TELECOM Digest     Wed, 4 May 94 01:51:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 200

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Telecom Design Tricks Manual - Free Book For Digest Readers (Jeffrey Race)
    Re: Answering Machines: What Use? (Don B. Cameron)
    Re: Answering Machine With Voice Mail and Paging? (Ray Normandeau)
    Phone 'Zines Wanted (Jeremy Brandt)
    Re: AT&T Divestiture Comments Wanted (Ken Hoehn)
    Re: AT&T Divestiture Comments Wanted (Gene Gretske)
    Re: AT&T Divestiture Comments Wanted (thanna@aol.com)
    Re: Direct Modem / Cellular Links (Lynne Gregg)
    Re: What Does the Serial Port on NT Meridian Phones Do? (Y. Eisenstadter)
    CallerID With Serial Port - Where? (John Landwehr)
    Re: Using Call Forwarding to Avoid Tolls (Leonard Erickson)
    Re: Local Charges for 950 and 800 Access? (Steve Brack)
    Re: Incident Management Call Boxes (John R Levine)
    Re: Getting Phone Bills Over The Internet (Robin Fairbairns)
    Re: ZMODEM - Proprietary? (William J. Rehm)
    Cellular Call Forwarding (Bruce Mchollan)
    Re: Videocrypt Pirating (Robert Shaw)
    Re: Lucy Waits for Call (Jim Derdzinski)
    Re: Lucy Waits For Call (Eric Ziemer)
    Re: Lucy Waits For Call (David C. Tuttle)
    Ricky Finds Old Phone (Carl Moore)
    Teaser (Carl Moore)

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

From: wu/O=JEFFREY_RACE/DD.ELN=62075697@mhs.attmail.com
Date: 4 May 94 01:24:56 GMT
Subject: Black Magic! Telecom Design Tricks - Free Book For Digest Readers


Release of "Telecom Design Tricks" Engineering Manual

     Cambridge Electronics Laboratories announces the release of
"BLACK MAGIC!  Telecom Design Tricks," a manual for hardware engineers
concerned with telecom power, ringing or ISDN circuits.  The
thirty-five page text may save careful readers time and grief since it
assembles technical arcana resulting from ten years of mistakes, false
hunches and failed designs of Cambridge Electronics Laboratories and
its many customers around the world, some of whom survived.  The
manual also includes twenty "cookbook" schematics as well as
appendices detailing sundry traps for the unwary engineer, further
technical references, and dozens of vendors of unusual or little-known
components utilized in the included schematics.

     The manual is free upon request to readers of TELECOM Digest.
Generous-spirited readers are requested to provide suggestions for
corrections or improvements to subsequent revisions of the manual.
Any who make it to the last page and still want more such paper in
their in-baskets from possible survivors of future design projects are
respectfully encouraged to submit the form at the rear of the manual
for future technical mailings (if we survive this one).


Cambridge Electronics Laboratories        Telephone:     +1 617 629-2805
20 Chester Street                         Telefax:       +1 617 623-1882
Somerville MA  02144-3005                 Telex:       948580 RACE SOMV UD
USA                                       Internet:  62075697@eln.attmail.com
Point  of contact concerning this announcement is Dr. Jeffrey Race who  may
be reached as above. 


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When you write to Dr. Race to request your
free copy of the manual, please mention reading about it in TELECOM Digest.
Thanks.  PAT]

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

Date: Tue, 03 May 1994 10:31:43 EST
From: Don B. Cameron <dcameron@mason1.gmu.edu>
Reply-To: dcameron@mason1.gmu.edu
Subject: Re: Answering Machines: What Use?


> Short Discussion on ANSWERING MACHINES, comments are welcome!

>- Answering machines save time since they allow
>  asynchronous communication.

I disagree.  Unless you play back the message at a faster rate or
speak faster onto the tape the amount of information conveyed in the
message is fixed in time and doesn't change by nature of being
asynchronous.

>- Answering machines are impersonal. I don't like to talk
>  to machines!

The richness of life is enhanced by human contact.  I agree, BUT, this
is sometimes the only way to get a hold of people who screen calls.

>- With answering machines one can answer calls in a "bulk"
>  and is therefore less disturbed while working.

Sounds like an "impersaonal approach" to answering the phone.  Imagine
answering the phone by mistake then saying, sorry, no time, please
call back and talk to my machine.

>- Many callers hesitate talking on to the tape.

This can be a problem especially when your tape cuts them off while
they decide to talk or not.  Perhaps the time out can be delayed on
future machines.

>- While absent, it is possible to obtain messages.
>  This can be important if upon one's return the caller himself is absent.

I think this is confusing.  If what you mean is that if both caller
and receiver have machines then communication can happen via tape
delay, then the I agree, this has value.

>- Callers never know whether the called party is absent or just
   happily listens to them.

Truely one of the great values of machines.  My girlfriend uses this
method to let me through, and her salesmen out. (I think!)

>- Call screening is possible: only calls that are welcome are answered.

A more effective way to prevent un-welcome calls is to get an unlisted
number.  Sure, lots of you TELECOM folks know how to find these out no
doubt, but since getting one I get only random dialing sales calls and
many fewer hangups on my machine.

>- An answering machine causes additional costs:
>  electricity and phone charges.

Many a phone message has saved me time and effort and gas etc.  So the
cost is well balanced by the benefits.

> Which positive and negative experiences have you had with answering
> machines?

I use my answering machine as a message center at times when I am in
transit to friends.  They leave messages there, and I pick them up.
This answering machine acts as my "voice mail" if needed.  I have gone
to some really cool parties and dinners as a result.  I have had a bad
experience recently.  My Mom keeps forgetting to put her machine on,
so if I call and she is not in and I can't leave a message, she calls
and says "You never call".  So lack of machines can be a problem too!

> What is the major benefit of answering machines?

It allows you flexibility to be or not be in touch.  The almost inborn
urge people develop to answer a ringing phone can be kept in check
with an answering machine.

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

Subject: Re: Answering Machine With Voice Mail and Paging?
From: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau)
Date: 03 May 94 21:20:00 GMT
Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York City, NY -
212-274-8298v.32bis
Reply-To: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau)


> With an eye to the future, when I can afford full time office
> help, I am getting my own business line in June. I would like to be
> able to capture the calls on an answering machine which would
> automatically ring my pager(preferrably alphanumeric) upon receipt of
> each call. Are there answering machines available with this
> capability? Is software available to do this via modem?

I have such a set-up.  A Panasonic KX-T2710 Only one disadvantage, it
only calls my pager one time for each message.  If I am in a basement
or a subway I may not get my page.

I would prefer to be paged every 30 minutes till I call in.

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

From: jeremyb@comtch.iea.com (Jeremy Brandt)
Subject: Phone 'Zines Wanted
Date: 4 May 1994 05:31:15 GMT
Organization: CompuTech, Spokane WA


I was wondering if there is any way to subscribe to the newsletters/
magazines that each phone company puts out?  i.e. {Telephony}.  If so
could someone E-mail me with the addresses to write to, or a telephone
number to call?  thanks.


jeremyb@comtch.iea.com


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: {Telephony} is a privately owned and
published magazine. It is not published by any telephone companies.
Ditto with {Teleconnect}, the magazine which has stolen a lot of
{Telephony}'s readers in recent years. The latter is published by
the Telecom Library in New York City. The public relations stuff 
put out by telcos themselves is usually free for the asking. Just
write the various telcos and ask to be put on their mailing list.  PAT]

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

From: kenh@w8hd.org (Ken Hoehn)
Subject: Re: AT&T Divestiture Comments Wanted
Date: 03 May 1994 22:30:04 -0400
Organization: The w8hd Group


Per your request for comments:

The breakup of AT&T, from the Justice Department's point of view, was
not unlike a mother telling a child that she must punish him, and
asking him what the punishment shall be.

Naturally, the child will pick the punishment of eating cookies and
watching TV.

Judge Green's group really did not understand the technology involved
(does ANYONE really?), and looked to AT&T for a breakup plan.  They
considered and later acted on the opportunity to offload the higher
cost, less efficient local operating groups, and concentrate on LD.

They knew full well, or at least anticipated the new technologies
coming today (like PCS, ESMR and direct satellite projects like
Iridium), recognized that local service would become an expensive
dinosaur, and made the best move.

We are at an advantage from a long-distance point of view ... it costs
less in real dollars TODAY to call California than it did 13 years ago
in the dollars then.  That's impressive.

We are at a DISadvantage from a local point of view ... local service
is getting poorer, less well designed and maintained, more poorly
staffed, and overall more expensive.

Offhand, I would say it is *just* about a wash.  When they finally
manage to pull off measured local service, it will swing the equation
into the red from the consumer's point of view.


kenh@w8hd.org
Ken Hoehn - Teletech, Inc.         Compuserve: 70007,2374
N8NYO       P.O.Box 924            FAX: (313) 562-8612
            Dearborn, MI  48121    VOICE: (313) 562-6873


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 'They' already have pulled off measured
service in many parts of the USA. We have had it here for several years
now.   PAT]

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

From: gretske@delphi.com
Subject: Re: AT&T Divestiture Comments Wanted
Date: Wed, 04 May 94 05:15:52 GMT 
Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice)


Megan-

There is a wealth of literature about the effects of the break-up on
our telecommunications network, Wall Street, etc., etc.  But I think
that there is a real human side to this.  Having experienced it from
the inside, I saw lifetime relationships, friendships, and marriages
impacted.  I have never seen anyone address this from the "grassroots"
perspective of the nearly one million employees and their lives.


Gene

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

From: thanna@aol.com (THanna)
Subject: Re: AT&T Divestiture Comments Wanted
Date: 03 May 1994 16:57:02 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


The breakup of AT&T (after over 100 years of monopolistic practices)
did create competition in the market place. If you count all the big
profitable companies today that do justice to the consumer i.e.
advances in technology etc ... then I would bet it was a good thing
Judge Greene broke it up. What about the so called McCaw/AT&T merger
that is on hold? 

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

From: Lynne Gregg <lynne.gregg@mccaw.com>
Subject: Re: Direct Modem / Cellular Links
Date: Tue, 03 May 94 15:50:00 PDT


goemansd@kirk.usafa.af.mil (Daniel Goemans) wrote:

> With that link, does anyone know if you then need an MNP-10 standard
> modem *in addition* to the link (to package data) ... or does the link
> package the data accordingly on its own?

Daniel is speaking of the Spectrum/Axcell interface, I believe.  My
experience has shown that MNP10 is not required, but it sure does
help.  Without this EDAC enhancement, you are liable to see some
garbled data coming across your screen.  Despite the inbound garbles,
however, I've found that outbound data transmission is quite reliable.
If you're doing data communication on cellular (regular ol' analog), I
highly recommend a modem that incorporates MNP10.


Regards,

Lynne

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

From: yoram@panix.com (Yoram Eisenstadter)
Subject: Re: What Does the Serial Port on NT Meridian Phones Do?
Date: 03 May 1994 21:03:59 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC


In article <telecom14.177.5@eecs.nwu.edu> gingold@Think.COM (David
Gingold) writes:

> I've got a Northern Telecom Meridian phone on my desk.  It has a DB-25
> connector on the back, which I suspect is a serial port.

> Is this a serial port?  Does anyone know how to talk to it and what I
> can do with it?  In particular, I'd like to program my workstation to
> dial the phone.

It is indeed a serial port.  At my workplace, the serial ports provide
access to a pool of modems that must be used for dialing out, since it
is impossible to directly connect a normal modem to the PBX lines (the
line voltages, ring signals, impedances, etc. are all non-standard).

I don't think the port can be used to control the phone itself.


Y

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

From: John_Landwehr@NeXT.COM (John Landwehr)
Date: Tue, 03 May 94 16:21:40 -0500
Subject: CallerID With Serial Port - Where?


Although several TELECOM Digest articles have mentioned caller ID
boxes with serial ports, I have never seen a reference to a model
number, manufacturer or distributor.  I think most of us would agree
that buying a modem for such a purpose is a waste.

So the question remains: Where can I purchase a caller ID box with
serial port?


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In the electronics department at Venture
they had one from BellSouth I believe. I don't think buying a modem
for 'such a purpose' would necessarily be a waste. If the modem had
Caller-ID built into it and all you needed was to get that data over
to your computer for whatever reason, then such a modem would be a
fine investment. Who else sells CID boxes with serial ports?   PAT]

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

Date: Tue, 03 May 94 13:33:21 PST
From: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Using Call Forwarding to Avoid Tolls


In v14 #184, TELECOM Digest Editor noted: 

> TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Generally, using the *regular, residential
> variety* of call forwarding will NOT save money where toll charges are
> concerned unless you are able to link two or three large toll free calling
> areas together. Generally, two or more short calls linked together cost
> more than a single long-haul call covering the same points.

This is only true where measured service is mandatory. On the west coast
it is generally optional (here in Oregon, we passed an initiative
*forbidding* mandatory measured service).

This makes a huge difference. As an example, up until a couple of
years ago, calls to between Portland and it's suburbs were local. But
calls between suburbs on opposite sides of Portland were long
distance.

So BBS operators in the suburbs would get a friend in the "core" area
to set up a number with call forwarding to their BBS. That way the
folks who could call Portland for free, but not call that suburb for
free had a way to access them via a free call.

Note that since call forwarding doesn't interfere with *outgoing*
calls, anyone with a line they only used for outgoing calls (such as
calling BBSes) could just add call forwarding and keep using their
line normally.

I was the call forwarder for one BBS, and it worked out fine. One
local Unix site offered forwarding for a *lot* of BBSes by letting
them use his outgoing lines. That way they got a call forwarding
number, and he got lines that would *never* be troubled by incoming
calls. :-)


uucp: uunet!m2xenix!puddle!51!Leonard.Erickson
Internet: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org

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

From: sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu (Steve Brack)
Subject: Re: Local Charges for 950 and 800 Access?
Organization: University of Toledo
Date: Wed, 04 May 1994 02:08:27 GMT


Here in Ohio Bell (well, Ameritech) territory, I haven't encountered
any payphones that charge for 800 numbers.

 My boyfriend's MCI card works off of a 700 number which
requires the deposit of a quarter to reach it, but returns the coin
after you hang up.


Steven S. Brack          sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu
Toledo, OH  43613-1605   STU0061@UOFT01.BITNET          
MY OWN OPINIONS          sbrack@maine.cse.utoledo.edu            

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

Date: Tue, 03 May 94 17:57 EDT
From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine)
Subject: Re: Incident Management Call Boxes
Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass.


> [re cellular roadside call boxes that call 911]
> The writer from Texas pointed out that "the system does not allow
> calls to anywhere else."  It was at this point that I mentioned the
> incident in Southern California where one call-box unit was either
> stolen or monitored to get its identification code, which was used to
> cause tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulent cellular calls.

Seems to be it'd be easier to work with the cellular company to fix
their switches to give a special class of service to the roadside
boxes that only permits 911, no other numbers, and no roaming.


Regards,

John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com

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

From: rf@cl.cam.ac.uk (Robin Fairbairns)
Subject: Re: Getting Phone Bills Over the Internet
Date: 03 May 1994 11:51:54 GMT
Organization: University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The original message in this thread
appeared in the telecom newsgroup in the UK; it did not appear here
but the thread seems interesting enough.  PAT]

In article <Co8MGB.HK@demon.co.uk>, John Lines <john@paladin.demon.co.
uk> wrote:

> I would like to be able to receive my phone (and other bills) over
> the Internet. As I pay them by Direct Debit in any case their function
> is to inform me what I have spent the money on. It would be cheaper
> for my phone company (who would not have to print and mail a bill, and
> save time for me.

It would be nice, wouldn't it?

> The actual itemised bill section would just have the number dialed,
the time and date, the duration, number of units and cost; one per
line, separated by tab characters. It would be easy to write a program
to digest such a bill, and it would benefit many.For example small
businesses, such as lawyers who re- charge phone costs to clients,
would be saved from having to re- key data from a paper bill. Students 
living in shared housed and splitting the phone bills could save some
time each quarter.  Anyone does some a mixture of business and private
calls on the same phone line and wants to be able to split them for
tax purposes would be saved a great deal of time.

Of course, here you identify the major problem with this proposal of
yours: anything that transmitted could contain sensitive business
information.  Since the internet is inherently insecure, that means
that the bill as transmitted would need (at the least) to be
encrypted; authentication information (e.g., digital signatures)
wouldn't come amiss either.

Now, we observe that you're posting from a UK address.  This means
that security software available to you is either:

 1. Illegally exported from the USA
 2. Academically produced (or otherwise free)
 3. Bloody expensive

It's inconceivable that a serious telco is going to accept software in
categories 1 or 2, so you're lumbered with 3.  Where are the cost
savings going...?

I agree with you that electronic billing is highly desirable.  I
disagree with the assertion that it's presently doable.


Robin (Campaign for Real Radio 3) Fairbairns       rf@cl.cam.ac.uk
U of Cambridge Computer Lab, Pembroke St, Cambridge  CB2 3QG, UK

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

From: wjrst1@pitt.edu (William J Rehm)
Subject: Re: ZMODEM - Proprietary?
Date: 03 May 94 13:33:10 GMT


On 4 Apr 94 18:16:45 GMT, Matt Silveira wrote:

> With regard to ZMODEM, it is not proprietary and there are many
> "shareware" programs available for Macs, PCs, and UNIX boxes, check a
> "mirrored" INTERNET site or sumex.aim at Stanford for Macs.

As I understand the situation, zmodem is indeed a proprietary
protocol.  It's use on hosts is only free under certain restricted
contexts, academic use being one of them. Clients, on the other hand,
are free to incorporate zmodem protocols, since a host is required to
use them.

I have admittedly limited knowledge of this situation, but this is how
it was explained to me when I contacted the author's company.


Bill Rehm    wjrst1+@pitt.edu

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

Subject: Cellular Call Forwarding
From: bruce.mchollan@keystone.keystone.fl.us (Bruce Mchollan)
Date: Tue, 03 May 94 21:12:00 -0500
Organization: Communications World
Reply-To: bruce.mchollan@keystone.keystone.fl.us (Bruce Mchollan)


A person I work with has a cellular phone with call forwarding.  When
he forwards his calls to another number and then calls his own
cellular number he is not charged for the call ($0!).  This works even
when he forwards his calls to a number within our LATA that would
invoke toll charges if dialed by land line.  He takes advantage to
save the toll charges.  Is this legal?

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

Date: 03 May 1994 11:23:38 CET
From: SHAW +41 22 730 5338 <ROBERT.SHAW@itu.ch>
Subject: Re: Videocrypt Pirating


Stewart Fist <100033.2145@CompuServe.COM> wrote:

I know several shops here in Geneva (which has a huge English-
speaking expat community) that are selling fake Videocrypt cards that
give full access to the English Sky Multi-Channel package.  In many
cases, they give these cards away free to sell dish/receiver packages.
The fake cards have flourished in Geneva because Sky does not sell
subscriptions to its services

Outside the UK (I guess because they only have purchased broadcast
rights in that area).  I heard the down side is that Sky somehow
manages to change their encryption every few months so that you need
to go back to the shop for an updated PROM for which the shop charges
$30.00.  There are thousands of dishes

In this area pointing to Astra and receiving Sky via these fake cards
or by supplying friends/relatives addresses in the UK.  I don't know
if it is actually illegal in Switzerland or not.

Reminds me of a story I heard.  It seems that a person here who became
a Sky subscriber by supplying his mother's UK address had a phone call
to the number listed on his subscription form.  When they asked to
speak with him, she replied "oh no, he lives out in Switzerland".  I
heard Sky disabled his subscriber card remotely that night.


Robert Shaw    International Telecommunication Union

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

Date: 03 May 94 22:37:00 EDT
From: Jim Derdzinski <73114.3146@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Re: Lucy Waits for Call


> I have seen an episode of "I Love Lucy" where Lucy gets a party line
> cleared of a long conversation by claiming it's an emergency.  (She

I saw this episode, and the way she finally cleared the line was
hysterically classic Lucy (she breaks in and says something like
"gotta go dear, I just hear the doorbell" in which both ladies in the
conversation say goodbye and hang up").

> In the same episode, neighbor Ethel Mertz (played by Vivian Vance)
> brings her phone to Lucy's apartment.  Ethel's phone had a very long
> cord, and she said "don't tell the phone company, but every time
> someone moves, Fred gets a cord".  Fred Mertz was played by William
> Frawley.

This reminds me of when I was living in Indiana in the '70's.  I knew
this woman whose job was to clean and prepare vacant apartments in a
local complex.  Back then, as the telephones belonged to Bell, people
would leave them when they moved.

Well, to sum it up, this woman had about 50 or so Western Electric
telephones of various designs and configurations that she would swipe
while cleaning and painting the apartments (she was good with 42A
blocks).  I lost track of her, and my folks and I still joke about her
being sent up the river by Indiana Bell.  With all the crap on the
store shelves that passes for telephone equipment these days, I wish I
still had access to that "collection".

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

From: ziemer@MCS.COM (Eric Ziemer)
Subject: Re: Lucy Waits For Call
Date: 26 Apr 1994 18:19:02 -0500
Organization: Another MCSNet Subscriber, Chgo's First Public-Access Internet!


Carl Moore (cmoore@BRL.MIL) wrote:

> I have seen an episode of "I Love Lucy" where Lucy gets a party line
> cleared of a long conversation by claiming it's an emergency.  (She
> was waiting for a call from a random drawing.  Party line calls should
> be kept short out of courtesy, but I was concerned that this fictitious 
> incident would run afoul of laws making it an offense to get use of a 
> line by false claim of emergency.)

  Sure.  Just get her telephone number and file a complaint!


Eric R. Ziemer    ziemer@tmn.com  
ziemer@mcs.com    Chicago, IL     

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

From: dct@odin.mda.uth.tmc.edu (David C. Tuttle)
Subject: Re: Lucy Waits For Call
Date: Tue, 03 May 1994 13:56:33 -0600
Organization: University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center


In article <telecom14.180.12@eecs.nwu.edu>, Carl Moore <cmoore@BRL.
MIL> wrote:

> I have seen an episode of "I Love Lucy" where Lucy gets a party line
> cleared of a long conversation by claiming it's an emergency...

The "I Love Lucy" episode I remember doesn't go quite that way (these
may be different episodes...).  The party line is being used, and Lucy
wants to clear it.  Lucy announces that it's an emergency, but the
people ignore her -- she's pulled that trick one too many times.  (And
while it's a crime to falsely state an emergency, it's also one not to
yield the line when an emergency is announced.)

So Lucy stays on the line and waits for a lull in the conversation,
then says (with a Brooklyn accent) "Oh, there's the door, I've got to
call you back."  Both parties think the other person said it, so they
both hastily say "goodbye" and hang up.

Jeez, why do people like me bother to remember these things? :-)


David C. Tuttle, Biomathematics   ----> dct@odin.mda.uth.tmc.edu <----
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center        +1 713 792 2606
Mail Stop 237, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX  77030-4096    USA


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Columbia Video Club (that's the reincar-
nation of the old Columbia Record Club/Columbia House operation) down 
in Terre Haute, IN has a whole series of the old "I Love Lucy" shows on
videotape taken from the original masters. There are several dozen
videotapes in the entire collection if anyone is interested.   PAT]

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

Date: Tue, 03 May 94 22:48:32 EDT
From: Carl Moore <cmoore@BRL.MIL>
Subject: Ricky Finds Old Phone


In the famous birth episode of "I Love Lucy", Ricky Ricardo seeks to
make a call from the waiting room and finds a telephone with a
cup-shaped ear piece and no dial.  Ricky (played by Desi Arnaz) asks
about the lack of a dial and is told to give the girl (the operator)
the number.  (Reminds you of the recent incident of someone not
knowing how to use a rotary phone.)  He asks the operator for CIrcle
1-xxxx.  If this supposedly happens in New York City, I find there was
a CH1 in zone 7 (Brooklyn).  When did the suggestion about 555-xxxx
come in?  (Also, on this early TV program, I fail to see the
disclaimer that the persons and events shown are fictitious.)


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This episode is another one available
in the series from Columbia Video. Lucille Ball once noted that even
had her child been a girl (in those days, pre-birth sex detirmination
had not been developed as a medical technique) they had decided to go
ahead with a boy on the show. The airing of that show was timed in 
such a way that Ms. Ball gave birth an hour or so before the pre-recorded
show (usually "Lucy" was done live, before an audience, but not that
night) was aired. Red Skelton's comedy show came on CBS right after
"Lucy" each week, and that night as the show started, Skelton announced
that Ms. Ball had successfully given birth about two hours earlier.

Desilu Productions took a gamble and wrote a boy into the script,
which is how it turned out. They debated back-pedaling and changing
the newborn into a girl in future shows had it been one but eventually
decided to stick with a boy in future shows regardless of the actual
outcome in Ms. Ball's personal life. There is/was a CIrcle exchange in
New York. CIrcle-5-1500 was the number for the Diners Club switchboard
when that credit card processing office was located in NYC on Circle
Plaza (Park?).  PAT]

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

Date: Tue, 03 May 94 22:42:58 EDT
From: Carl Moore <cmoore@BRL.MIL>
Subject: Teaser


April 1994 phone bill in Md. said "You'll never have to write another
check payable to C&P Telephone".  The catch is that you'd write checks
to Bell Atlantic-MD instead.

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #200
******************************

