The World of Computer Software/World_Of_Computer_Software-02-385-Vol-1of3.iso/t/tc13-025.zip/TC13-025.TXT

Text File | 1993-01-16 | 20KB | 538 lines

TELECOM Digest     Fri, 15 Jan 93 00:15:45 CST    Volume 13 : Issue 25

Index To This Issue:                     Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    What's the Best Cordless Phone? (Mohit K. Goval)
    AT&T Extended Range Cordless Telephone 9530 (AT&T message via Ken Jongsma)
    Even Egghead Has Trouble Understanding E-Mail (Paul Robinson)
    Quantitatively, How Much Will LEC Competition Affect Rates? (H. Shrikumar)
    Correction to NY/Philly Post (Douglas Scott Reuben)
    Prodigy Update Report in Newsbytes (Newsbytes via [e-mail])
    What is Teleport? (Johan Vounckx)
    What is Tariff 12 (or is it 11)? (Paul Robinson)
    Cellular Accessories (J. Philip Miller)
    TransTalk Experience? (Eric Pearce)
    Want to Buy! (Ron Martin)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (MOHIT K GOYAL)
Subject: What's the Best Cordless Phone?
Organization: Univ. of Texas at Dallas
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993 20:19:07 GMT


Can anyone tell me their opinions on what the best cordless phone is?

I'm looking for one that lets the user dial and answer from the base,
as well as from the actual unit.

So far, I'm strongly considering the new AT&T 5515.

It's about $160 w/o tax.

Thanks.


[Moderator's Note: Maybe you will want to wait for the new AT&T 9530
which is due to be released in a few months. It is digital and uses
the 900 megs range. I've included an announcement sent recently to all
AT&T employees in this issue which describes it in detail.   PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (Ken Jongsma)
Subject: AT&T Extended Range Cordless Telephone 9530
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993 16:43:16 -0500 (EST)


I was sent this from a broadcast to AT&T employees.  I thought you
might be interested ...

*** AT&T today announced a high-power, all-digital cordless phone
with four times the range of today's conventional cordless
telephones.  The AT&T Extended Range Cordless Telephone 9530
operates in the 900-MHz frequency, providing virtually
interference-free conversations with consistent sound quality up
to one mile from the base.  The AT&T 9530 uses full digital
transmission to encode speech onto a radio signal, much like music
is encoded onto a CD, and to provide clearer sound over a longer
range than cordless phones operating in the 46/49-MHz frequency.
AT&T's spread-spectrum, frequency-hopping architecture, which is
patent-pending, actually avoids interference by "hopping" the
radio signal among 50 of the available 173 channels during a
conversation.

If any of the channels experience interference, the 9530 automatically
swaps it for a new, clearer channel.  Because it operates over a
different frequency, the AT&T 9530 is unaffected by forms of
interference common to 46/49-MHz cordless phones, such as garage door
openers, baby monitors and radio intercoms.  It also performs well in
environments typically difficult for conventional cordless, such as
high-rise apartment and multilevel buildings.  The random selection of
50 of 173 channels, along with digital speech encoding, makes it
nearly impossible to eavesdrop on conversations.

The AT&T 9530 was designed and developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories,
employing advanced integrated circuit technology developed jointly
with AT&T Microelectronics.  The AT&T Extended Range Cordless
Telephone 9530 will be available in late spring at AT&T Phone Centers
nationwide for $449.99.  For more information, call 800-222-3111.

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

Reply-To: [e-mail]
From: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993  17:47:47 EST
Subject: Even Egghead Has Trouble Understanding E-Mail


In a catalog from Egghead Software, they are selling an E-Mail package
for Microsloth Windoze called "The Wire", which, according to the
blurb for it:

All messages are routed through MCI mail, a centralized electronic
mail service maintained by MCI Communications ... a $15.00 per month
account fee includes 1-800 access and up to 60 messages of 5,000
characters or less in length delivered via e-mail, fax, telex, U.S.
Postal Service, or via gateways to CompuServe, PRODIGY, Internet, and
other on-line information services.

I *know* that CompuServe and Internet have gateways on MCI Mail.  I
know Prodigy is considering getting an Internet gateway, but I was
unaware that they had a gateway on MCI Mail.  So I decided to look and
see.  A gateway on MCI Mail is called an "EMS":

 -- Transcript follows --

Pad ID: P3 - Port: 17.
Please enter your user name:  tdarcos
Password:
Connection initiated. . . Opened.

Welcome to MCI Mail!

Reach up to 1,000 worldwide recipients
quickly through MCI fax Broadcast.
For more information, call Operator 6
at 1-800-999-2096.

Today's Headlines At 4 pm EST:

 --News Of Strikes Against Iraq
    Boosts Defense Sector Stock
 --Intel Shares Soar On News Profit
    Even Stronger Than Expected

Type //BUSINESS on Dow Jones for details.


MCI Mail Version V11.2.C

    Your INBOX has 43 messages

Command: find ems internet


MCI Mail Directory Information

           MCI ID   Name                       Organization    Location
    EMS    376-5414 INTERNET                   NRI             Reston

Command: find ems compuserve


MCI Mail Directory Information

           MCI ID   Name                       Organization    Location
    EMS    281-6320 COMPUSERVE                                 Columbus, OH

Command: find ems western union


MCI Mail Directory Information

           MCI ID   Name                       Organization    Location
    EMS    435-6996 WESTERN UNION              AT&T            USA

Command: find ems att

att is not listed as an Electronic Mail System.

Command: find ems at&t

at&t is not listed as an Electronic Mail System.

Command: find ems attmail


MCI Mail Directory Information

           MCI ID   Name                       Organization    Location
    EMS    414-0940 ATTMail                    AT&T            USA

Command: find ems prodigy

prodigy is not listed as an Electronic Mail System.

Command: find name prodigy


MCI Mail Subscriber Information

           MCI ID   Name                       Organization    Location
                    User has unlisted name in MCI Mail Directory

 - Transcript Ends --

What this indicates is that there is no gateway on MCI to Prodigy
(except maybe via Internet), except that someone (who wishes not to be
known) has an ordinary account.


Also, I discovered other errors: MCI Mail only gives you E-Mail,
Gateway Mail (Like Internet), and Fax messages as part of your "free"
allocation.  Telex and Paper Mail messages are charged.

The moral of this story is that often the advertisement writers don't
even understand the technology.


Paul Robinson -- [e-mail]
These opinions are mine alone.

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

Date: Thu, 14 Jan 93 23:36:53 -0500
From: [e-mail] (H.Shrikumar)
Subject: Quantitatively, How Much Will LEC Competition Affect Rates?
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst


Hi,

  I (again) have a question .....

  I was thinking of scenarios of telecom development, deregulation and
de-monoplisation, comparing with the history as seen in the US
industry. The following question came up:

  If LEC competetion were the norm, what changes can one expect?

  With open competetion in the LD business, we've seen a fall of LD
rates, and an improvement of service. (Is there some place I can see
quantitatively this fall over the decade or more?)

  Now, if LECs also were to be opened up, how much (if at all) would
the local phone rates change by?

  Would there be a net change in LEC revenues per line ? What about
total LEC revenues? Will it also result in growth of number of
subscriptions due to the competition?

  Or would the rates merely get readjsuted, with different plans, some
with lower entry cost, and many restrictions (limited calls per month,
per peak hour), other more expensive, but with greater facilities? In
general, what would be the fixed cost, and variable cost per call?
(The bottom line, how much of the current rates is "water"?)

  In other words, if the conjecture that a monopoly tends to be
relatively inefficient, and increased competition would force them to
drive down costs, either by better management or with better
techology, is correct ... then by how much can one expect the local
dial-tone rates to change ?

  I look forward to the wisdom on this list. Many thanks!

 -- shrikumar ( [e-mail], [e-mail] )

            +==========================================

PS: Re: PHONE RESTRICTED FOR TOLL ETC. ...

BTW ... I'd be travelling a while, so it turns out its my turn to
worry about others using my phone now. The recent discussions on this
list has left me better prepared.

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

>> "USOC DH2 - Screening to deny 1+ and 411. ( 1 + 800 allowed.)"

> How does this prevent you from placing a toll charge through 1 800
> CALL-ATT?

  No, but it can still prevent billing to the number.

  I have little faith in any add on device, or blocker, for what I add
anyone can delete.  So I am looking for what New England telephone can
provide me, implemented *at* the switch, and they taking the
responsibility.

  Turns out that they have two kinds of "1 block", and opting for both
would prevent all direct dial toll calls, all premium calls and also
alert the operator (called via 0) to not transfer manually to a IXC
for a LD call. (I can further be mean, and ask for 0 Operator block as
well ... but if they assure me their operator will be alerted, thats
fine with me.) These blocks will also imply screening of any collect
or third party calls.

  They'd allow a 1-800 call to go thru. But CALL_ATT can then bill to
a calling card, but not to my number since, as per above, the
screening will not allow that. I further quizzed them, mentioning the
infamous name heard so often in this forum (I think I percieved a hint
of recognition from the representative) ... but then she assured me
that that will not occur too. Her word is NET's word.

  I am just going to get them to reiterate three times (a holy number)
that no further charges than a fixed monthly bill will apply. I will
then order these blocks, and mail then a letter thanking them for the
assurances I had heard from them that day, carefully listing my
concerns and their assurances, and preserve a copy of the letter. I
suppose if still someone slaps me ... its a NET problem, and that
should be insurance enough. (Hope so!).

  So no Dial-1, no Operator assisted calls, no premium calls, no
collect calls in, no third party calls. No scam calls. Local call OK,
1-800 OK (and free), Calling card OK (charge his card).

  Your LEC should have similar blocks too, perhaps in a different
combination, and tarriffs. I think this is quite conclusive.


Good Luck!

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

Date: 14-JAN-1993 18:16:02.57
From: Douglas Scott Reuben <[e-mail]>
Subject: Correction to NY/Philly Posting


Recently I noted that Cell One/NY has initiated automatic call
delivery to Philadelphia (00029).

I also incorrectly noted that you need to use the "Do Not Disturb"
feature to have your calls sent to voicemail, as you need to do in
Connecitcut (00119) and the the ComCast areas of New Jersey (00173,
00575, 01487). (And on all of the NACN as well.).

Philly is connected to NY via IS-41 RevA, and NOT the "Protocol
Translators" which NY uses to connect to CT and NJ. IS-41 RevA *can*
apparently hand the call back to NY if no one answers in Philly, so if
you let the call go unanswered it will eventually bounce back to your
voicemail with Cell One/NY.

(The Protocol Translator can handle calls like this FROM CT and NJ,
ie, CT and NJ customers roaming in NY will have their calls go back to
their home systems if they are not available, but for some reason the
PT can't handle a call from NY to CT/NJ so that it will bounce back to
NY upon "no answer".)

Also, Wilmington is not YET officially connected -- if you go active
in Philly and drive down to Wilmington (00123) you will get calls, but
you can't go active in Wilmington and have calls delivered. This will
change in about a week when IS-41 RevA is set in place to Wilmington
as well.

Overall, then, a definite improvement, although IS-41 RevA does seem
to have one annoying flaw (in my opinion): If someone places a call to
you while you are roaming in an IS-41 RevA "networked" area, and
either abandons the call, talks to you, or gets a busy, a SECOND call
within two minutes will AUTOMATICALLY go to voicemail or and "out of
vehicle" recording.  IS-41 RevA will not pass a second call along for
two minutes after the first!

So if someone calls you, and notices that it is taking a while for
ringing to start (while you are being located in the roaming market),
thinks he may have misdialed and tries you again, if the second
attempt is in under two minutes, he will get your voicemail or an "out
of vehicle" recording. This occurs regardless of whether you have
"Call-Waiting" or not -- you will only get Call Waiting calls AFTER
the first two minutes, before that callers will still be dumped to
voicemail.

Hopefully, someone at Cell One or the people writing IS-41 stuff can
reset this to be something like 15 seconds instead of the unreasonably
long period of two minutes.

As I said, though, overall, not having to use *35/*350 is certainly an
improvement!


Doug    [e-mail]  //  [e-mail]

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

Organization: The American University - University Computing Center
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993 20:09:24 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Prodigy Update Report in Newsbytes


WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 13 (NB) -- Recent layoffs
will not impact the ability of Prodigy to meet its announced goal of
establishing an Internet connection, a top company executive has told
{Newsbytes}. He adds that the staff reductions will not stop Prodigy
from implementing publicly announced system improvements.

George Perry, vice president and chief counsel of Prodigy Services,
discussed the January 11th firing by Prodigy of 250 of its 1,100
employees, citing the need to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
Perry told Newsbytes, "This was a painful and difficult move.  We
felt, however, that the reorganization is a better plan for the future

and will greatly aid us in reaching profitability."

Perry said, "By sheer coincidence, we passed the one million household
mark last week and we have two million individuals as members. We feel
that we have contributed greatly to the communications explosion."

The Internet connection will allow electronic mail to be sent between
Prodigy subscribers and the approximately 20,000,000 users of the many
networks that collectively make up what is known as the Internet.
Among Prodigy's commercial competition, GEnie has recently added this
feature joining America OnLine, CompuServe, Delphi, AppleLink, MCI
Mail, AT&T Mail and the WELL as systems which provide this access.

In announcing the layoffs, Prodigy President Ross S. Glatzner was
quoted as saying, "This is a tough day. But in the end, it was the
necessary thing to do. We became very layered over the years and the
decision making wasn't as crisp as it needed to be."

As part of the reorganization, Prodigy also will turn over the
functions of its membership services division to an outside firm, SPS
Payment Systems of Layton, Utah. SPS will offer jobs to 65 of the 100
workers in the membership services division, currently located in
Yorktown Heights, NY.

It has also been speculated in the press that the reorganization will
mean less emphasis on programming and systems organization.  This view
is based on the recent departure of several top programming executives
including senior vice president, Henry Heilbrunn, who left the company
in the week before the staff cuts.

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

From: [e-mail] (Johan Vounckx)
Subject: What is Teleport?
Organization: Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993 08:28:09 GMT


Hi,

I've recently heard the word "teleport".  It seems to be a place where
companies can make use of lots of communication services, like
videoconferences, ...

Can anyone give me more information on that?  Are there some teleports
existing?  (It seems that in Torino, Italy, there is one.)


Thanks,

Johan Vounckx     K.U.Leuven-ESAT Laboratory
Kard. Mercierlaan 94   B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium


[Moderator's Note: A company in the USA headquartered in New York City
called 'Teleport' provides local telco bypass service to a few large
companies both in that city and a few other places such as Chicago.  PAT]

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

Reply-To: [e-mail]
From: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993  19:15:51 EST
Subject: What is Tariff 12 (or is it 11)?


I have a question which came up once because of something an article
someone mentioned.

AT&T has a special schedule for some customers, which apparently the
customers love and AT&T's competitors hate.  I was wondering what it
was.

The name of the schedule is either the infamous "Tariff 11" or "Tariff
12".

As the last time I looked the AT&T general dial tariffs were numbered
200 or more, this sounds odd.

Does anyone know anything about either a "Tariff 11" or "Tariff 12"?


Paul Robinson -- [e-mail]
These opinions are mine alone.

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

From: [e-mail] (J. Philip Miller)
Subject: Cellular Accessories
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993 20:40:32 -0600 (CST)


Having finally broken down and picked up a bag phone to lug around in
my car, I started looking around for accessories.  I was quite
suprised that I have been uable to find any discount, mail order type
suppliers.  While Hello Direct is frequently recommended here, they
are neither generally inexpensive, nor do they carry a wide variety of
brand name products.  In my particular case, I am looking for a
battery for a Uniden CP 1900A but suspect that there must be folks who
sell stuff for many brands.  Any recommendations?


     J. Philip Miller, Professor, Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067
     Washington University Medical School, St. Louis MO 63110
     [e-mail] - Internet  [phone] [362-2694(FAX)]

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

Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993 20:25:05 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Eric Pearce)
Subject: TransTalk Experience?


I'm looking at the TransTalk router from International Transware.  It
is supposed to allow me to initiate a switched 56k connection from a
Mac, i.e.

 Mac <-- LocalTalk --> TransTalk <-- V.35? --> CSU/DSU --> SW56k-land

Does anybody have experience with this product?  What is a good, low
cost CSU/DSU that will work with it?  Someone mentioned Adtran.

The primary use would be transfering large files to a print shop (we
are a book publisher).  The 14.4 modems I'm using now are not fast
enough.  We are in the boonies, so no ISDN yet.


Thanks,

Eric Pearce | [e-mail] | O'Reilly & Associates
Publishers of Nutshell Series Handbooks and X Window System Guides
103 Morris St, Sebastopol, CA 95472  1-800-998-9938 or 707-829-0515

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

From: [e-mail] (Ron Martin)
Subject: Want to Buy!
Organization: Memorial University of Newfoundland
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993 21:30:22 GMT


I want to buy a key set.  Would like to get a small Northern Telecom
Meridian setup with three or four extensions, but will take a look at
any offers.  Mail me with your price, unit description and condition
and any other info.


Thanks in advance,

Ron

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

End of TELECOM Digest V13 #25
*****************************