Phoenix Rising BBS/phoenixrising.zip/phoenixrising/tele-dig/td14-079.txt

Text File | 1994-02-13 | 28KB | 660 lines

TELECOM Digest     Sun, 13 Feb 94 10:13:00 CST    Volume 14 : Issue 79

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Coca-Cola and US Sprint Run Phony Contest (Bill Mayhew)
    Re: Coca-Cola and US Sprint Run Phony Contest (Tom Lowe)
    Re: ROA Can't Cover All My Lines - NYNEX's Fault (Alan Boritz)
    Re: Two Stories on MCI (Alan Boritz)
    Re: Calling 911 on a Cellphone When Out of Area (Dennis Smiley)
    Re: Truckstop Calling Cards (Jonathan D. Loo)
    Re: The Right Number, But Not *Quite* Right ... (Bill Walker)
    Re: Caller ID in UK? (Steve McKinty)
    Re: FCC $crews Pac Bell (John Levine)
    Re: Need Poisson Tables (Mark Fraser)
    Re: Any LD Carriers With Cellular Plans? (Jeff Kagan)
    Re: 20GHz Wireless is the Future? (Russell Graham Teasdale)
    Re: New York Telephone Issuing "New" Rotary Phones (David A. Kaye)
    Re: "Miniplex" == Digital Local Loop? (Steve Forrette)
    Re: Please Dial 507-XXXX.  No, Please Don't Do That (Mark Brader)
    Re: How to Expand the Range of Cordless Phones ([e-mail])
    Re: Telephone Number History (Sheldon W. Hoenig)
    Re: 'Arbitrage' PUC Rule? (Larry Jones)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere
there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of
public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie.
Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations
and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify:

                 * [e-mail] *

The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of
Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and
long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers.
To reach us:  Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone
at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: [e-mail].

    ** Article submission address only: [e-mail] **

Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using
anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email
information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to
use the information service, just ask.

TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated
newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated
Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech
Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience
of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All
opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages
should not be considered any official expression by the organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Bill Mayhew)
Subject: Re: Coca-Cola and US Sprint Run Phony Contest
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 14:03:38 GMT


I believe the Monster Diet Coke promotion ended December 15th (at
least here in Ohio).  I haven't seen the bottles with the yellow caps
on the store shelves since early December.  I had a cap I'd forgotten
to check, so I called around xmas time and got a recording from Coke
that said words to the effect, "Sorry, the contest is over."  Perhaps
by now the Sprint 800 number has been retired and has a slightly
inappropriate intercept recording, but tis true you can't dial the
number in question.

By the way, I checked about 40 bottle caps, most with different
numbers, and not a single one was a winner.  I never did stay on the
line long enough to hear the Sprint marketing spiel.  Mercifully, you
could check your winner status (or lack thereof) withouth having to
suffer though the marketing.

My LD carrier is AT&T by the way.  I called one at work where we
have Litel and it went through OK (back in Dec.).


Bill Mayhew        NEOUCOM Computer Services Department
Rootstown, OH  44272-0095  USA      phone: [phone]
[e-mail]       amateur radio 146.58: N8WED

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

From: [e-mail] (Tom Lowe)
Subject: Re: Coca-Cola and US Sprint Run Phony Contest
Organization: Compro Technologies, Inc.
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 15:30:25 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>, Alan Boritz <drharry!aboritz@
uunet.UU.NET> wrote:

> Wow, a Diet Coke with a contest opportunity!  All I have to do is call
> US Sprint's "Monster Line" (1-800-474-3476) and see if my "Monster
> Code" is a winner!  Oh, no, the recording tells me that I can't reach
> that number from my area!  Oh, well, Sprint screwed up ANOTHER "free"
> offer... ;)

I thought that contest was over last year sometime.  If I remember
correctly, it was around Halloween of 93.  It was legitimate ... I
called several times, but unfortunately didn't win!

By the way, does anyone have any details about the platform they
used for this particular promotion?  Or even some numbers such as how
many calls, how many ports, etc?


Tom Lowe   [e-mail]

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

Subject: Re: ROA Can't Cover All My Lines - NYNEX's Fault
From: drharry![e-mail] (Alan Boritz)
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 23:32:29 EST
Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - [phone]


[e-mail] (Barton F. Bruce / CCA) writes:

> AT&T promised me all my lines could be on my ROA plan.

> NYNEX bills folks individually bills for multiple phone lines.

> AT&T says "Whoops, NYNEX's multiple bills precludes ROA covering all
> lines (but you can order a second ROA plan if you like ...)"

> NYNEX says that since their multiple billing does not aggregate all
> the ten per line free DA calls you are allotted into one pot, *AND* if
> and ONLY if you have been charged for excess 411 calls on one line but
> had unused on another and COMPLAINED, they *might* try to get you on a
> 'combined' billing program.

> Of course, the 1,000s of trees and $s of postage they waste could
> concern them less, since every dollar they waste means more they get
> to markup and have the regulators let them milk out of the customers.
 ...
> So on to executive appeals ("hello - office of the president"). Normally
> they do get back in one day. Not this time.

> ANY useful war stories or suggestions?

AT&T will combine billing for all of your lines on one bill,
regardless of where they are and in whose name they're in, but only at
business switched-access-wats rates, and only if you like dealing with
snotty customer service reps who give the impression they'd rather
work somewhere else.

The reason why you're having so much difficulty is probably because
NYNEX, and most LEC's, treat individually billed lines differently
than aux lines for tariff purposes.  The only way you can have your
cake, and eat it too, so to speak, is to change your present setup so
you have one main billing number and all the rest are billed as aux
lines.


[e-mail]  or  uunet!drharry!aboritz
Harry's Place BBS (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - [phone]

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

Subject: Re: Two Stories on MCI
From: drharry![e-mail] (Alan Boritz)
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 23:27:18 EST
Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - [phone]


Paul Robinson <[e-mail]> writes:

> 2. For those of you confused over MCI's ad with some little girl with an
>    English accent, speaking gibberish, you're not alone.  The girl is
>    11-year-old Anna Paquin of New Zealand, who was in the movie "The Piano".

Excuse me, Paul, but the little girl doesn't speak with an "English"
accent.  My first guess was South African, or Australian, though I
lost the original post on this subject.  They don't speak "English" in
New Zealand, or at least they don't speak it very well. <grin>


Alan

[e-mail]  or  uunet!drharry!aboritz
Harry's Place BBS (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Dennis Smiley)
Subject: Re: Calling 911 on a Cellphone When Out of Area
Date: 12 Feb 1994 22:29:06 -0800
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access  [phone]  [login: guest]


John Galloway ([e-mail]) wrote:

> When I call 911 on my cellular (having seen an accident just happen)
> it appears that I get forwarded to a fixed site that just dispatches
> the call to the proper 911 officem i.e. the first person answers "911
> emergency" but just asks where you are, and then the phone rings a
> second time and you get another "911 emergency".  This seems silly
> since obviously the provider has the necessary info about where you
> are to do this automatically.  I have not ever called 911 when out of
> my area. Would I still get the same (Northern CA) based dispatch
> operator who would then have to send me to (e.g.) Austin Texas 911???
> (I am using Cellular-One).

The dispatcher, even with Enhanced 9-1-1 could never know where your
cell-phone is without asking.  Maybe what cell-site you are using, but
in the fringe those sites can cover a large area.  In most of California
cellular 9-1-1 calls go to the Highway Patrol, just like the roadside
cellular call boxes.


Dennis Smiley   [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Jonathan D. Loo)
Subject: Re: Truckstop Calling Cards
Date: 12 Feb 1994 17:39:50 GMT
Organization: University of Maryland College Park


In article <[e-mail]> TELECOM Digest Editor noted:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Those are called 'Talk Tickets' and
> they are a bit expensive at 50 cents per minute of domestic use.

Someone else commented:

> Considering that they are paid for up front, talk tickets should cost
> no more than ten to fifteen cents per minute.  Think about it.  No
> billing, no uncollectables, no customer service, no credit for wrong
> numbers, no nothing.

> The cost of talk tickets should in no way exceed standard direct
> dialed rates.  Anything more is a rip-off.

Safeway sells U. S. Sprint talk tickets for $5 each.  They allow 30
minutes of domestic long-distance calling.  It comes to about $.17 per
minute, regardless of time of day.  There is a customer service
telephone number (operated by an independent company, not Safeway or
U.S. Sprint; limited customer service also is available through U.S.
Sprint's regular customer service lines), although as far as I know it
is not 24-hours.  In my experience the customer service lines are
often busy, as is the 800 telephone number that I dial to place calls.
The reliability of the service needs work.  This may have changed;
last time that I used this service was last summer.

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

From: [e-mail] (Bill Walker)
Subject: Re: The Right Number, But Not *Quite* Right ...
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 12:58:49 GMT
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc.


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] wrote:

> I feel that the proper solution is for Directory Assistance always to
> quote the ten digit number.

> It IS NOT reasonable to assume that callers will know of the latest
> NPA splits.  Therefore the companies have an obligation to do everything
> to assist the poor caller.
[stuff deleted]

I agree completely.  However, the example given was _not_ a case of
the area code being changed and the caller using the old area code.
Davis has been in AC 916 for ages, possibly forever.

Here's an example for your case, though: my mother works in Oakland,
CA.  I forgot about the 415/510 area code split and tried to call her
using 415 on Sprint.  All I got was a "your call cannot be completed
as entered".  I tried again, same result.  Tried again using AT&T and
got a recording telling me the number was now in 510.  What Sprint did
was perfectly valid and correct, but what AT&T did was helpful.


Bill Walker - [e-mail] - QUALCOMM, Inc., San Diego, CA USA

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve McKinty - SunConnect ICNC)
Subject: Re: Caller ID in UK?
Date: 12 Feb 1994 15:33:00 GMT
Organization: SunConnect


Check in uk.telecom, there is a thread on this subject. BT are starting
a pilot trial in Edinburgh soon.


Steve McKinty   Sun Microsystems ICNC
38240 Meylan, France   email: [e-mail]

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

From: chico![e-mail]
Subject: Re: FCC $crews Pac Bell
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 12:33:48 GMT


> My original point was simply that there's a technical point between a subsidy
> and a waiver...

It's a pretty technical point -- whatever you call it, the government
is $50 million poorer, and the carrier is $50 million richer.

In this case I don't understand the point of the the pioneer program,
since it's not like anyone needed a lot of encouraging to get into
PCS.  A more reasonable pioneer reward, if there's any reward at all,
would have been to say that pioneers are guaranteed a piece of
spectrum so long as they match the highest competing bid for the piece
that they want.

I also don't entirely understand who decided what was pioneering and
what wasn't.  According to TE&M, Ameritech did a trial in Chicago that
used small and not very smart PCS base stations attached to the
regular phone network using an ISDN (primary rate, presumably) link,
and with all of the smarts including handoff handed in the regular
existing landline phone switches with a little added software.  That
seems at least as pioneering as the cable crock that was worth $50M in
Los Angeles, particularly since that offers the possibility of small
PCS carriers jump starting by subcontracting a lot of the capital
intensive switching to the local telco.  Ameritech didn't get a dime
for it.


Regards,

John Levine, [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Mark Fraser)
Subject: Re: Need Poisson Tables
Date: 12 Feb 1994 15:51:46 -0800
Organization: Wimsey Information Services


No you don't need trunk tables.  If you look at the percentage
utilization (erlangs/trunks) from 180 to 200 trunks, you will see that
it asymptotically approaches a straight line.  Extend that line, using
roughly the same utilization (erlangs per trunk) and you will have a
conservative engineering number.  Let's face it -- we're talking
statistics, not absolutes.  The tables may show a lot of decimal
places, but once you get above a few dozen trunks, the trendlines tell
it all.

Also, any of the traffic books (that show equations, like even the
lowly ABC's of ... ) should allow a 20-line basic program to generate
the tables.  On the assumption that you don't attempt to calculate
500! (factorial)


Cheers,

mark

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Any LD Carriers With Cellular Plans?
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 22:45:03 -0500
Organization: Delphi ([e-mail] email, 800-695-4005 voice)



I advise companies on selecting telephone services, spotting waste and
reducing costs, cellular included.  Unless you use alot of Cellular
LONG DISTANCE calls, don't worry about it. If you use AT&T at home,
use it on your cellphone.


Jeffrey Kagan   Tele Choice Consulting
Atlanta   404/419-2222  [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Russell Graham Teasdale)
Subject: Re: 20GHz Wireless is the Future?
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 06:06:54 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Department, Cal Poly SLO


In article <[e-mail]>, Maria Christensen <maria@
lulea.trab.se> wrote:

> S. L. Lee ([e-mail]) wrote:

>> I heard that a technology is available (or becoming available) that
>> can transmit voice, data, fax, video, two-way and simultaneous and
>> automatically routed. I posted a msg but might have misposted.

>> I would like to see professional evaluation of its feasibility.  I
>> have the following questions:

>> 1. Would there be any health hazard?
>> 2. Can the technology be implemented internationally, if not, what are the
>>    barriers?
>> 3. How long has this idea been around? Why didn't anybody look at it?

>> I would like to see discussion on various aspects of this technology.

> I'm working with cost efficient network soloutions in the the rural
> area. The scope is around 2000. Typically questions are:

> * Will the access network only consist of fiber
> * Will radio soloutions take over
> * What kind of services will be provided to the subscribers
> * How will a common family use multimedia
> * Video the the home
> * ADSL/HDLS on current cu-net.

> I'm interested in a discussion.

        I'd be delighted to help contribute to one, however modestly.
I edit an online industry issues newsletter, _View from the Crow's
Nest_, that took up these sorts of wireless-related questions in two
recent issues, with particular reference to the wireless-versus-fiber
debate.

        The material in question is too lengthy to permit its being
gracefully incorporated into the Digest, however, so instead, I shall
be happy to mail zipped-and-uuencoded copies of the two pertinent
issues to anyone who'd like one.

        Requests may be submitted to [e-mail].
There may be a brief lag in response time due to pending deadlines,
but I ought to be able to cover all respondents within a week or so.


Russ Teasdale -- [e-mail]  --  (Rusty)

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

From: [e-mail] (David A. Kaye)
Subject: Re: New York Telephone Issuing "New" Rotary Phones
Date: 13 Feb 1994 02:17:34 -0800
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access  [phone]  [login: guest]


[e-mail] wrote:

> tool of the trade. You take away the convenience and the ability to
> hide which the telephone affords its users, and it puts a crimp in the
> drug dealer's business, which is all most neighborhood people are asking
> for.

Of COURSE drug dealers patronize Radio Shack!  Where do you think they
buy their pagers?  Crippling pay phones don't do anything to slow drug
trafficking.  Drug dealers are very inventive, not stupid or unaware
by any means.  They have voicemail, pagers, cellular phones, the whole
bit.  There are lots of off-brand pay phones (COPTs or COCOTs) around
here which cut off tone dialing after the call is connected, making it
difficult to use voicemail.  The dealers I've seen around here use
tone dialers.  If drug dealers weren't hip to what's going on they'd
have been caught long ago.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The fact is, they *are* caught every day,
at least around Chicago. In the parking lot at the McDonalds, the 7/Eleven
and and at the Loyola and Howard stations on the elevated line I see them
hanging around the payphones all the time. Most of them are buyers who
call the dealer's pager then wait to be called back, but they can't get
through to the dealer's pager if the phone has a rotary dial, nor can they
get called back if the phone is one-way outgoing. Perhaps we should clarify
something: it is the BUYERS who find it difficult these days to establish
communications with the sellers. Buyers do not call from their home phone;
they want to do business on the street corner or in an alley, or maybe at
the elevated train station. Also, the dealers you are describing are more
toward the middle level in the hierarchy; they are not the street peddlers.

Chicago Police Tactical Officers clean out the Loyola station every day;
sometimes twice a day but it never seems to do any good. All night long
it is one of the sleaziest stations on the elevated line. The street sellers
are not very bright people. These tricks with the phones just made their
job harder, and that is the intent. Yes, some find work-arounds but most
just go to some other location. When the local McDonalds and 7/Eleven both
yanked out all the payhones they had in their parking lots, bingo all of
a sudden no more traffic all night long there and the Loyola station became
the spot to go. When the cops started hitting on Loyola all the time, the
sellers/buyers started moving elsewhere. 'De-Modernizing' the phones is
just one rather effective harassment technique to use.  The 7/Eleven now
has a sign in their parking lot: "Gangbangers, drug sellers and drug buyers
at this location go to jail! We call police!"  PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Forrette)
Subject: Re: "Miniplex" == Digital Local Loop?
Date: 12 Feb 1994 20:53:43 GMT
Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc.
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Steve Forrette)


In <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Ray Berry) writes:

> US West recently installed two numbers in my residence on a single
> copper pair.  They did this by installing a Raychem "Miniplex 4-in-3
> RT", which supposedly muxes two lines onto a single pair by converting
> both to a digital data stream, which is deciphered at the CO by a
> mating card.

> Being a techie type I'd like to know more about this device but don't
> know where to ask.  Can someone here expound further?

Most of these units work in the analog domain, not digitally.  The
first line operates normally.  The second line has its usable
frequency (usually 300-3600Hz) shifted up some amount, lets say to
8000-11300Hz, so that it can be sent over the same pair without
interfering with the primary line.  The matching device on the other
end then shifts it back down and sends it out the second pair to the
end device or CO.  There is also signalling between the devices to
transfer hookswitch transitions, ringing current, etc.

The customer end is usually powered by batteries, which are recharged
whenever the primary line is on-hook.  This means that if the primary
line is in use continuously for long periods of time, the batteries
can run down and make the second line go dead.  A workaround for this
situation is to run the customer end off of a transformer.

I was served by one of these a couple of years ago.  I ran v.32/v.42
modems over both the primary and secondary lines with no noticable
degredation in throughput.  The only thing strange about the second
line was that the on-hook voltage was not the typical -48VDC, so the
"in use" indicators on my multi-line phones would always show the
secondary line as in-use.  But other than that, I was surprised that I
had no problems with it.


Steve Forrette, [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Mark Brader)
Subject: Re: Please Dial 507-XXXX.  No, Please Don't do That
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 08:49:08 GMT


I wrote:

>> I had intended to reproduce here the exact wording of the second
>> intercept, but I'm typing this at home, and I find that from my home
>> phone in 416-488-XXXX, using seven digits to dial a local call to 905
>> does not produce any intercept.

Lester Hiraki responded (in email, but maybe he also posted it here):

> To force the recording, try dialing ten-digits with the WRONG
> area code ie. 416-507-XXXX. ... The wording of the recording is:
> "The number you are trying to reach is a ten-digit local number.
> Please dial 905/(416) before the seven-digit number you are calling.
> This is a recording."

I can get that one both from home (416-488-XXXX) and from work
(416-239-XXXX) all right, but it isn't the recording I meant.
Dialing what is really a 905 number as 7 digits from work gives THIS:

   <Ring, ring, ring>
   This is Bell Canada.  Do not hang up.  Your call will be completed
   as dialed.  In the future, please dial 905 before the seven-digit local
   number you are calling.  Thank you.

The recording is somewhat faster-paced than most Bell Canada recordings,
and the 905 is pronounced like 9O5 regardless of ambiguity.


Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, [e-mail]

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

Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 18:37:29 PST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: How to Expand the Range of Cordless?
Organization: DAVID Systems Inc, Sunnyvale CA


Can anyone tell me how far the power can be boosted for a cordless
phone system, if it is modified at its best?

(Assuming there is no FCC or any government regulation as far as the
power of the signal, how far can the signal be sent without much loss
of power.)

And what could be the best way for such modification?

Thanks for anyone who can give me some help on these nagging questions?


Jey

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

Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 18:25:44 EST
From: Sheldon W. Hoenig <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Telephone Number History


> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There were some exchange names which seemed
> to be common everywhere, while others were unique to some community. Many
> places had PLAza, and we had a WABash here in Chicago. But some we had here
> I have never heard of in other places: GRAceland, MULberry, TUXedo,
> INTerocean, VICtory, EDGewater and IRVing are a few which come to mind. PAT]

Pat:

A VIctory exchange was created in St. Louis during WW II when I was a
kid.  I always assumed that the name was related to winning the war.

We had a few locally related telephone exchanges also.  My exchange
was CAbany.  One of the early "important people" in St. Louis was the
Cabanne family.  A street was named after them with the "Cabanne"
spelling.  When I would call home from another city, I had to spell
the exchange name for the operator because it was so different.  The
most ritzy exchange in St. Louis was WYdown which served the
wealthiest part of St. Louis County.  Wydown Blvd was, an is, a ritzy
street.


Sheldon W. Hoenig                Internet:
Government Systems, INC (GSI)       [e-mail]
Suite 500                           [e-mail]
3040 Williams Drive              Telephone: [phone]
Fairfax, VA 22031-4612                      [phone] x420


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Our VICtory exchange was started here in
early 1946 if that tells you anything.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Larry Jones)
Subject: Re: 'Arbitrage' PUC Rule?
Date: 12 Feb 94 18:43:55 GMT


The TELECOM Digest Editor Notes:

> To put it another way, if arbitrage could be defined as loosely as
> your friend has done it, then every hotel switchboard becomes illegal
> since the hotel purchases local service from telco at one price and
> immediatly resells it to guests at some other price. Every privately
> owned payphone (COCOT) becomes illegal for the same reason.

Hummm, maybe it's not such a bad idea after all. ;-)


Larry Jones, SDRC, 2000 Eastman Dr., Milford, OH  45150-2789  513-576-2070
[e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #79
*****************************