Phoenix Rising BBS/phoenixrising.zip/phoenixrising/tele-dig/td14-028.txt

Text File | 1994-01-13 | 29KB | 657 lines

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 13 Jan 94 01:25:00 CST    Volume 14 : Issue 28

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    PacTel Announcement (Alex Cena)
    ISDN: Coming Soon to my House? (Robert L. McMillin)
    Shannon's Law (was Re: Hayes' New Modem) (Jakob Hummes)
    Communications Over Power Lines (Stewart Fist)
    Internet<->FIDOnet Mail/File Transfer (Jim Groeneveld)
    Unmetered Local Service (Lars Poulsen)
    New AT&T Bell Labs WWW Server (comp.dcom.cell-relay via Monty Solomon)
    Anyone Know Anything About GTE-4600 (Min Hu)
    Phonebook on CD-ROM/Internet? (Claes Gussing)
    New York Telephone Issuing "New" Rotary Phones (Kriston Rehberg)
    FCC Report on LD Carrier Growth (Stephen Goodman)
    Sprint VoiceCard - Maybe Not Such a Good Thing? ([e-mail])
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 12:27:00 EST
From: Alex Cena <[e-mail]>
Subject: PacTel Announcement


 From a PacTel Cellular Press Release:

01/12 PacTel Cellular announces plans for introducing digital cellular
service; company signs contract with Motorola in preparation for
launching CDMA system in Los Angeles.

  WALNUT CREEK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) -- PacTel Cellular today
announced plans to invest nearly $250 million over the next five years
to build its Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital cellular
networks in California and Georgia.

  The company will launch its first commercial CDMA system in Los
Angeles in early 1995.

  Digital cellular technology offers a platform for introducing many
important new wireless services for business and consumers: text
messaging, in-building coverage, voice mail notification, data
communications, fax, and one-number calling.

  The advent of CDMA will help fuel the growth of personal
communications services, as digital systems provide the capacity to
serve the mass market and enable new customers to take advantage of the
benefits of tetherless communications.

  As part of its digital deployment plans, PacTel Cellular announced it
has signed a definitive agreement with Motorola to purchase CDMA
network infastructure equipment for use in the greater Los Angeles
area.  The value of the Los Angeles contract is initially about $70
million and could reach $130 million by the year 2000.  In addition to
Los Angeles, PacTel plans to deploy CDMA in San Diego, Sacramento and
Atlanta over the next three years, using Motorola infrastructure
equipment.

  "We're committed to maintaining our strong leadership position in the
wireless industry," said Sam Ginn, chairman and chief executive officer
of PacTel Corporation.  "By investing in this new digital technology,
we're demonstrating our intent to build a high-quality cellular network
that will meet our customers' needs cost-effectively. Our current
investment in CDMA will allow us to reduce our cost structure
significantly in the future."

  "Although new players are entering the personal communications
marketplace, we don't believe their services will provide any
advantages over our digital cellular technology," added Lee Cox,
president and chief operating officer of PacTel Corporation.  "Given
our 10 years of experience building, operating and marketing cellular
service in L.A. -- one of the country's most demanding markets -- we
feel that we're well positioned to compete successfully against the new
entrants."

  PacTel will begin installing the Motorola equipment in early 1994,
with pre-commercial service slated to begin by mid-year.  The company
intends to conduct comprehensive testing before launching commercial
service.  By the end of 1995, the digital network will completely cover
PacTel's Los Angeles market, a region of nearly 11,000 square miles,
making this the largest CDMA infastructure deployment contract
announced to date.

  "Motorola is pleased to have won this commercial contract to deploy
CDMA throughout an entire city -- one of the largest in the United
States," said Jack Scanlon, senior vice president and general manager,
Motorola Cellular Infastructure Group.  "We are confident Motorola's
CDMA technology will provide the basis for significant improvements in
call quality and new calling services for PacTel customers.  CDMA will
redefine cellular service during the second half of the '90s."

  "We welcome Motorola's strong commitment to CDMA technology," said
Craig Farrill, vice president of technology planning and development
for PacTel Corporation.  "Based on our work together over the past four
years, we feel confident that Motorola will support our goal of
delivering a technically superior network, quickly and economically."

  "By combining CDMA digital technology with Motorola's advanced
networking capabilities, we'll be able to provide cellular customers
with an array of highly portable personal communications services,"
Farrill explained.  "For example, customers will have control over how
and when their calls reach them, whether they're in their home markets
or traveling."

  Under the agreement, PacTel will purchase Motorola's new SC(TM)9600
digital base stations, cellular base station controllers, and digital
switching platforms manufactured for Motorola by DSC Communications
Corporation.

  Due to CDMA's dramatic capacity increases, the Los Angeles network
eventually will be able to serve about four million customers, or more
than 25 percent of the region's entire population of 15 million.

  PacTel will offer dual-mode phones which can operate on its new
digital network as well as the existing analog system, providing
customers with a smooth transition to CDMA technology.  During the
pre-commercial phase in Los Angeles, PacTel plans to use Motorola's
prototype and pre-commercial dual-mode CDMA handsets.

  PacTel previously announced agreements to purchase a total of 50,000
dual-mode phones from OKI telecom (30,000 phones), Hyundai (10,000
phones) and Maxon (10,000 phones).  The company expects to complete
similar CDMA agreements with other subscriber equipment manufacturers
in the near future.

  Some of PacTel's wireless competitors in Los Angeles have recently
deployed other forms of digital technology.  "We know from our ongoing
market research that customers place the highest priority on voice
quality and network coverage," commented Cox.  "Since we're more
interested in offering the best digital technology than being first to
market, we've chosen a carefully managed process of testing and
refining our network.  We think it's clearly worth the wait for CDMA
and the long-term benefits it offers."

  To expand its customers' cellular coverage when they're traveling in
the United States and Canada, PacTel is a member of MobiLink (SM), an
alliance of 15 cellular companies.  MobiLink has set common service
standards to ensure consistent cellular quality and service nationwide.
The MobiLink national network already reaches nearly 85% of the
population of the United States and Canada and expects to cover
virtually all of North America through licensing agreements.  With
MobiLink, PacTel Cellular customers using dual-mode CDMA phones will
enjoy nationwide coverage with a single handset.

  In 1989 PacTel was the first cellular carrier to field test CDMA,
which is based on technology developed to provide secure communications
for the military.  Its wideband channel, advanced receiver technology
and sophisticated encoding scheme result in a signal that is highly
resistant to interference and eavesdropping.  Some of CDMA's advantages
over existing analog technology include improved voice quality, broader
coverage, enhanced privacy, capacity increases of at least tenfold, and
the potential for expanded wireless data and messaging services.

  Since 1990, PacTel and Motorola have been testing CDMA using PacTel's
San Diego network in conjunction with Qualcomm Inc., and a group of
other carriers.

  PacTel Corporation, based in Walnut Creek, operates cellular, paging,
vehicle location and international wireless ventures in a number of the
world's best markets.  PacTel Corporation and PacTel Cellular are
subsidiaries of Pacific Telesis Group, a worldwide diversified
telecommunications corporation based in San Francisco.

  On December 3, following the third-largest initial public offering in
U.S. history, PacTel Corporation began trading on the New York and
Pacific Stock Exchanges under the symbol PTW.  Subject to final
approval from the Pacific Telesis board of directors and certain other
conditions, Pacific Telesis plans to spin off PacTel as a completely
independent company in the first half of 1994.

  Motorola is one of the world's leading providers of wireless
communications and electronic equipment, systems, components and
services for worldwide markets.  Products include two-way radios,
pages, personal communications systems, cellular telephones and
systems, semiconductors, defense and aerospace electronics, automobile
and industrial electronics, computers, data communications and
information processing and handling equipment.  Sales in 1992 were
$13.3 billion.

           CONTACT:  PacTel Corporation
                     Susan Rosenberg, 510/210-3910
                     or
                     Motorola
                     Scott Wyman, 708/632-4691

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

Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 06:53 PST
From: [e-mail] (Robert L. McMillin)
Subject: ISDN: Coming Soon to my House?


The thread about quantization and signal/noise on a POTS line has me
thinking that maybe all this will be increasingly obsolete.  According
to the 800 number posted recently on this forum, my switch is set up to
handle ISDN!  A friend who is an authorized Pac*Bell digital services
reseller arranged for some techs to come out and do a site survey; this
means they'll check the line loss to see whether the existing copper can
support ISDN without an additional signal boost.  According to my
friend, ISDN is currently tarriffed in California under a provisional
business class of service, which means that I'll pay probably a little
more per month ($35, I recall) than I might if there were an ISDN
available under a residential service plan.  Nonetheless, it does seem
quite reasonable given the potential benefits.

The ISDN they're selling will be two B and one D channels.  If things
go well and they can install this service, I'll let you all know how
this goes.


Robert L. McMillin  | [e-mail] | Netcom: [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Jakob Hummes)
Subject: Shannon's Law (was Re: Hayes' New Modem)
Date: 12 Jan 1994 19:07:24 GMT
Organization: Open Software Foundation


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]2.
dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) writes:

> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jakob
> Hummes) writes:

>> ...But there is an absolute limit (Shannon's Law).  The
>> question was about the transmission over a *real* phone line. And that
>> means there exists *noise*.  The limit of bps is proportional to the
>> logarithm of the signal to noise ratio. Unfortunately I don't remember
>> the constant factors.

> Shannon's law is, in plaintext,
>       BPS(max) = Bw * log(2)((1+S)/N)

> That is, take the signal-to-noise ration (adding 1 to signal, so a
> negative SNR has some information present) and represent it as a power
> of 2.  Multiply by bandwidth (in Hz) and you get BPS.

Of course, not!
But now I remember Shannon's Law (you have placed wrong the brackets):

        BPS(max) = Bw * log(2)(1+(S/N))

The addition of 1 is needed to unable a negative BPS-rate, which would
be nonsense.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And of course Murphy's Law says that
when you are attempting to copy something down in plain ASCII text
for transmission to a computer network you'll always get some one
or more parts of it bass-ackwards to confound the readers even more
than they are already. That error might have been Goldstein's or it
might have been mine.  Regrets extended. Your editor, Murphy.]

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

Date: 12 Jan 94 05:07:03 EST
From: Stewart Fist <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Communication Over Power Lines?


James H. Haynes writes:

> Then there are articles in magazines from time to time, and maybe
> commercial products you can buy, that use the 120v house wiring for
> conductors; but in that case the interest is in communicating just
> within the building, or maybe to nearby houses connected to the same
> transformer.  I don't think you'll get carrier frequencies to go
> through a power transformer and on to the high-voltage side and back
> through another transformer to the 120v side on another circuit.

Back in my old paper files somewhere I have a product-test article
from an American computer magazine about a LAN system that did just
that (I can't find it).  From memory, the author said that the system
worked quite well at a relatively low speed, but was limited in
distance to the first transformer in the street.

It seems to me that today, with adaptive filtering and the ability to
handle higher frequences -- plus digital echo-cancellation, etc. --
these systems may be worth examining again.  You'd need a bit of
collision detection, but for small businesses and home use this might
be the cheap way to tie together a few PCs and a printer.

A Sydney, Australia, company called TCG Pty Ltd (fax [phone])
makes a simple one-way power-line-carried system called 'ILID' which
uses the data control of light circuits in supermarkets to transmit
optical signals to addressable shelf displays.

The transmitter sends out data packets through the power lines, the
light tubes in the store then translate these to optical packets,
which are then received by small photocell-powered LCD screen displays
on the shelves.  It gives them a simple way to update prices.

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

From: [e-mail] (Jim Groeneveld CMI-TNO Leiden NL)
Subject: Internet <- > FIDOnet Mail/File Transfer
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 10:50:18 MET


I found your address in mailings concerning the subject Internet<->
FIDOnet. So that's why I'm addressing you presently with some Q's.

I would like to have some information on transferring mail between
Internet/Bitnet and FIDOnet:

1. are there other, more direct forms of addressing a mail from
   FIDOnet to Internet and Bitnet? I know the form "uucp at number"
   with the first separated message line "To: internet_address".
   With this form of addressing it is not possible for a point (using
   Dutchie) to add the addressee to his/her node list. Only uucp gets
   added (the first time). In the Dutchie documentation there is a
   remark in which the form "uucp#internet_address" is stated. Is that
   a valid form? It would allow different internet addresses being
   added to a FIDOnet node list at a point.

2. With the form "uucp at number" what gateway FIDOnet numbers are
   available in the US and Europe? Must they all be called "uucp"?

3. What gateway(s) is/are used when sending from Internet/Bitnet to
   FIDOnet using the address form [e-mail] ?

4. What happens if the Pp.Ff.Nn.Zz do not match First.Last?

5. What is the average transfer time from sender to recipient? A day?

6. How should (binary) files be transferred? UUEncoded or so?

7. Are FIDOnet users (especially points) able to order files from the
   SIMTEL collection or other public file systems? If yes, how?

I hope this doesn't bother you too much,


Regards,

Y. (Jim) Groeneveld, TNO Institute for Preventive Health Research,
department of Application of Technology in Health Care,
(IPG-TNO, TTG) P.O.Box 124, 2300 AC Leiden, NL, ([phone]
[e-mail], [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Lars Poulsen)
Subject: Unmetered Local Service
Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 13:35:33 GMT


A. Padgett Peterson ([e-mail]) wrote:

>> everywhere I go I see regional carriers attempting to eliminate
>> "flat" and "unmetered" plans. As telecommuting and information
>> highway access begins to take hold, the elimination of unmetered
>> local service is the biggest threat to individual connectivity that I
>> can imagine.

About two years ago, I asked telecom readers for information about
local rates, because I had the same fear. My results indicated that
flat-rate local calling is readily available everywhere.

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Dave
O'Shea) writes:

> though I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see some alternative
> local loop providers selling a "flat-rate"-type service to people who
> are priced out of the market by the LEC's.

I rather doubt it; residential flat rate local calling is justified as
a giveaway of excess capacity that must be there in order to serve the
business community during "prime time". Alternate providers would tend
to establish rate structures that discourage residential customers so
that they don't have to build local plant to serve the low-volume
customers.

> One of the big reasons that long distance rates seem to "bottom out"
> somewhere in the 10 cents/minute rate, even for the most humongous
> customers is that the LD carriers have to pay most of that to the LEC
> for the local loop. Perhaps as the RBOCs are able to recoup something
> for those millions of unbillable hours of local connect time, this
> will ease up.

There is no inherent reason that a telco under rate cap (de)regulation
will lower the access charges charged to IXCs just because they obtain
a new revenue stream somewhere else.

On the other hand, a rational rate structure would charge the IXC
exactly the same as a local customer for what is essentially a local
call at each end of the long-distance call.

>> threat would be to the infant telecommuting industry and the home
>> office which relies on unlimited local service and the best means for
>> achieving the Clinton/Gore "20% reduction in commuting" would go up in
>> smoke.

> If an employee is worth telecommuting, even a $4/hour connection
> charge is fairly minor in the face of, say, a $65,000 salary/benefits
> package. Even if you get charged that for eight hours a day, it's minor.
> Most employees who would best benefit from telecommuting are the ones
> who are well into long-distance calling areas.

Many telecommuters will have a local call to an internet carrier's
local Point Of Presence. Eight hours at $4/hour is $32 a day. This is
at least the equivalent of another hour's salary. Hardly negligible.

>> only advantage that I can see for the consumer would be that with
>> metered service, the subscriber would have a right to a call detail
>> listing the individual calls by called number, time, and duration.

Hahahaha hahaha ha ha ... he ho hummmm ...  Here in Denmark, local
calls have been metered for many, many years -- by the pulse method.
Itemized billing is NOT available, and there would be an uproar from
office workers -- on privacy grounds -- if the telco were to start
itemizing bills. Itemized billing, like flat rate local calling -- is a
feature of the American telephone system; it has ended up that way
mostly by accident. Certainly there is no logic that says subscribers
have the right to an itemized bill. (There may, however, in many
jurisdictions be a PUC regulation saying so.)


Lars Poulsen               Internet E-mail: [e-mail]
CMC Network Products       Phone: (011-) [phone]
Hvidovre Strandvej         72 B Telefax:      [phone]
DK-2650 Hvidovre, DENMARK  Internets: designed and built while you wait

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

Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 02:37:17 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <[e-mail]>
Subject: New AT&T Bell Labs WWW server


FYI.

 From: [e-mail] (Henning G. Schulzrinne)
 Newsgroups: comp.archives
 Subject: [comp.dcom.cell-relay] New AT&T Bell Labs WWW server
 Date: 10 Jan 1994 14:42:25 +0100
 Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ
 Sender: [e-mail]
 Message-ID: <2grm01$[e-mail]>

 Archive-Name: auto/comp.dcom.cell-relay/New-AT-T-Bell-Labs-WWW-server

A new WWW server at AT&T Bell Laboratories is now available for use:

  http://www.research.att.com/

Note that this is NOT an ftp server.

Its current offerings include:

- a bibliography of about 3000 entries covering computer networks and
  performance evaluation, about 1700 of which have abstracts; some
  entries have links to PostScript copies of the paper.  (Click on the
  highlighted title to retrieve the paper.)

  The database can be searched by specifying words contained in
  title, author, abstract, etc. For example, 'Smith 1992' will extract
  all papers (co)authored by Smith in 1992.

  Submissions of BibTeX records for the database are strongly
  encouraged, with abstracts and keywords if possible.

  [Implementation: The database is stored in BibTeX format, with a fully
  inverted index. A special BibTeX style file translates the selected
  entries into HTML, with some postprocessing for accented characters
  and the like.]

- Calls for papers for special issues of IEEE JSAC, one of them on
  the Internet. Submission guidelines are there, too.

- A FAQ (HTMLified) for the Internet MBONE.


Henning Schulzrinne   ([e-mail])

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

From: Min Hu <[e-mail]>
Subject: Anyone Know Anything About GTE-4600
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 3:22:43 GMT


Hi,

Recently, my friends and I required two large PBX system GTD-4600 made
by GTE. I am planning to ship them to China. But I have following
unclear spots needed to be sorted out. Any help will be greatly
appreciated.

1. If these system will be compatible to Chinese telephone system?

2. What is the market value of GTD-4600 system? (made in 1985 and 1987
   with fully equiped lines of 8500 and 5000)

3. How diffcult the de-installation and installation of the system
   will be? Should I pay big bucks to hire contactor to do job? Or
   I should risk to bring some very experienced Chinese enginers to
   do the de-installation and installation?

4. The working voltage for the battery charger of the present system
   is 110-240 v with 60 Hertz, while the Chinese working power suply
   is 220 v with 50 Hertz. Will the present charger be able used over
   there?

5. How this system compare with AT&T system? Will it equivalent to some
   models by AT&T, say 2ESS or 3ESS?

6. Any suggestions?


MIN

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

From: [e-mail] (Claes Gussing)
Subject: Phonebook on CD-ROM/Internet?
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Ericsson
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 05:15:16 GMT


Hi there,

I was wondering if one can get the phonebook on CD-ROM in the U.S?  I
know this wouldn't work in Sweden, since we have some law about
keeping personal data on automatically readable media (as the phone-
book wouldn't be, with OCR ...). I thought maybe in the U.S. this
would work. A CD-ROM carries 650 Mbyte of memory, so some 5-10 disks
should carry the whole U.S!

Also, I was wondering if is possible to find a phonenumber on some
Internet-site with automatic reply. Maybe something like:

        To: [e-mail]
        Subject: [e-mail]
        Reply-to:

        State: Texas
        City: Dallas
        First_Name: John
        Last_Name: Doe
        Business:
        Company:
        Street:
        Box:
        Zip: 76543
        Phone:

where one can leave a few blanks. The last input, 'Phone:', if you
know the number, and want's to know who it belongs. If there are more
than i.e. 100 matches, one gets a reply saying "insufficiant
description".  Another search-argument could be state, city and a
business, i.e Hotels, Restaurants, etc. That way one could achieve a
sort of yellow-pages on-line!

This site could be realized with a computer and a CD-ROM setup like
presented above.

Comments?


Claes   [e-mail]

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

Subject: New York Telephone Issuing "New" Rotary Phones
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 02:43:48 GMT
From: [e-mail]


(This is paraphrased from the AP Wire)

New York Telephone (now NYNEX) in New York City has elected to install
rotary-dial phones, on request, in communities and areas where other
drug fighting measures have failed.  They are installing them because
they say that rotary phones can't be used on the pager services that
these drug dealers use to communicate.

(Begin Commentary)

What I would like to know is, doesn't NYNEX realize that these people
will simply walk into their local Radio Shack and pick up a personal
tone dialer designed specifically for dialing touch tones on these
"new" rotary-only lines?  Is anyone going to tell NYNEX that it is
simply wasting its and its customers' money?  I believe the phones
also won't receive calls anymore (that service exists even here in
sleepy Binghamton), but changing to rotary dialers are ridiculous!


Kriston J. Rehberg                  Internet External :[e-mail]
Associate Programmer/Analyst        FSC Internal RSCS :V2ENA81 AT OWEGO
ENSCO, Incorporated                 FSC Internal AFS  :[e-mail]
Loral Federal Systems Co, Owego, NY Tel: [phone] :Tieline: 662-2180


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Telco knows very well what you are
saying is correct. It makes these adjustments (rotary dial, no incoming
service, no coin-paid calls during overnight hours) to accomodate the
neighborhood organizations in their fight in the 'war on drugs' and to
appease the local politicians who decide on municipal ordinances regards
payphones who in turn are trying to appease their voters. Telco is
making nothing on the deal except for community goodwill from the part
of the community which seems to be the largest and noisiest.   PAT]

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

Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 00:32 EST
From: Stephen Goodman <[e-mail]>
Subject: FCC Report on LD Carrier Growth


TELECOMMUNICATIONS REPORTS [TE11] via NewsNet Monday January 10, 1994

The number of long distance lines "presubscribed" to MCI
Telecommunications Corp. grew at a faster rate during the one-year
period ending in June, 1993, than in any comparable period in the past
three years, according to an FCC report. "Long Distance Market
Shares," a quarterly report published by the Commission's Industry
Analysis Division, noted a 103% annual increase in MCI's presubscribed
lines, from 19.19 million in June, 1992, to 21.17 million in June,
1993. During the same period AT&T's presubscribed lines grew by 0.4%,
from 101.38 million to 101.77 million. Sprint Communications Co.
L.P.'s lines grew by 2.3%, from 8.42 million to 8.62 million. Copies
of the report are available for review at the Industry Analysis
Division reference room, 1250 23rd St., N.W., Washington, and can be
purchased by calling 202/857-3800.

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

Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 01:00:12  EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Sprint VoiceCard - Maybe Not Such a Good Thing?


I was intrigued by the Sprint commericals on their voicecard and
called them to get more information.  I was quickly turned off from it
after speaking with one of their reps:

To use it you dial an 800 number;announce your SSN plus 1 digit;
announce the programmed number (ie call joe)

I don't know about you but I don't want to announce my SSN to the
world, especially in a crowded airport!  Also: the surcharge per call
is $1.00, its limited to domestic calls only, charged $5 a month, have
to be a Sprint Dial 1 customer, and the list is limited to 10 people.
It does not have any of the features the AT&T and MCI card have:
information services (weather, news) and conference calling.

What does everyone else think?

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #28
*****************************