TELECOM Digest     Thu, 2 Mar 95 17:18:00 CST    Volume 15 : Issue 128

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Wanted: International Phone Directories (alex@worldaccess.nl)
    North Pacific Fiber Now Repaired (Edward W. Bennett)
    MCI Cashes AT&T Checks (Scott Lorditch)
    Interesting New Information Service and Prefix (Linc Madison)
    Bellcore Telecomm Overview Video Series (Robohn Scott)
    Communications Books For Sale (Tuan T. Ho)
    mu-law to a-law PCM (John Combs)
    800 Directory Listings Wanted (jps0723@aol.com)
    Wanted: Software to link Caller-ID With ProPhone Database (Paul 
Cascio)
    Looking For RACE Project CFS (John Scourias)
    New NPA in Colorado (phrantic@plains.uwyo.edu)
    Bell Canada 500 Service? (John S. Nelson)
    Need 500 Service Information (Bhaktha Keshavachar)
    Re: A Tip When Working With Electricity (Paul Houle)
    Re: Inquiry on CDMA and QUALCOMM (Sergei Anfilofiev)
    Answering Machine Calls For You! (James E. Bellaire)
    Re: Motorola Flip Phone and Low Battery (Michael Berlant)
    Re: 900 Providing Advice Sought (hihosteveo@aol.com)
    Re: What is DMS-100? (Brian Bebeau)
    Automatic Message Accounting Standard Wanted (Gerry Goldman)

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

Date: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 19:46:26 +0100
From: Alex@Worldaccess.NL (Alex)
Subject: Wanted: International Phone Directories


Hello everyone ...

Perhaps this may sound a little odd to all of you ... but besides my
general interest of telecom stuff (why would I otherwise be subscribed
to this service) I also collect phone directories ... and preferably
international ones. There are several ways to get them; one of the
ways is to buy them from our very own PTT Telecom here in Holland.
The problem is that they charge quite a lot for this service. (I am
sorry people from the PTT who read this). Another way is to request
complementary copies from the telephone companies around the world;
sometimes I get lucky, and they send one; often they won't, since
there is some ITU regulation on this matter (at least someone told me
once).

Therefore I am asking the readers here if they would be intrested in
helping me to increase my collection of phone directories. I collect
also yellow pages. Of course I will pay for the surface mail.

At this point I already got all the directories of:

- The Netherlands     - Zimbabwe     - Tchad      - Bermuda
- Grenada             - Macao        - Botswana   

Besides that I've got some directories of:

- USA (New York, Los Angeles both yellow and white pages)
- France (Paris yellow pages)
- Italy (Padova area white pages)
- Israel (Haifa area and Tel Aviv white pages in hebrew)  =)
- United Kingdom (London business directory)
- Germany (Bonn white pages)
- Belgium (Brussels & Antwerps)

If you consider it took me about two years to get this far, you can
imagine how much help I could use. Therefore, anyone having some
directory laying in some corner of his room ... make someone happy ...
send it ... please!


Greetings,

Alex

P.S. And of course if you need a listing or an address write me.


Alex@Worldaccess.NL, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands

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

Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 08:40:09 -0800
From: EDWARD W BENNETT <JSEWB@acad1.alaska.edu>
Subject: North Pacific Fiber Now Repaired


The {Anchorage Daily News} reports that the North Pacific Fiber should
be back in service either today or tomorrow. The cable failed Feb. 5
about 20 miles off the Oregon coast. Splicing was completed Wednesday
and testing is underway now. The cable carries most of Alaska's
long-distance traffic, as well as international traffic to Japan.
During the outage, Alaska traffic was rerouted to a satellite.  


Ed Bennett  JSEWB@acad1.alaska.edu

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

From: gryphon@j51.com (Scott Lorditch)
Subject: MCI Cashes AT&T Checks
Date: 2 Mar 1995 17:42:02 GMT
Organization: TZ-Link, a public-access online community in Nyack, NY.


Over the past few months I've gotten several solicitations in the mail
to switch to AT&T. One of them was in the form of a check for $40. We
currently use MCI, so I called their customer service number. While
they don't publicize it, MCI will redeem these checks for their face
value in an "MCI Certificate of Savings". And further, for each month
that I hold the certificate before cashing it, it's value increases by
another $5, for up to 12 months. So, the useless $40 check from AT&T
will save me $100 on my MCI bill this time next year!


Scott Lorditch / gryphon@j51.com

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

From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison)
Subject: Interesting New Information Service and Prefix
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 21:49:18 GMT


As some of you may know, there is a service operated by the local
newspaper(s) in San Francisco which offers sports scores, stock
quotes, news updates, and other stuff, for only the cost of the
applicable tolls and having to sit through the commercials they
occasionally insert.  The number for this service was originally (415)
512-5000, and that number is still working.

What makes the situation more interesting is that the service is now
being advertised as (415/510/408) 808-5000.  This is the first I have
heard of an 808 prefix in any of those area codes, and my PBX at work
rejects it as invalid.  It is also, to my knowledge, the first N0/1X
prefix in 408, which I don't think is particularly close to exhausting
its supply of NNX prefixes.

Does anyone know the telecom story behind this new prefix?  Is it set up
as a local call in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, with the latter
two forwarded to San Francisco, or perhaps terminating with duplicate
equipment remotely maintained in those sites?  Is Pac*Bell planning to
offer any other uses of this prefix or others with the same 7-digit
number in all three area codes?  Is the call charged as Zone 3 or Local
Toll from some areas?

If the answer to the last question is yes, caution is warranted for some
folks.  For example, from Mountain View 415-254, San Francisco (415) is
a local toll call, but downtown San Jose (408) is not.  A surprisingly
high percentage of people still aren't clued in that "toll" and "same
area code" are separate issues.


Linc Madison   *   Oakland, California   *   LincMad@Netcom.com

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

From: Robohn Scott <robohns@bah.com>
Subject: Bellcore Telecomm Overview Video Series
Date: Wed, 01 Mar 95 16:22:00 PST


Has anyone seen Bellcore's Telecommunications Overview video series?  
The 
series consists of five tapes:

1 - Introduction
2 - Distribution
3 - Traffic, Signaling, and Switching
4 - Transmission
5 - Network Architectures and Services

We're considering using this series as part of an in-house training
curriculum on telecommunications.  I'd be particularly interested in
comments from people who have viewed it who can identify areas that it
might lack in (Bellcore readers, notice I said _might_ lack in).


Thanks in advance,


Scott Robohn    robohns@bah.com

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

From: tuanho@netway.net (Tuan T. Ho)
Subject: Communications Books For Sale
Date: 1 Mar 1995 21:36:14 GMT
Organization: Netway 2001


I have the following books for sale:

Please note the book condition:

Brand New = (!)                Good    = (***)
Excellent = (****)             Average = (**)        Poor = (*)

- W. Stallings, Local Networks: An Introduction, Macmillan, 1984, $20 
(***).

- K. Sherman, Data Communications: A User's Guide, 3rd ed., Prentice 
Hall,
  1990, $25 (!).

- K. Kummerle, J. O. Limb, F. A. Tobagi, eds., Advances in Local Area
  Networks, IEEE Press, 1987, $19 (****).

- F. Ivanek, ed., Terrestrial Digital Microwave Communications, Artech
  House, 1989, $35 (!).

- W. M. Brown and C. J. Palermo, Random Processes, Communications and 
Radar,
  McGraw Hill, 1969, $25 (****).

- H. E. G. Jeske, ed., Atmospheric Effects on Radar Target 
Identification and
  Imaging (Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute), D. Reidel
  Publishing Co., 1976, $25 (****).

- H. Stark and F. B. Tuteur, Modern Electrical Communications: Theory 
and 
  Systems, Prentice Hall, 1979, $39 (****).

- P. F. Panter, Communications Systems Design: Line-of-Sight and Tropo-
  Scatter Systems, McGraw Hill, 1972, $39 (***).

- C. G. Guy, Data Communications for Engineers, McGraw Hill, 1992, $29 
(!).

- J. Martin, Telecommunications and the Computer, 2nd ed., Prentice 
Hall,
  1976, $25 (!).

- T. C. Bartee, Editor-in-Chief, Digital Communications, Howard Sams & 
Co.,
  1986, $29 (!).

- J. D. Gibson, Principles of Digital and Analog Communications, 2nd 
ed.,
  Macmillan, 1993, $29 (****).

- L. W. Couch II, Digital and Analog Communication Systems, Macmillan, 
1983,
  $25 (***). 

- D. R. Smith, Digital Transmission Systems, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 
1985,
  $20 (****).

- M. Barkat, Signal Detection and Estimation, Artech House, 1991, $30 
(!).


If interested, Please e-mail me at: tuanho@netway.net
               or Phone me at     : (303) 364-4426


Thanks,

Tuan

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

Date: Wed, 1 Mar 95 17:46 EST
From: Testmark Laboratories <0006718446@mcimail.com>
Subject: mu-law to a-law PCM


I need to check the acoustics of the handset of a European ISDN BRI
phone.  Unfortunately, I only have a North American ISDN BRI
simulator, which uses mu-law PCM, and the phone uses a-law PCM.  I
know from prior experience that the two PCMs can be connected
together, and the phone conversation still sounds "normal."  However,
can anyone tell me what the error would be in dB when I sweep from 300
to 3400 Hz at a constant level, and do a loudness calculation?  Also,
does anyone know if the S/T bus used in Europe is compatible with the
North American S/T bus?


John Combs, Project Engineer, TestMark Laboratories, 
testmark@mcimail.com

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

From: jps0723@aol.com (JPS0723)
Subject: 800 Directory Listings Wanted
Date: 02 Mar 1995 19:25:41 GMT
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Reply-To: jps0723@aol.com (JPS0723)


Is there any place to get the 800 directory listings and to whom the
numbers belong?


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think you are referring to a criss-
cross style directory for 800, and I do not think one has ever been
published.    PAT]

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

From: Framer@ix.netcom.com (Paul Cascio)
Subject: Wanted: Software to Link Caller-ID With ProPhone Database
Date: 02 Mar 1995 00:56:56 GMT
Organization: Netcom


I am trying to find software that will take a phone number supplied by
a caller-ID signal from my modem (Rockwell chip set) and lookup the
name in ProPhone, a CD-Rom database.  Any information on where I can
obtain such software would be appreciated.


Thanks,

Paul Cascio

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

From: jscouria@neumann.uwaterloo.ca (John Scourias)
Subject: Looking For RACE Project CFS
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 17:48:39 GMT


Hi everyone,

I am looking for the Common Functional Specification D733, for the
RACE project MONET (R2066).  An older version, published in August
1994, is available at aachen.de but a new version was supposed to be
available in December 1994.  Does anyone know if and where an
electronic version is available?


Thank you in advance,

John Scourias                 http://ccnga.uwaterloo.ca/~jscouria
University of Waterloo        jscouria@neumann.uwaterloo.ca
Waterloo, ON, Canada

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

Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 09:00:08 MST
From: THE PILOT <PHRANTIC@UWYO.EDU>
Subject: New NPA in Colorado


Does anyone have any information concerning the addition of a new NPA
in Colorado?  Supposedly (from a USWest CSB guy) metro Denver will get
the new area code in April of '96.

Anyone able to confirm this and/or tell us what the new NPA might be?


Thanks,



Phrantic@plains.uwyo.edu

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

From: jsnelson@netaccess.on.ca (John S. Nelson)
Subject: Bell Canada 500 Service
Date: 02 Mar 1995 20:45:59 GMT
Organization: NetAccess Systems Inc., Hamilton, Ontario


> Is 500 service beeing offered by Bell Canada yet (or will it be
> offered in the future), and what costs should I expect for making use
> of 500 service if and when it is available here?

Here's a bit of background (which most comp.dcom.telecom readers
probably already know), plus Bell Canada's similar service called
Primeline.

SAC 500 is the Service Access Code selected by the North American
Industry for providers of Personal Communications Services.  Wireline
and Wireless service providers have intentions of using this code to
support Personal Mobility, Terminal Mobility and Service Profile
Management.

Bell Communications Research Inc. (Bellcore) administers the North
American Numbering Plan, and in July 1994 began assigning blocks of
personal go anywhere numbers to Telephone Companies and Wireless
Carriers across the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean Islands.

Stentor Resource Center Inc (SRCI), on behalf of Bell Canada and other
Canadian Telephone companies, has applied and received SAC 500 NXX
resources from Bellcore. However, no tariffs for related services have
yet been filed or approved by the Regulator (CRTC).

Although today Bell Canada does not yet offer a 500-based go anywhere
service, Bell offers a follow me service called PrimeLine which does
not require a 500 number. Customers in Bell Canada's serving area can
call 310-BELL (310-2355) from any exchange to obtain detailed
information on Primeline.

Hope that was useful, Evan.  

Recently, a question came up wondering why a gentleman from Kingston,
Ontario couldn't reach Pat on his SAC 500 number. I tried to call Pat
and had the same result. Thinking it might be a technical problem, I
asked a few questions.  Well, what I discovered is (as we probably all
know) telcos enter into agreements with other carriers with respect to
SAC 500 service, not only so that calls can be properly routed, but
that the appropriate rating and billing can take place, the revenues
collected, and settled.

To date, no agreements have been negotiated with any US provider for
500 service. Will that happen? Well, that's just not something that I
can discuss on a newsgroup!


John Nelson, Bell Canada      
Access Network Provisioning   
(905) 526-5760   FAX 527-2187 


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh go ahead, you can whisper it to me.
I won't tell anyone who doesn't read the Digest or Usenet. You think
Ma Bell is a bitch, is that it?    <g>     PAT]

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

From: keshavac@enuxsa.eas.asu.edu (Bhaktha Keshavachar)
Subject: Need 500 Service Information
Organization: Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 18:22:20 GMT


Hi,

Can someone on the net tell me about the 500 service. If you can
direct me to a FAQ, it will be great.

I know that the 500 service has been discussed in TELECOM Digest for a
while. I don't have a clue as what it is as I missed reading the Digest 
for a few months.


Thanks,

Bhaktha


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Umm, yeah, I seem to recall we had a few
messages on the topic not too long ago. I'm not going to tell you
anything about 500. Let that be a lesson to you; not reading this Digest
each day. <g>    Actually, 500 is called 'Personal Number Service' and
it allows you to have a single number which can be forwarded to you at
any time, anywhere you may happen to be. Check out the back issues of
this Digest for the last couple months of 1994 and the first two months
of this year. There were quite a few detailed commentaries.   Back 
issues
are available in the Archives, using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu.    PAT]

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

From: ph18@crux2.cit.cornell.edu (Paul Houle)
Subject: Re: A Tip When Working With Electricity
Date: 02 Mar 1995 19:17:45 GMT
Organization: Cornell University


Bob Mueller <IFF161@ZAM001.ZAM.KFA-JUELICH.DE> writes:

> Dear Pat,

> I just read about your experiences with the capacitors in a TV
> unloading through you and recalled another tip which can prevent a
> nasty accident. It is related to the thread because auto batteries are
> part of schemes to revive NiCads. Electrocution from these may be
> possible (I heard of a case but have no certainty if it really 
happened), 
> but is quite unlikely.  Serious burns are not so uncommon.  One should
> remove metal jewelery, including watch bands and rings when working
> around these batteries; they can deliver huge currents, enough to spot
> weld the jewelery, and heat it up to skin burning temperatures in a
> second or so.  

      I had a job working at Cornell's particle accelerator, CESR last
summer -- one of the many safety problems that we were warned about
were the two thick copper busbars that went underneath the accelerator: 
these supplied 40 V or so DC for the main magnets; although the
voltage is low, really too low to produce a lethal current passing
through the body under most circumstances, it is a very serious hazard
if you short them out with a ring or a tool held in your hands.  Of
course there were many other electric hazards, including most of a
megawatt of RF power that goes into the accelerating cavities and the
linac, several higher voltage distribution systems and a lot of things
that can get you hurt or killed.  After seeing how much work it took
just to keep this little 1-km long accelerator working, the logistic
challenge of running a superconducting supercollider just leaves me
staggering; it would take a literal army to run it.

I'll also say a word about telecommunications at CESR.  Throughout the
building and under the ring one will find many "beam phones", each of
which has a dial with nine positions.  To call somebody on a beam
phone, you'd turn the dial to a position which wasn't being used, say,
number 3 -- then you'd push the page button, announce to the called
party that you want them to pick up on line 3, and then they'd do
that.

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

From: Sergei Anfilofiev <sanfi@zniis.msk.su>
Subject: Re: Inquiry on CDMA and QUALCOMM
Date: 02 Mar 1995 11:11:09 +0300
Organization: ZNIIS
Reply-To: sanfi@zniis.msk.su


eswu@v9000.ntu.ac.sg writes:

> 2) Where to get the published materials on CDMA designed by QUALCOMM?
> I have heard that QUALCOMM has designed a CDMA system, but I still
> did not find any wirtten material on it.

Try to call ftp.qualcomm.com as anonymous user. You'll find a lot of
information on CDMA. For example, in /pub/cdma directory.

I hope this will help.


Best wishes,

Dr. Sergei Anfilofiev  | Tel:(7 095)368-9127 
Chief Internat. Depart.| Fax:(7 095)274-0067 
ZNIIS, Moscow, Russia  | E-mail: sanfi@zniis.msk.su

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

Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 16:04:36 -0500
From: James E. Bellaire <bellaire@barnabas.indwes.edu>
Subject: Answering Machine calls for you!


I have noticed that if you call someone's answering machine and
immediately hang up when the tape starts that the machine holds the
line open for the length of the tape. (This works with every machine
I have tested.)  If someone calls you, immediately hangs up and you
have a long enough message the local exchange has time to reset your
line, present you with a local dial tone and start the 'you have
waited too long to dial' type message.  I've had several dozen of
these auto dialed calls over the years.

I've also noticed that if you flash and then hang up the switch in my
hometown (616-651) likes to reconnect the original parties.  It will
go as far as redialing BOTH parties at the same time to reconnect
this lost connection.

This would account for a home phone and a cell phone being called by
the switch and then connected to each other.

Not all practical jokes are played by people, some are played by 
machines!


James E. Bellaire

bellaire@iquest.net    bellaire@barnabas.indwes.edu

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

From: lnjptyo1.mberla01@eds.com (Michael Berlant)
Subject: Re: Motorola Flip Phone and Low Battery
Date: 02 Mar 1995 00:40:33 GMT
Organization: EDS Japan


In article <telecom15.112.9@eecs.nwu.edu>, david.chessler@neteast.com
(DAVID CHESSLER) says:

> I've handled ordinary nicads by putting them in a flashlight, turning
> it on, and waiting for the light to go out.

The owner's manual for all these electronic devices tells you to drain
down the battery in their device for good reason.  The device will
shut down when the battery has 3-5% life left, not zero.  Draining a
NiCD battery down to zero is just as unhealthy as leaving it in the
charger forever.  My experience has been that better-than-average
battery life span can be achieved by using the battery until the
beeping starts and then swapping for your spare battery (which is
always at hand, right?).

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

From: hihosteveo@aol.com (HiHoSteveo)
Subject: Re: 900 Providing Advice Sought
Date: 02 Mar 1995 01:03:57 -0500
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Reply-To: hihosteveo@aol.com (HiHoSteveo)


If my memory serves me right, the cost was $1,200 for the first 900
line and $900 each additional or slightly less. Anyway, look in the
Encyclopedia of Associations, there is a 900 service Association that
will list the providers and tell you about failure (financial not
technical) rates, etc.  and lots of other information. Also check a CD
Rom library periodical literature searching 900 -- the number of
entries will boggle your mind with information available.

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

From: Brian.Bebeau@att.com
Subject: Re: What is DMS-100?
Reply-To: brian@hercules.cb.att.com
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 13:44:03 GMT


>>> I just got a letter from Pac Bell stating that on 10 March they are
>>> going to install DMS-100 at the Los Angeles Central office and that 
my
>>> prefix would be affected.  The letter also states:

>>> What can I expect in the way of problems, if any, using a modem to 
>>> send or receive call? 

We had the same thing happen last October. We got a card too advising
us of the change. I think they only tell you in case you have some
special calling feature that's programmed _in the switch_. You'll need
to re-program it in that case. As far as using it goes, we've noticed
that our line is a *lot* less noisy than it was, so your modem should
work even more reliably. We also now get a *lot* more numbers on our
Caller ID display than before. Much fewer "out-of-area" numbers. I
don't know what we had before, but it had Caller ID too, and a fair
amount of crosstalk.

Having said that, I still hate DMS-100s. I'm a software developer on a
product that gets maintenance messages from network elements like the
DMS-100 and alerts telco personnel to problems. Northern Telecom is
not real forthcoming with information, and their input message syntax
is quite different from other switches. It's been a real pain to support
properly.


Brian Bebeau brian@hercules.cb.att.com

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

Date: Thu, 2 Mar 95 12:46:22 EST
From: telenet!emerson!ggoldman@uunet.uu.net (Gerry Goldman)
Subject: Automatic Message Accounting Standard Wanted


Can anyone tell me where I can get information on the Automatic
Message Accounting (AMA) format. This is purported to be a Bellcore
format for ATM billing records.

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

End of TELECOM Digest V15 #128
******************************

                                     
