies (names, addresses, telephone numbers, contacts, etc.) working on wireless PBX products? I'm certain that companies like AT&T, Northern Telecom, Ericsson, Rolm/Siemens, Fujitsu, and others have (or are working on) wireless PBX products, but I don't know who to contact. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Kevin D. Tanner WilTel, Inc. Telephone: (918) 588-5843 FAX: (918) 588-5616 E-mail: kevin_tanner@wiltel.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Jan 94 16:33 PST From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Pac*Bell Permanent Virtual Connection Service Tariff I got hold of a copy of Pac*Bell's Permanent Virtual Connection tariff. These cover services that are essentially switched, high-speed data links to the nearest CO. Costs given are per end. For each access link at each location: speed monthly install ADN $50.05 $620 T1 $162.59 $1324 Note: PRICING IS FOR THE LOCAL LOOP ONLY SINCE FRAME RELAY PRICING IS MILEAGE INDEPENDENT. [RLM: Emphasis mine. What this means is that these data services are not, as full-up leased T1 is, dependent on how far you are away from the CO.] Switched data services: speed monthly install 56 Kbps $75 $375 128 Kbps $150 $375 384 Kbps $400 $375 1.536 Mbps $500 $375 For each end of the Permanent Virtual Connection: # of Data Link Monthly Rate per Connection Identifiers DLCI 1st $0 2nd through 6th $15 7th through 11th $10 12th through 250th $5 Each PVC has one Data Link Connection Identifier (DLCI) on each end. For more than one access link from a single location, groupd DLCIs by link, then calculate the charges. There is no recurring charge. For each customer: If traffic detail is wanted, charge $15 per month and $50 for non-recurring. ------------- To me, the most interesting thing is the notion of a 'virtual T1' that can go anywhere there's another virtual T1. I'm not sure how this is implemented; maybe someone from Pac*Bell would care to comment. In any event, the prices are really cheap compared to dedicated service. Robert L. McMillin | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Netcom: rlm@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: jeannopo@panix.com (Alex Jeannopoulos) Subject: Pay Phone Inband and Out of Band Signalling Date: 18 Jan 1994 23:34:08 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC I know the inband signalling tones which are used by pay phones. What I would like to know is about how the out of band signalling to the pay phone is done. I know that the pay phone will ground one of the lines when a real coin is placed in the phone. What I am curious about is which line (ring or tip) is grounded? Is the line grounded for the life of the call? Or is it grounded right after the phone signals coin insertion for a short period of time? How is coin acceptance or rejection handled on the two lines? Thanks for any info in advance. If anyone knows of the inner workings of Fortress Phones drop me a line. Thanks, Alex ------------------------------ From: OSSANDON@delphi.com Subject: Internet ISDN Connection Date: Tue, 18 Jan 94 20:18:08 EST Organization: Delphi Internet Does anyone know how an ISDN user (56K/64K) can access Internet? Since 9.6 rates are still considered fast for single user is it too soon to consider ISDN connections? ------------------------------ From: dobrowol@husc8.harvard.edu (Pawel Dobrowolski) Subject: Itemized Phone Bills in the USA Date: 18 Jan 1994 16:06:50 GMT Organization: Harvard University Science Center I am having trouble finding information on when and why itemized long-distance phone bills were introduced in the US. I'd also like to know the basics about the equipment that neeeds to be in place to produce itemized phone bills. If anyone knows of good sources I will summarize and post here when I've done my research. Thanks, Pawel [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So far as I know, we have always had itemized long distance bills in the USA. I have seen *very old* copies of bills from Illinois Bell and its predecessor "Chicago Telephone Company" which had itemized calls. The oldest one I recall seeing (and have a microfilm copy of around here somewhere in my boxes of old historical artifacts) is dated 1910. This telephone bill from 1910 is on printed letterhead from Chicago Telephone Company; is written out in longhand in a very nice, very old-fashioned, very eloquent style and lists a call to Aurora, Illinois, some fifty miles away. You must remember that long before mechanical equipment was available to keep these records, the manual service operators wrote out all of their tickets by hand as they went along, call by call. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jim@reptiles.org (Jim Mercer) Subject: Using Radio For T1 Links Organization: Reptilian Research, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 12:33:16 -0500 I am currently implementing a WAN using radio links to do a T1 type data link (1.5-2.0 Mbits). It will probably use a NCR WaveLAN. Are there similar facilities for a telephony type T1? I'd like to link a couple NT SL-1 switches, and T1's from our carriers range from $970 to $1270 per month. The buildings are unobstructed line of sight. (Laser has been ruled out due to possible weather related interference). Microwave has been ruled out as the line of sight crosses City Hall's front lawn, and there would be an environmental impact study which would delay implementation. The Spread Spectrum stuff used by WaveLAN and others does not require a license (which microwave does). Follow-ups directed to email; I'll summarize. Jim Mercer Reptilian Research merce@iguana.reptiles.org +1 416 506-0654 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 00:03:18 -0500 From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Subject: Value of Service Pricing All of this discussion about flat-rate local service, etc., brings up the issue of just how telephone company rates are set. The traditional method is "Value of Service" pricing. While it is largely viewed as obsolete, especially at the federal level, it still plays a major role in local phone rates. The most notable example of this is in the way local rates are set in a flat-rate state. The monthly rate is based on a rate band, which is based on the number of lines within your local calling scope. So Nowhere Falls, with 300 phones in its local calling area, pays $8/month while Major City pays $15/month. After all, it gets more value for its local bill; Nowhere Falls customers pay lots more tolls. But the actual cost of monthly service is higher in the boonies, because the dominant expense is outside plant, and rural areas need the longest average wires. I saw a good illustration of this back in the '70s when I was working on Telephone Rate Reports. In Ohio, the highest rate band for (I think) United Tel (Lima) was something like 50,000 phones. For Ohio Bell, though, that was a fairly low band. So Lima customers paid something like $16/month while a Bell customer in a similar town would pay maybe $10. Columbus customers would be in OBT's higher bands. United thus had to subsidize its huge rural territory (its own cheaper bands) with small-city customers, while OBT had big cities to do it. Overall, Ohio Bell was much cheaper, but it wasn't because United was inefficient. Charges for touch-tone are, of course, another "value" element not related to cost. They add revenue to the system in lieu of collecting full cost from everyone. Rural customers need a subsidy (in order to have universal service), but things get out of hand when the system loses sight of cost. Telephone service isn't like electric service. A drop line to the street doesn't cost the electric company much; their expense is mostly in the generation, which is consumed by usage, not connections. Water used to be flat-rated in some of my area, but vastly higher costs (mostly in sewage treatment) have led to major usage-based charges. Heavy users generate more sewage, so it's fair. (Our sewer bills are on a usage basis, but use water meters as a surrogate. It's a higher per-CCF charge than water per se.) So what costs do heavy phone users incur? With older CO switches and analog transmission, heavy local usage did incur some significant expense, though never as much, on average, as the non-usage-sensitive portion. With today's costs, it's less so. A modern CO costs around $600/line with typical usage. If average traffic were several times higher (all modem freaks, etc.) then it would at most double, but more likely increase by less than that. Inter-CO transmission is also cheaper, now that fiber optics are predominant; they have nearly infiite bandwidth, though the multiplexors aren't cheap. I have no trouble with telcos charging for usage at their true incremental cost, marked up a for a reasonable (not double) profit. But that's not what local measured service plans usually are. Most make usage cover several times its fair burden, thus creating a true subsidy to light users from heavy users. Value of Service pricing never claimed to be cost-justified; it was a policy decision. Local measured usage in most cases is really a Value of Service plan disguised as cost-justified. The real numbers just don't add up. Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 21:07:00 +0100 From: naddy@mips.ruessel.sub.org (Christian Weisgerber) Subject: How Cold is Co-o-o-old? In comp.dcom.telecom the TELECOM Digest Editor notes: > Some responses are in order on this cold day in Hell ... for the past > 39 hours (Friday about 6 PM through Sunday at 9 AM) the temperature in > Chicago and suburbs has been sub-zero with a drop to fourteen below zero > Friday overnight into Saturday morning; a 'high' temperature of two below > zero Saturday and eleven below last night. We're told things may 'warm Hi Pat, With regard to the international readers of TELECOM Digest I suggest that you mention which kind of degrees you mean :-) (I guess the above values are Fahrenheit.) Christian 'naddy' Weisgerber, Germany naddy@mips.ruessel.sub.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You bet they are Fahrenheit degrees! But the conditions the past three days have been even worse. On Monday the temperature hovered about about zero degrees all day and dropped to 22 degrees *below zero* overnight into Tuesday morning. Our 'high' temperature all day yesterday was 11 degrees *below zero* Overnight last night into this morning, the temperature was again about 20 below zero and as I write this, we are 'warmed up' once again to 11 below zero. It is expected we may reach zero today and after another sub-zero night rise into the teens on Thursday. Those are Fahrenheit degrees. We are all miserable. It is impossible to keep our houses warm. What I am really quite worried about is that the gas bill for January will probably be several hundred dollars and they will cut my gas off for non-payment. This is a real concern to me. This weather is the worst we have had for several years. We have many people also who try to heat their houses with little electric heaters which themselves overheat and start fires. Two nights ago a big fire started in an apartment building here due to the residents using electric heaters and 'jumping out' the fuses in the electric line in order to keep all the heaters going at one time. The wires caught fire, the building burned down. All the people went to the homeless shelters to live. :( Very bad conditions here. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #40 *****************************