Software Vault: The Diamond Collection/The Diamond Collection (Software Vault)(Digital Impact).ISO/cdr16/tc15_142.zip/TC15-142.TXT

Text File | 1995-03-12 | 26KB | 622 lines

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 9 Mar 95 15:16:00 CST    Volume 15 : Issue 142

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Questions About Format of Printed Telephone Numbers (Rob Hall)
    Re: New NPA in Colorado (David W. Tamkin)
    Re: True NANP and Common Dialing Practices (Al Varney)
    Re: What is ESF and D4? (Al Varney)
    Re: Is ISDN Equipment Limited by Switch? (Bob Larribeau)
    Re: Credit Checking on Cellular Customers (Robert Levandowski)

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

Date: Wed, 8 Mar 1995 17:21:58 +0800
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Questions About Format of Printed Telephone Numbers


Below is recommendation E.123 in response to the question posed by
Jeff Wolfe in Volume 15, Issue 133.  Please note that a number of
special characters cannot be reproduced here.  Suggest you might wish
to access the PostScript format files available from the ITU which
will include these symbols.

Recommendation E.123

NOTATION FOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL TELEPHONE NUMBERS

1 General

The statements below apply specifically to the printing of national
and international telephone numbers on letterheads, business cards,
bills, etc.  Regard has been given to the printing of existing
telephone directories. The standard notation for printing telephone
numbers on letterheads, directories, etc., helps to reduce subscriber
difficulties and errors.

 1.1 The international number should be printed below the
national number, with corresponding digits lined up one under the
other to facilitate understanding of the composition of the
international number as shown in the examples in 1.3 and 1.4 below.

 1.2 The words "National" and "International" in the
appropriate language should be placed to the left of the national and
international numbers, and these should be separated by a horizontal
line.

 1.3 Either the symbol for telephone given in
Recommendation E.121 or the word "Telephone" in the appropriate
language should be placed to the left of (or above) the national and
international numbers (to avoid confusion with other letterhead
numbers). The + (plus) signifies the international prefix (see ' 4.1).

  Example:  Telephone   National Inter   [phone]
     International    [phone]
    (Additional examples are shown in ' 6 below.)

 1.4 Because the countries of World Numbering Zone 1 (North
America) have the country code 1, the same number as is used for the
trunk prefix, and because dialling between these countries is the same
as long-distance dialling within them, subscriber difficulties are
avoided by using an alternative notation that has been found superior
for use within these countries and equally good for subscribers in
other countries dialling to Zone 1. This is to substitute for
"National" on the upper line the phrase "Within N. Amer. zone".

 Example:  Telephone Within N. Amer. zone (302) 123  4567
     International [phone]

 1.5 If it is desirable to write only the international
number, it should be written in the form:

  Telephone International  [phone]

 1.6 To show an extension number of a PABX without direct
in-dialling, the nationally used word or abbreviation for "extension"
should be written immediately after the telephone numbers and on the
same line as the word "telephone", followed by the extension number
itself.

 Example 1:  Telephone Within N. Amer. zone (302) 123  4567
    International [phone] ext. 876
 Example 2:  Telephone International [phone] ext. 876

 In this way, the extension number is separated from the digits
to be dialed and, where it must be typed onto a letterhead, for
example, it need be typed only once.

 1.7 It is often necessary to draw the attention of
subscribers to the need to omit the foreign national trunk prefix when
dialling an international call. This need occurs when the destination
country conventionally writes its telephone numbers such that the
trunk prefix appears with the trunk code (in parentheses). To compose
a comprehensible and accurate statement can prove difficult: suitable
forms are given in Recommendation E.122, '3.2.

 1.8 Grouping the digits of a telephone number is advisable for
reasons of memorizing, oral presentation, and printing.

2 Classes of symbols

 2.1 There are four classes of symbols in national or
international numbers. No symbol should be used in more than one
class, nor should any symbol within a class have more than one
meaning.

 2.2 These classes are:
  - diallable symbols (in French: symboles servant ` la
composition du numiro);
  - procedural symbols (in French: symboles opiratoires);
  - information symbols (in French: symboles
d'information);
  - spacing symbols (in French: symboles d'espacement).

3 Dialable symbols

 A dialable symbol is a symbol which is to be dialled and
appears on a telephone set to designate either a finger hole of a dial
or a push button of a keyset. These symbols can be digits, letters, or
other signs. Some desirable properties to be considered when selecting
diallable symbols are listed in Annex A.

4 Procedural symbols

 A procedural symbol is a symbol which tells the subscriber how to
dial. Such symbols should not appear in a finger hole or on a push
button
because they are not to be dialled.

 4.1 International prefix symbol

  The international prefix symbol should be + (plus) and
should precede the country code in the international number. It serves
to remind the subscriber to dial the international prefix which
differs from country to country and also serves to identify the number
following as the international telephone number.

 4.2 Use of parentheses

  The symbol ( ) (parentheses) should be used to
indicate that the digits within the ( ) are not always dialed.

  The ( ) should enclose:
   - the trunk prefix and trunk code in a national
number,
   - the trunk code when the trunk prefix is not in
universal use within a country.

This is done to remind the user not to dial the enclosed digits for
calls within the same numbering area.

 The ( ) should not be used in an international number.

4.3 Multiple numbers reached through automatic search

 For a subscriber with multiple numbers reached through
automatic search from the main number, only the main number should be
printed, without any symbol to denote the existence of the multiple
numbers. This avoids encouraging subscribers to dial other numbers in
a group immediately after finding the main number busy, a problem that
is particularly important when only calls to the main number are
capable of triggering automatic search.

4.4 Multiple numbers without automatic search

 For a subscriber with multiple numbers who does not have automatic
search, the symbol / (oblique stroke, solidus, or slant) may be used to
separate the alternative numbers.
 Example A: [phone] / 123 7272 / 627 1876
   [phone] / 393 9844 / 564 1692
   [phone] / 393 9844

 To avoid dialing confusion in Example A, it is especially important
that there be a space on either side of the symbol /.

 When it is desired to abbreviate the alternative numbers and
they are consecutive, only the last digit should be shown for the
alternative numbers.

 Example B: [phone]/8/9

 To avoid dialing confusion in Example B, it is especially important
that there be no space on either side of the symbol /.

 The general use of / is to indicate a choice when dialing. It
may therefore also be used to indicate a choice of prefix codes as,
for example, the choice of dialing personal or station calls.

4.5 In-dialling

 In the national and international number no symbol should be
used to show that a subscriber number is an in-dialling number of a
PBX. Where it is desired to indicate the existence of in-dialling
within a PBX and to indicate the in-dialling access code the following
format is recommended:

 (0607) 123 . . . .
 (0607) 1 23 4 . . .

 The number of dots (periods) is equal to the number of digits
in the extension number of the PBX. The spacing between numbers and
dots should conform to national standards.

 On letterheads, subscribers could insert their own in-dialing
numbers in the dotted spaces. Presentation of the main listed number
should conform to 1.3 above.

4.6 Symbol to indicate the existence of an additional dial tone

 Some Administrations use one or more additional dial tone
responses as procedural elements, after the calling customer obtains
access to the public network. Where a symbol is needed to indicate the
existence of an additional dial tone, that symbol should be the
graphical representation of a full cycle of a sine wave, or a close
approximation to such a representation. It should be placed at the
point in the number where it is expected to occur, and it should be
preceded and followed by a space to avoid confusion with a hyphen used
as a spacing symbol (' 6.1).

 Its meaning is to tell the user to wait for the additional dial tone.

5 Information symbols

 An information symbol is a symbol associated with the
subscriber number describing special features of the subscriber
telephone service, e.g., the symbol , where used, indicates that the
subscriber has an answering device attached to his telephone
[reference should be made to Recommendation E.117, '' 1a) and 1b)].

 5.1 Such symbols are not to be dialled and therefore
should not appear in a finger hole or on a push button, nor can such
symbols be procedural in instructing the subscriber how to dial.

 5.2 Information symbols should be associated with the word
"Telephone". To avoid confusion in dialling, they should not appear
either as prefixes or suffixes to the telephone number.

  Example: Telephone [phone]   or
    Telephone [phone]

Some commonly used existing groupings are:
   Telephone   National Inter     (0211) 5432
    International    [phone]

   Telephone   National Inter     (071) 78 901
    International    [phone]

   Telephone   National Inter     (06) 65 43 21
    International    [phone]

See also the example below.

6 Spacing symbols

 Spacing symbols are symbols which are used solely to separate
parts of a telephone number from each other. They cannot be diallable,
procedural or information symbols.

 6.1 Grouping of digits in a telephone number should be
accomplished by means of spaces unless an agreed upon explicit symbol
(e.g.  hyphen) is necessary for procedural purposes. Only spaces
should be used in an international number.

 6.2 In the international number, spacing shall occur
between the country code and the trunk code and between the trunk code
and the subscriber number.

 6.3 The major separation among digits in a telephone
number (national or international) should occur between trunk code and
subscriber number. This separation should therefore always be wider
than any other separation within the number. This requirement is
automatically met in the notation recommended, as in the examples.

7 Facsimile number notation

 The printed format for facsimile numbers should follow the
conventions set forth for voice telephone numbers except that
facsimile numbers should be clearly labeled with the upper-case
letters FAX printed to the left of the numbers as illustrated here:

  FAX   National Inter     (06) 65 43 21
  International    [phone]

 The recommended appearance of the printed facsimile symbol
(FAX) is specified in Recommendation E.121.

ANNEX A

(to Recommendation E.123)

Desirable properties of dialable symbols

 This annex lists some desirable properties to be considered by
the CCITT when this body standardizes new dialable symbols. There are
a large number of properties which are desirable for such symbols, and
those indicated below seem particularly relevant. However, their
relative importance has not been evaluated, and it is recognized that
it may not always be possible to fulfil all these conditions when
selecting symbols.

 The properties of diallable symbols should be:

 A.1 Distinct from other dialable symbols

  As used here, "distinct" refers to dissimilarity from
other symbols compared with them visually, or aurally. The
dissimilarity should be evident in low probability of confusion with
other symbols under degraded perceptual conditions.

  A.1.1 The symbols should be visually distinct in
their designated form as well as in typewritten, handwritten, or
printed form, including variations which might occur in each.

  A.1.2 The symbols should be aurally distinct in
naming them in at least the official languages of the ITU.

 A.2 Widely known name

 The name of the symbol should be as widely known as possible and be
constant over as wide a range of population as possible.

 A.3 Reproducible

 The symbol should be easily reproducible in handwritten and
typewritten form.

 A.4 CCITT-ISO compatible

 The symbol should be one which is given as a member of the
CCITT Alphabet No. 5 and the ISO (International Organization for
Standardization) standard code for information interchange.

 A.5 Made up of a single character

 The symbol should not be composed of more than one individually
valid symbol.

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

Date: Wed, 8 Mar 95 00:42 CST
From: [e-mail] (David W. Tamkin)
Subject: Re: New NPA in Colorado



·
TELECOM Digest Editor noted in <[e-mail]>:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Can you believe they had the nerve to
> settle the 312/708/630 fiasco late last week by deciding that we in
> the northern suburbs will have to have *our* area code changed to 630
> later this year.  ...  708 will be almost directly straight west of
> Chicago in the western suburbs, with part of 708 in the southwestern
> suburbs moved into 815 (which for the most part is quite underused.)
> All we northerners have to move to 630. ... ]

That's very different from what I read: I saw nothing about moving any
portion of 708 into 815.  Rather western and southern Cook County and
eastern Will will remain 708; 630 will cover DuPage, slices of north-
western Cook, Lemont Township in southwestern Cook, southern Kane,
northern Will, and Kendall; northern Cook County (including PAT's home
turf), most of northwestern Cook, Lake, McHenry, and northern Kane
would get a new area code as yet to be determined.  The three-way
geographic split of 708 will thus be into 630, the new NPA, and what
will retain 708.  312's boundaries will not change.  (The portions of
Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties currently in 815 will
stay in 815; above references to those counties are only to the parts
currently in 708.)

The recommendation came from several suburban business associations
and got the nod from an Illinois Commerce Commission's committee but
is not final until the ICC's executive board ratifies it.  It seems
they were the first proponents of a purely geographical split who
actually proposed specific boundaries; Ameritech had discarded the
notion of a geographical division as impracticable from the beginning,
but they've acknowledged that this one can work; they'll just need a
little more time to get it going, likely until the end of 1995.

[The associations' other suggestion was to keep suburban Cook County
and eastern Will as 708 and to assign 630 to Lake, McHenry, DuPage,
Kane, and northern Will.  Lemont Township and slices of northwestern
Cook would also have gone into 630, but PAT would have stayed in 708.
It would have meant a two-way split of 708 rather than three-way.]

This might be the first time that one NPA has split into three in a
single change; some have split repeatedly and there are several cases
where three or four area codes were once one, but I don't know of any
other instance where one code has divided into three at once.  Some
prefixes moved into 717 when 610 split from 215, but perhaps this is
still the first time that one NPA has been divided in one move into
three entire NPA's.

I could live with 630 as an overlay for wireless services, but the
idea to mix 630 landlines with 708 and 312 landlines is terrible.
Even five and a half years after the 312/708 split I find that people,
even right here in my own border neighborhood, still rattle off phone
numbers with only seven digits.  That's despite there being several
prefixes for which the 312 incarnation and its 708 counterpart are
both close by.  It would have been hell to retrain the entire populace
if geographic location did not imply area code.

And heck, if we're going to mix landline area codes together, couldn't
708's problems have been staved off a year or two by assigning spare
prefixes from 312 in the suburbs?  If that couldn't be done because
suburbanites would hate to be mistaken for city dwellers, why would
they accept sharing 630 with the city?  I tend to think that that was
another motivation behind protesting any overlay plans.

Personally, I hope the new NPA gets a code beginning with 5 or 9; I
find it easier to tell local area codes apart when people speak fast
if they all begin with different digits, and we already have 219, 312,
414, 708, and 815 in the region, with 630 soon to join them.  Also
there is a practice in the area of writing "N/NXX-XXXX" as shorthand
for "1 NPA NXX XXXX".  That convenience would be lost if the new code
starts with a digit other than 5 or 9.


David W. Tamkin  Box 3284  Skokie, Illinois  60076-6284
[e-mail]    MCI Mail: 426-1818   [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Al Varney)
Subject: Re: True NANP and Common Dialing Practices
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 1995 11:13:19 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>, John Shelton
<jshelton@parcplace.
com> wrote:

> When will we really have a true North American Numbering Plan, one
> that is used consistently throughout US and Canada?

You have something against the other members of the NANP? (NPA 809.)

> Is it really that hard to get everone to agree:

> xxx  - special service codes (e.g. Info, Emergency)

   Varies by country, if nothing else.  You want to give them money to
make it standard?

> xxx xxxx - abbreviated form of 1+ ten digit dialing,
>    where the area code (NPA) is the same.

We have a North American Numbering Plan: All World Zone 1 subscribers
(with very few exceptions) have ten-digit telephone numbers.  That's
the NUMBERING plan.  You're asking for a single DIALING plan.  And
those are under the control of individual state PUCs and various
national organizations such as the FCC.  You are welcome to plead your
case to them and answer the complaints of their constituents, who
probably like their current dialing plan just fine ...

   The dialing plans for North America are actually much more
standardized than they were 20 years ago, so progress is being made.
Be thankful that you don't have four, five and six digit "local"
numbers to handle.


Al Varney

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

From: [e-mail] (Al Varney)
Subject: Re: What is ESF and D4?
Organization: AT&T Network Systems
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 19:56:40 GMT


In article <[e-mail]>, Michael Jennings
<mjenning@ix.
netcom.com> wrote:

> In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Dave) writes:

>> When ordering a T1 line for data, the local fiber company wants to
>> know whether I'd like "ESF" or "D4".  Could someone please explain
>> what these terms mean?

> D4 was the original AT&T (Western Electric) product used by the Bell
> System for digital multiplexing of voice and data circuits at 1.544
Mb/s
> over copper transmission lines.

   Minor nit: "D4" is the 4th generation of digital voice transmission
(channel bank) technology.  D1, D2, D3 and D1D were all earlier
versions.  D1 saw extensive deployment in the 1960s.  D4 was deployed
beginning in 1976.  They all ran at 1.544 Mb/s over 4-wire copper
pairs.


Al Varney

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

From: [e-mail] (Bob Larribeau)
Subject: Re: Is ISDN Equipment Limited by Switch?
Date: 8 Mar 1995 01:48:54 GMT
Organization: Larribeau Associates


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] says ...

> I am in the process of converting my two lines into an ISDN line, and
> while on the phone today the PacBell representative said somthing a
> little startling.  She told me "You are served off a 5ESS (which I
> knew), so you need to buy AT&T equipment." I thought this was a little
> odd, so I asked her why. SHe said that AT&T ISDN equipment will not
> work with a DMS-100 and Northern equipment will not work with the
> 5ESS.  So, if I move to an area that has a DMS-100, I will have to buy
> all new equipment. Is this _really_ true?

This is very likely to be true if you buy your equipment from AT&T.
If you are buying ISDN phones try Fujitsu or Lodestar.  If you are
talking about data there is a whole host of equipment out ther that
will work on either switch.


Bob Larribeau     ISDN Consultant   San Francisco

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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Levandowski)
Subject: Re: Credit Checking on Cellular Customers
Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 95 04:39:41 GMT


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Javier Henderson)
writes:

> In article <[e-mail]>, Steve Samler
<steve@individual.
> com> writes:

>> What is the common practice today when someone applies for cellular
>> service?  Credit check via one of the consumer credit agencies or via
>> D&B if a business is the applicant?

> There are two providers in LA: Cellular One and AirTouch. I applied
> with Cellular One first, and was told I needed to come up with a
> $1,000 deposit. I then called AirTouch, and was approved without a
> deposit at all.

When I applied with RochesterTel Mobile, they wanted a $250 deposit.
Since I am a college student, I don't usually have that much money
lining my wallet, anxious to sit in someone else's pocket. :) It seems
that since I haven't had residential telephone service for three
continuous years (time on the campus CBX doesn't count), they think
I'm a risk.

Of course, the cellular business is a lot like the used-car business.
As soon as my face fell, the salesman "suddenly" remembered a recent
memo. It seems they can just take my credit-card number (even though I
didn't have $250 credit left on it) and charge my MasterCard if I fail
to pay the bill.  This tune changed so quickly that I couldn't help
but think it was fishy, but that's the nature of the game :/


Rob Levandowski
Computer Interest Floor associate / University of Rochester
[e-mail]     [Opinions expressed are mine, not UR's.]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V15 #142
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