TELECOM Digest     Wed, 4 May 94 21:54:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 201

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Ericsson Presents Its ATM Broadband Products (Terence Cross)
    Cellular Phone Abuse (Jeff Haran)
    Mail Order Source for Cell Phone Accessories (Bruce J. Miller)
    Slow Video Over Cellular (Gregory P. Monti)
    Can You Record Phone Conversations on Hard Disk Media? (Tai Duong)
    MCI PC Connect (Hugh Pritchard)
    Tandy 1400HD Acoustic Coupler (Joseph Romero)
    900Mhz AT&T 9530 Cordless: ***CANCELLED*** (Michael Rosenthal)
    NYTel Goes 1+ Dialing (Dave Niebuhr)
    McCaw Cellular One (NYC) Introduces Anti-Fraud Program (Alan M. Gallatin)
    IXC Timing Problem (Steven L. Spak)
    Re: Demise of Newsgroups Feared (David Boettger)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: eeitecs@eua.ericsson.se (Terence Cross)
Subject: Ericsson Presents Its ATM Broadband Products
Date: 4 May 1994 16:29:14 GMT
Organization: Ellemtel Telecom Systems Labs, Stockholm, Sweden
Reply-To: eeitecs@eua.ericsson.se


ERICSSON PRESENTS ITS ATM BROADBAND PRODUCTS TO SUPPORT U.S. BROADBAND
NETWORKS

Ericsson Network Systems President Bo Hedfors today at Supercomm '94
presented Ericsson's asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) broadband
switching system. The system is designed to enable customers to
optimize the communications in the broadband and multi-media network.
The Ericsson ATM products will fully support the needs of U.S. network
operators for transport, switching and management.

Ericsson's broadband system is flexible and can be adapted to meet the
operators' or service providers' needs. Its patented ATM Pipe Switch
architecture allows the system to be configured for a number of
different applications, including backbone switching, access switching
and multiplexing.

The advantages of the Ericsson system include layered architecture
that will allow operators to rapidly deploy and customize services
throughout the network; separation of call control from the control of
the physical resources, providing flexibility and reducing operating
costs; a distributed architecture using a single platform and an
inherent ability of the system to accommodate additional service
capabilities such as mobility and intelligent networking. The Ericsson
broadband system also has an advanced integrated network management
system.

The system's throughput can grow gracefully from approximately 3Gbps
to more than 80Gbps.

Bo Hedfors, president of Ericsson Network Systems Inc., said: "When
other vendors were upgrading their existing system technology for
broadband services, Ericsson invented a complete new ATM systems
platform to meet our customers' demands for the multiservices networks
era. In addition to providing services, we also considered network
management to be a crucial part of our product development and
developed an integrated Operation Administration Maintenance and
Provisioning solution."

Hedfors added that while the market for broadband in the U.S. and
worldwide is real and significant, the near term future remains
turbulent. "In times like these we believe that operators will come to
Ericsson for a solid approach to the development of broadband
technology and the broadband network.

"Ericsson's new software methods have been vital to the development of
our broadband system. Our evaluation shows that productivity can now
be increased by 200 to 300 percent, which is true for about 90 percent
of the software used in our ATM-based broadband system. System
supliers who cannot match these figures will not be able to stay
competitive.

"Control of software development, handling and distribution is a
matter of survival. Our system has been designed to speed up new
service development through an inherently more adaptable hardware and
software system structure as well as our new software development
methods. Not only can new services be developed more quickly, they can
also be more easily customized to meet changing market needs. The time
to market of new services is critical in an increasingly competitive
marketplace."

Ericsson has been active in the development and prototyping of ATM and
broadband technology and is now focusing on a third-generation ATM
switch as part of its product strategy. Ericsson has also been
involved in several industry activities involving ATM, including the
European research program, RACE. In addition Ericsson has announced
field trials with Deutsche Bundespost in Germany, SIP in Italy, Telia
in Sweden, and Telefonica in Spain.

Ericsson has also been involved in technology cooperations with
companies like Texas Instruments for custom designed integrated
circuits; Hewlett Packard for network management; NET for development
of enterprise switching equipment and Reliance Comm/Tec for access
technologies.

Initial product availability will be later this year with additional
capabilities to be introduced during 1995.

Ericsson's 70,000 employees are active in more than 100 countries.
Their combined expertise in switching, radio and networking makes
Ericsson a world leader in telecommunications.  Ericsson Network
Systems Inc. is based in Richardson, Texas.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Kathy Egan, Director of Press Relations, The Ericsson Corporation
 Tel. +1 212 685 4030

------------------------------

From: jharan@cwa.com (Jeff Haran)
Subject: Cellular Phone Abuse
Organization: CWA Communications Products, Los Gatos, CA
Date: Thu, 5 May 1994 00:56:45 GMT


I've been reading and seeing a lot of television coverage lately about
cellular telephone abuse.  It seems that everything that the cellular
providers use to identify which cellular phone is initiating a call is
transmitted by the calling phone (caller's phone number and electronic
serial number, ESN), therefore its not too tough for the technically
proficient criminal to capture these signatures and encode them into
his own phone and thus steal cellular service.

It strikes me as a technology that invites abuse. Perhaps I'm being
naive, but why don't the cellular providers use a more robust
authentication service. Your cellular phone would contain an
encription key that would also be known to the cellular provider. When
your phone went off hook, it would send its telephone number. The
provider would look up your number to get your key and send you some
random sequence of digits which would vary from call to call. Your
phone would take the sequence of digits, use its key to encode them
and return them to the provider. Since the provider has your key, it
can perform the same encription. If the encoded data that was returned
doesn't match what the provider's copy of the key encripts, then its
because the calling phone doesn't have the right key and the call is
dropped.  The key is never transmitted so the crook would have to
steal the physical phone to steal the service.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like an obvious solution to
an obvious problem. The thing that I can't understand is why this
service abuse wasn't anticipated by the cellular telephone founders.
Does anybody have any insights as to why it doesn't work this way
today?


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: See also in this issue a report from
Alan Gallitin about McCaw Cellular One's new anti-fraud program.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: miller@vfl.paramax.com (Bruce J. Miller)
Subject: Mail Order Source for Cell Phone Accessories
Organization: Unisys Government Systems Group, Valley Forge Labs, Paoli, PA
Date: Wed, 4 May 1994 15:32:00 GMT


Having gingerly entered the cellular phone world last weekend with the
purchase of what I believe is commonly called a Motorola 550 flip
phone, I soon realized that several accessories (such as a carrying
case and a charger that works in a car) would be nice to have.  The
cost of such items at local dealers exceeds what I paid for the phone.

Based on what occurs in the PC business, one would think that mail
order houses would have sprung up to satisfy such needs at discount
prices.  If this assumption is true, could someone knowledgeable
supply me with the vital data on these companies?


Thanks!

miller@gvls1.vfl.paramax.com (Bruce J. Miller)  (or 72247.202@compuserve.com)

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 4 May 1994 12:13:16 EDT
From: Gregory P. Monti <gmonti@cap.gwu.edu>
Subject: Slow Video Over Cellular


According to an article in {Broadcasting} magazine, May 2, 1994, GTE
Mobilnet is offering a slow-speed video transmission service over
cellular telephone to broadcasters.  A Tulsa-based firm called FoNet
developed the hardware.

Video is recorded on a portable device that compresses and digitizes
the video as it is recorded.  The station field crew can then choose
the rate, in frames per second, by which the video will be 'uploaded'
to the television studio.  They then place a cellular call to a
digitized receiving device at the TV station and upload the news clip
or story.

According to the article, a 15-second clip sent at a quality of 24
frames per second would take 16 minutes to upload.  Reducing the
quality to 7 frames per second would cut the upload time to 5 minutes.
The story doesn't say how those slower frame rates are correlated back
to 30 frames per second for broadcast.

'Inverse multiplexing' is also possible to save time.  The mobile
places two cellular calls and use twice the bandwidth to halve the
time.

The field compression and cell phone hardware are $16,900.  The host
and playback hardware are $22,995.  GTE Mobilnet is letting
broadcasters use the equipment for free as a promotion.  Some
broadcasters are not convinced that this is a substitute for
electronic news gathering (ENG) [sending real-time, full-resolution,
30-frame-per-second video over microwave or satellite links].  The
FoNet video quality, when played back in real time over the air, is
equal to or worse than VHS home video quality.  Also, at many disaster
and accident scenes, it's impossible to get a cellular channel because
they're all used up by emergency services on the site.


Greg Monti   Arlington, Virginia, USA   gmonti@cap.gwu.edu

------------------------------

From: anhtai@engin.umich.edu (Tai Duong)
Subject: Can You Record Phone Conversations on Hard Disk Media?
Date: 4 May 1994 15:59:27 GMT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor


Can anyone give me leads to find a way to record phone conversations
on hard disk in my computer?  I am working for a trading company that
does business mostly by phone and fax.  They want to organize
"projects" which can contain documents, faxes, and stored phone
conversations all on hard disk media.  I know voice recordings take up
lots of disk space but they are willing to buy many gigabytes of disk
space if necessary.  Money to implement this is not really an issue.

Taking it one step further ... they want to be able to play back the
recorded messages for any particular project to update others on the
progress of deals.  An advance feature would be to be able to search
the many recordings from hard disk for words or patterns (eg. for all
recordings that contain a particular name)

Implementing this from normal magnetic tape recordings might be
possible but searches would be very slow and they will not be able to
organize recordings to projects.  Correct me if I am wrong.

Appreciate any leads to vendors, consultants, or ideas.


Tai Duong    anhtai@engin.umich.edu

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 4 May 94 12:35 EST
From: Hugh Pritchard <0006348214@mcimail.com>
Subject: MCI PC Connect


This came from the April 25 issue of {MCI This Week}, which is a
newsletter that's distributed in the public lobbies of some MCI
buildings.  I'm not an MCI employee; and I have no opinion as to the
convenience or value of PC Connect.


Hugh Pritchard     Hugh_Pritchard@MCImail.com ]

  
Take a Byte Out of Long Distance Bills (sm)

         MCI PC Connect Reduces "Tolls" on Info Highway

[Accompanying picture, captioned "Sysop Partner Marketing manager
Shelly Carrick and PC Connect product manager Bill Schmidt at the BBS
Expo trade show."]

    One of the most painful bumps on the information superhighway can
be the tolls.  Computer afficionados quickly realize that toll calls
to reach far away bulletin board systems (BBS) can mount up.  Ask
anyone who's tried to download a multi-megabit file on a 2400 baud
modem.

     Now MCI has created MCI PC Connect (sm), a long distance plan
specifically designed to lower the cost of long distance BBS calls by
offering two low, fixed rates during the day and evening/weekend hours
for a low monthly fee.  Daytime plan hours are 8 am to 5 pm Monday
through Friday; any other calling hours receive reduced
evening/weekend rates.  In addition, CyberSurfers can add their
favorite BBS to their Calling Circle (r) to receive the 20 percent
additional discount (if the BBS is an MCI customer) -- or even name
one board as their Best Friend to receive up to 40 percent savings.

     There's even a program for the bulletin board owner/operators.
BBS System Operators (Sysops) can join the Sysop Program and earn
commissions for each customer they sign up for MCI service.

     For more information, call [internal phone number], or send an
MCI Mail (r) message to PC Connect.
(Internet E-mail address:  665-1059@mcimail.com).

------------------------------

From: 1JCR7732@ibm.mtsac.edu
Subject: Tandy 1400HD Acoustic Coupler
Date: Wed, 04 May 94 10:45:36 PST
Organization: Mt. San Antonio College


I have a TANDY 1400HD, does anyone know where i could get a eight-pin
din acoustic coupler ... or do you have one you want to sell?  If not,
does anyone know the pin assingments for this beauty?  Please post
or email, preferably the latter.

 
Joseph Romero 1jcr7732@ibm.mtsac.edu

------------------------------

From: mrosenth@mbsdev96.lehman.com (Michael Rosenthal)
Subject: 900Mhz AT&T 9530 Cordless: ***CANCELLED***
Reply-To: mrosenth@mbsdev96.lehman.com
Organization: Lehman Brothers
Date: Wed, 4 May 1994 20:07:12 GMT


I called AT&T today to find out the status of the LONG AWATED model
9530, 900Mhz cordless phone -- you know -- the one they claimed would
have one mile range etc. etc.  They told me they cancelled it, claiming
it didn't meet their quality requirements (implies someone else was
making it?) They said they would design a new long range cordless but
it will not be available anytime soon.

This really annoyed me since I have delayed purchasing any cordless
for the past nine months when I first learned of the imminent release
of this phone. So, being back in the market I would appreciate
everyones opinion of their 900Mhz phone.  I haven't heard anything
about some newer models such as those from Uniden. Is anyone using
those? What is the range, sound quality, digital?, SS?

 
Thanks,
 
Michael Rosenthal     mrosenth@lehman.com


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The best one on the market is the one
sold by Radio Shack. I strongly suggest you check it out.   PAT]

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 4 May 94 17:27:18 EDT
From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr)
Subject: NYTel Goes 1+ Dialing


In the new phone book delivered today, I noticed on page 15 of the
White Pages that NYTel (oops NYNEX) is already going to 1+ dialing for
long distance.

What is written is this:

Inside Area Code 516: 7D
Outside Area Code 516: 1 + AC + 7D

No other information about cutover dates was given, though either AC +
7D or 1 + AC + 7D has been available for a few years.


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  1+(516) 282-3093
                                          FAX   1+(516) 282-7688

------------------------------

From: amg@panix.com (Alan M. Gallatin)
Subject: McCaw Cellular One (NYC) Introduces Anti-Fraud Program
Date: 4 May 1994 10:58:47 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC


Here's a new one ... saw a brochure for this at a Cellular One center
on Long Island yesterday.

In an effort to thwart would-be counterfeit phone users, Cellular One
just started up an anti-fraud program.  A customer participating will
simply pick a four digit PIN.  Usage is something like this:

If you dial *56 + PIN (SND) the fraud protection is turned on.
Cellular One will refuse to complete any calls from that phone EXCEPT
611 and 911.  Incoming calls, however, still work.  Dialing *560 + PIN
(SND) releases the phone and allows it to make calls.  This is, of
course, distinct from the lock feature of the phone, itself.

Another neat part of the program is that once your phone is off (or out
of area) for 20 minutes, the fraud protection goes on automatically.

Apparently, many (though not all) roaming areas work with this fraud
protection program.  According to McCaw Cellular One, if the roaming
area does NOT understand the *56 and *560 codes, calls will go through
without a problem.  Of course, they want to see as many roaming areas
cooperating :-)

Cell One advocates use of speed dial locations in phones for the lock
and unlock codes.  While anyone with the phone can view the contents
of the location, the important thing to remember is that this is not
meant for the phone's protection.  Rather, it is designed to make a
clone useless.

For me, all I have to do is type 99(SND) to dial the memory location
with my Cell One unlock code.  The "inconvenience" (if you want to
call it that) of having to do that once per time the phone is on that
I want to make calls is more than worth the trouble it could save me
if someone cloned my phone and was succesful in using it.

One more tidbit I found interesting: When I called Cellular One to
pick my PIN, they asked as many security type questions as they could
come up with.  (Granted, the dealer who did the activation and had a
copy of my application, NAM and ESN could've posed as me, also, but
we'll just hope that the dealer has SOME ethics ...)  AFTER they
entered my PIN in the system, they wanted to make sure that I
understood that they would NEVER call me for my PIN. They explained
how some people with a cloned phone would want to call my cellular
number, hoping to reach me, then pose as Cellular One so they can get
the unlock code.  They advised that if anyone claiming to be Cellular
One called me that I should refuse to talk with them unless I called
them back and reached a designated extension.  Banks, long distance
companies and computer service providers should make such elaborate
warnings about PINs and passwords.


Alan M. Gallatin      amg@panix.com               
amg@israel.nysernet.org   amg@jerusalem1.datasrv.co.il


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Are we to assume then that since the
lockout occurs automatically twenty minutes after the last use of the
phone that when one starts out each morning it is necessary to use the
*560 unlock thing as part of making the first call of the day?   PAT]

------------------------------

From: sspak@seas.gwu.edu (Steven L. Spak)
Subject: Re: IXC Timing Problem
Date: 4 May 1994 11:15:53 GMT
Organization: George Washington University


I'm fairly certain that Bellcore does work on IXC/LEC interconnect
standards.  They probably have some TR's or TA's on signalling and
timing for IXC/LEC handoffs.


Steven Spak sspak@seas.gwu.edu   Transmission Engineer
Tel: (202) 392-1611   Fax: (202) 392-1261 

------------------------------

Date:  Wed, 4 May 1994 07:41:00 -0500 
From: david (d.) boettger <boettger@bnr.ca>
Subject:  Re: Demise of Newsgroups Feared 


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That First Amendment always has been a
> troublesome thing ...

Utter pap.

> all the Bill of Rights was written under the mistaken assumption
> that citizens in the USA would take *responsibilty* for their actions
> and words; under the mistaken assumption that people

This is simply false. The Bill of Rights was written for one purpose: to
keep the government from stealing freedom from the citizens.

> would know the difference between *freedom* on the one hand and *license*
> on the other. Sadly, that is becoming less and less the case. The Bill
> of Rights will cause the ultimate demise of the United States. Not today,

You are totally clueless. I don't think that I've ever heard anyone
berate the Bill of Rights as the "ultimate demise of the United
States". I can't believe that you actually presented this idea for the
entire Usenet to see.  You sound like a GenX malcontent or a champion
of political correctness, taking your freedoms for granted because YOU
have been spoiled by them.  Shame on you. Perhaps you should go live
in some third-world toilet like Haiti so you could have all those
pesky freedoms taken away from you at the point of a gun.

There's an old saying that goes something like, "Be careful of what
you wish for; you might get it."

Shame on you, again.

David Boettger    boettger@bnr.ca


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I *do* live in a third world toilet; it
is called Chicago. And I have had lots of my freedom taken away from
me at the point of a gun, or in the government's case the implied threat
that guns could always be produced to make me comply if I did not do
so voluntarily. Lots of people in Chicago have had their freedom taken
away from them at the point of a gun; their freedom to travel outside
their home, their freedom to go to school or shopping, even their freedom
to stand at their window and look outside. If one stands at the window
of one's home or walks on the street outside even in broad daylight in
large areas of Chicago at present, one will be gunned down in sniper
fire and killed. Simple as that. Police are helpless to do much about it
because a group calling itself the 'American Civil Liberties Union' says
high-rise apartment snipers have Fourth Amendment rights. Unless the
police can tell *exactly* which apartment (in, let's say a 25 story
building covering an entire city block with 400-500 relatively tiny little
apartments) is occupied by the sniper(s), they can't go into *any* of the 
apartments therein looking. See -- it has all been arranged nice and
conveniently so none of the snipers gets their liberties violated. Little
children continue to get killed every day on their way to school and other
folks go out absolutely when they must to get groceries, etc. In the 
meantime I get cock-eyed letters from someone in *Canada* who hasn't the
foggiest notion what is happening here. If you ask me, you'd do well to
shut your mouth and mind your own business up there in Canada. Of all
the people to talk about liberties, *your* government certainly did a
number on free speech, didn't they?  No, political correctness is not
my thing at all -- most any long time readers here could tell you that --   
but I would like to see eight-year old children in Chicago be able to
play outside this summer and/or walk to and from school without the risk
of having their head blown off or getting crippled for life. It won't
happen while the ACLU is active here! Its not the Bill of Rights per se; 
its the bizarre and obnoxious interpretations that have been made of
this precious document that I detest, by lawyers and judges who do not
even live anywhere near the scene of the messes they have created.  PAT]

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #201
******************************

