The World of Computer Software/World_Of_Computer_Software-02-387-Vol-3of3.iso/t/tc13-119.zip/TC13-119.TXT

Text File | 1993-02-22 | 21KB | 499 lines

TELECOM Digest     Sun, 21 Feb 93 00:11:30 CST    Volume 13 : Issue 119

Index To This Issue:                      Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Judge Finds Nynex Guilty in Criminal Contempt Case (NYT via Eric De Mund)
    Wanna Call Ukraine? (Oklahoman & Times via [e-mail])
    AT&T Switch Bribe Now Up to $75 (W Schleck KD3FU
    National and Regional Telecom Newsgroups (Nigel Allen)
    U.C. Berkeley Short Course on High-Speed Communications (Harvey Stern)
    CPUC Predispositions (John Higdon)
    Let's Do a Figure-8 (Jim Gottlieb)
    Caller ID Display With RS-232 Interface Wanted (Paul Kubinski)
    Long Subscriber Loop Problems (John Braden)
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Date: Sat, 20 Feb 93 22:08:50 -0800
From: Eric De Mund <[e-mail]>
Subject: Judge Finds Nynex Guilty in Criminal Contempt Case
Reply-To: Eric De Mund <[e-mail]>
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services


Here is an item of great interest from the {New York Times} this past
week.

[NYT Wednesday, February 17, 1993]

         Judge Finds Nynex Is Guilty In Criminal Contempt Case
                          By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
                     Special to The New York Times

     WASHINGTON, Feb.  16 -- A Federal judge convicted the Nynex
Corporation of criminal contempt today and fined it $1 million for
willfully selling an electronic information service in violation of
the antitrust decree that broke up the Bell System in 1984.

     Nynex, the parent company of both New York Telephone and New
England Telephone, said it had done nothing wrong and would appeal the
verdict.

     Today's conviction, handed down by United States District Judge
Harold H.  Greene, is the first instance in which one of the"Baby
Bell" telephone companies Nynex refused to admit any has been found
guilty of criminal contempt.

    But the verdict is based on a prohibition on the Bell companies
that was ended in late 1991 by a Federal appeals court in Washington,
meaning it involves actions that would not be illegal today.  And
whether successfully appealed or not, the case will have little impact
on Nynex's profits and virtually none on the rates that its telephone
customers pay.

     The verdict does indicate, however, that Nynex aggressively
pushed the boundaries of the law and had little patience for the
central restrictions of the decree that broke up the old Bell System.

      Work for MCI at Issue

     In a strongly worded verdict, Judge Greene ruled that Nynex
officials knew full well they were violating a provision of the decree
that barred the regional Bell companies from owning electronic
information services.  As a result, he said, the company should be
punished with a fine that would be taken as more than "mere license
fees for illegal conduct."

     The charges stemmed from a small Tennessee computer company
called Telco Research that Nynex bought in 1986 and later sold. The
company had developed software that could help long-distance companies
design private networks for big corporate customers.

       One of Telco Research's customers was the MCI Communications
Corporation, which mailed data about telephone traffic to the company.
Telco Research then processed the information on a computer and used
telephone lines to send MCI a network design.

The Justice Department, prompted by information brought by Scott J.
Rafferty, a Telco Research vice president who had been dismissed,
charged that Nynex knew these activities were illegal under the decree
and went ahead anyway.

Nynex refused to admit any wrongdoing, arguing that at worst it had
run afoul of ambiguities in the decree. It adamantly refused to settle
the charges out of court, much as another regional Bell company, U.S.
West, had settled similar charges in 1991 by agreeing to pay the
Government $10 million.  Instead, Nynex spent millions of dollars in
its defense.

Nynex argued that its subbsidiary had essentially been leasing a
computer and software, rather than providing an information service,
and that its managers thought they were complying with the law.

But Judge Greene said that the activities of Telco Research clearly
violated the decree and that Nynex officials received clear
indications of this from Justice Department attorneys as well as some
of their own employees.

"Nynex officials were aware that the MCI service bureau presented
decree problems," wrote Judge Greene.  "While Nynex employees
continued to discuss the potential violations, this produced only
delay, not a remedy."

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Wanna Call Ukraine?
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 93 13:17:55 PST


 From the _Saturday Oklahoman & Times_, 20 Feb 93, p. 25:

Copyright (C) 1993 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.

               Ukraine Gets AT&T Phone Switch
                      By Bob Vandewater
                        Staff Writer

  Telephone users in Ukraine are now placing calls through a digital
telecommunications switch made at AT&T's Oklahoma City equipment
manufacturing plant, officials said Friday.

  Plant manufacturing Vice President Pete Gannon said an AT&T switch,
a highly-computerized electronic call routing system, was placed into
service this week in Ukraine.

  "This is another example where a 5ESS exported from Oklahoma is
providing state-of-the-art telecommunications services," Gannon said.

  "The digital switches made in Oklahoma City are now operating in 36
countries around the world."

  The Oklahoma City plant is the only domestic AT&T factory that makes
and ships completed 5ESS switches.  But AT&T has formed joint ventures
in some other countries that allow for some 5ESS units that are
partially built in Oklahoma City to be completed at plants in those
nations, AT&T spokesman Ed Beltram said.

  AT&T Network Systems and Ukraine have formed such a telecommunications
joint venture named UTEL to modernize the country's long-distance
network.

  The first 5ESS unit installed in Ukraine was entirely built in
Oklahoma City.  UTEL recently signed a $35 million agreement to buy
six additional 5ESS switching systems for Ukraine.  Final assembly of
those additional switches will take place at a joint venture plant in
Chernigov in Ukraine.

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

Subject: AT&T Switch Bribe now up to $75
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 93 13:00:38 CST
From: Paul W Schleck KD3FU <[e-mail]>


I live in Omaha, use US West, US Sprint, and have Caller-ID.  I
usually don't pick up the calls that say "Out of Area" too often, but
figuring it might be someone important, I picked it up.

"Hello, Mr. <almost unrecognizable butchering of my name>?"

"Uh Huh"

"I'm so-and-so from AT&T, how are you this evening?"

I'd usually hang up the phone at this point, but I was bored, and
continued with the social pleasantries, and let him get on to the meat
of the matter, which was a $75 bribe (not a coupon, a check) in
exchange for switching to AT&T.  That's right, SEVENTY-FIVE SEMOLIANS
(the equivalent of at least several months of long-distance bills for
me).

I really shouldn't do deals over the phone, particularly telemarketing
cold-calls, but as I said before, I was bored, and wanted to get more
of the details.  When he paused for Q&A, I asked the usual:

Q:  If I'm at a pay-phone, and your long-distance service is not the
default, what is the access code?

A:  1-0-ATT (10288, reality check to make sure I'm not talking to "ATNT"
or "ATMT" or similar)

Q:  Do I have to pay the switching fee?

A: No, a coupon to reimburse the fee will be sent to you (I had
previously gotten a $35 bribe in the mail, but the switching fee was
my responsibility).

Q:  If I agree to the service, how long do I have to stay?

A: I can leave in 30 days, and keep the $75 check (forgot to ask if I
have to pay to switch back)


Q:  How soon will the change take effect?

A:  4-5 weeks

And, in a moment of extreme weakness, I said "yes."  I was then
connected with a "neutral confirmation representative" (probably an
AT&T employee to make sure that their telemarketing firm wasn't
pulling an MCI slam-fest on them), who pronounced my name correctly.
She confirmed that all the information was correct, and I wasn't some
neighbor's kid, or cat-burglar who picked up the phone.  What was
amusing was that she asked for a "confirmation code," which could be
several things, including mother's maiden name (probably have my
credit-report on the screen right in front of them).  I gave them an
incorrect code, which was accepted (if they check them at all, they
probably check them off-line).  Will be interesting to see what they
do with my order, either tear it up, call me back ("Mother's maiden
name?  Oh, I'm sorry, I though you said *Grandmother's* maiden name?" :-),
or drop me a letter.

So, am I missing something?  Is this whole prospectus for real?  I
would assume that if the terms are very different in writing than over
the phone, I can return the check uncashed and demand to be switched
back.

I'll take the heat for encouraging telemarketers, but I'd be
interested in opinions of this latest AT&T sales pitch.


Paul W. Schleck  [e-mail]

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

Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1993 14:34:00 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Nigel Allen)
Subject: National and Regional Telecom Newsgroups
Organization: 52 Manchester Avenue, Toronto


What national and regional telecom newsgroups exist? I know about
uk.telecom from the United Kingdom? Are there any others, in English
or other languages?

Sites that don't receive the uk.* hierarchy may want to turn on
uk.telecom anyway, so that users who are interested in
telecommunications can read any uk.telecom articles that are
cross-posted to internationally-distributed newsgroups.


Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada    [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: U.C. Berkeley Short Course on High-Speed Communications
Date: 20 Feb 1993 01:49:50 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley


U.C. Berkeley    Continuing Education in Engineering
Announces 2 Short Courses on Communications Technology


SONET/ATM-Based Broadband Networks: Systems, Architectures and
Designs   (May 17-19, 1993)

It is widely accepted that future broadband networks will be based on
the SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) standards and the ATM
(Asynchronous transfer Mode) technique.  This course is an in-depth
examination of the fundamental concepts and the implementation issues
for development of future high-speed networks.  Topics include:
Broadband ISDN Transfer Protocol, high speed computer/network
interface (HiPPI), ATM switch architectures, ATM network
congestion/flow control, VLSI designs in SONET/ATM networks.

Lecturer: H. Jonathan Chao, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Brooklyn
Polytechnic University


Gigabit/sec Data and Communications Networks   (May 19-20, 1993)

This short course provides a general understanding of the key
protocols and networking elements needed to design and implement
gigabit local area and wide area networks, including the protocols and
implementations for HiPPI, SONET, ATM, and FCS.

Lecturer:  William E. Stephens, Ph.D., Director, High Speed Switching
and Storage Technology Research, Bellcore Applied Research

For more information (complete course descriptions, outlines, instructor
bios, etc.) contact:


Harvey Stern
U.C. Berkeley Extension/Southbay
800 El Camino Real Ste. 150
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Tel: [phone]   Fax: [phone]

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

Date: Sat, 20 Feb 93 14:11 PST
From: [e-mail] (John Higdon)
Reply-To: John Higdon <[e-mail]>
Organization: Green Hills and Cows
Subject: CPUC Predispositions


In a recent article, references were made to the CPUC public hearings
on Caller-ID. As an example of the pre-disposed bias contained in
these proceedings, allow me to cite the tone at another hearing topic:
IntraLATA competition.

The method of completing calls within the LATA but with another
carrier should intraLATA toll competition eventually be approved has
long ago been decided by the CPUC, who caved in to Pac*Bell. There
will be no presubscription as there now is with interLATA calling. For
instance, after approval if I wish to call San Francisco (in my
"service area") on any carrier other than Pac*Bell, I MUST dial the
carrier code (10XXX) before the number. The only default carrier
allowed is Pac*Bell.

Someone at the hearing (was it I?) mentioned that having to dial a
five-digit number before every call gave Pac*Bell a distinct
competitive advantage for intraLATA traffic. None other than the
Administrative Law Judge himself was quick to point out (even to the
point of interrupting the current speaker) that inexpensive dialers
were available and that it was "a simple matter" to use them to
prepend the carrier codes. And this was the prevailing attitude:
having to dial a five digit code was a trivial matter and not worth
considering.

Now let us enter our time and space machine and go to a Caller-ID
hearing. Suddenly we find that having to dial *67 before the number of
those from whom we wish to hide our phone number is an insurmountable
task, capable of being performed by only the most brilliant and
technically-minded individuals. The prevailing attitude: it is too
hard to remember to dial a three-key code before making an anonymous
call, therefore the default should be "private".

It is amazing how the pre-disposed agenda changes at the CPUC
hearings.  And it is funny: the same tired old activists were at both
meetings!


John Higdon  |   P. O. Box 7648   |   [phone]     |       FAX:
[e-mail] | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Jim Gottlieb)
Subject: Let's Do a Figure-8
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Jim Gottlieb)
Organization: Info Connections, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1993 09:14:55 GMT


[e-mail] (Bob Goudreau) writes:

> do I detect a little antipathy :-) toward interchangeable area
> codes?  Seriously, what other dialing plan would you propose instead?

I, for one, would seriously suggest a change to eight-digit numbers.
Think of it; a simple change where every existing number in the
country has a certain digit added to the front of it, and it's done.
No more area code splits, at least for the next 20 years.

And no problem of dialing a number and finding it disconnected (or
answered by an unknown party) because the prefix was changed to some
unknown area code.  Or worse, you assume the company went out of
business.  With an eighth digit added, you always know what to do,
even five or ten years after the change.  Here in Tokyo, where such a
change occurred two years ago, there are plenty of signs that still
show a seven-digit number.  But it's no problem; everyone knows to add
a '3' to the front.

Contrast that to the situation in Los Angeles, where one now never
knows what area code one is in while out of familiar territory (and it
matters because 1 + NPA + NXX-XXXX to your own area code is denied).
Directory Assistance, as already mentioned in these screens, is
another problem.  You know that someone lives somewhere in Los
Angeles.  But if you don't know where in Los Angeles, you'll have to
make three directory assistance calls.

I would even be so bold to suggest that after the conversion to
eight-digit telephone numbers, L.A. go back to a single area code.

I often try to feel for those poor souls who don't read Telecom
Digest.  I look on a piece of equipment here in Japan and call the
number printed to ask a question.  It's a +1 312 number.  When I reach

a telco recording, I know to try +1 708 instead.  But how many people
in Japan know to do that?

Eight-digit numbers are the answer.


Jim Gottlieb         Info Connections, Tokyo, Japan
<[e-mail]>     In Japan: <[e-mail]>
Fax: [phone]     Voice Mail: [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Paul Kubinski)
Subject: Caller ID Display With RS-232 Interface Wanted
Date: 20 Feb 1993 15:52:28 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Reply-To: [e-mail]


Hello to all,

 From the responses I've received I'm not sure I framed my question
correctly.  Here it is once again (with a diagram and brief
explanation of the desired integration with the customer application).

Backround: Small manufacturing company wants to make their customer
service application more "responsive". They would like to pull the
Caller-ID of the incoming call and use it to key a database retrieval.
They want to do this today, under SunOS, and not use native ISDN
connections to their Sun server. The number of incoming customer
service lines will be small, probably two or three.

Idea: For the most part, Caller-ID is available in the metro area. One
can purchase a Caller-ID display unit for $50 or so from several
sources (ie. AT&T phone centers, Radio Shack). I've heard that some of
the newer caller id display units have RS-232 connections which may be
used to capture the calling phone number's digits (in ASCII?) and send
this info to a computer or a serial printer. Does anyone know if these
devices w/RS-232 output exist? If so, can you point me towards the
vendor of this item?

Big picture diagram:

               RS-232
   Sun Server--------------caller-id..........incoming phone line
       |                       box           :
       |                                     :
       |                                  telephone
       |   local Ethernet
|-------------------------------------|
           |                   |
           |                   |
      Sun Client          Sun Client


Any alternate ideas are welcome.

Cheers!


PAK

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

From: [e-mail] (John Braden)
Subject: Long Subscriber Loop Problems
Date: 20 Feb 1993 19:16:38 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc.


I've got a problem with high-speed modem communication and I hope
somebody can help.  My home phones are located at the end of a 56,000
foot. local loop (copper wire) from the central office (as measured by
the lineman at the network interface).  The signal level I read (using
an at%l) from my modem connection is -33 to -34dB down from the 0dBm
switch reference level.  The lineman's box said 35dB.  It also said
this is acceptable for a voice-grade line.  I checked with the
Telecommunications Division of the Massachusetts Public Utilities
Department, and was told that there is nothing in the tariff which
defines an acceptable signal level for a telphone connection.  I've
been told by others that typical losses should be about 5dB through
the central office and 8db on the local loop.

After their visit, the phone company agreed to put a "bridge lifter"
(which someone else called bridge clips) in to help the signal level,
but I noticed no improvement.  As a result of the attenuation
distortion present on my lines, I cannot establish a V.32bis LAP-M
connection and have some problems with a plain V.32 LAP-M connection.
I'm using Zoom V.32bis modems with rev. 2.0 PROMs (Rockwell chip set)
on both ends.  I need some information and advice on my alternatives:

1. What is a "bridge lifter" (or bridge clips)?

2. Are there ANY modems which do well with -35dBm signal levels?

3. Is there a way I could improve the signal on my side of the network
   interface?

4. Is there anything I can do to get acceptable signal levels included
   in the published tariff for Massachusetts?

5. I investigated the cost of a foreign exchange with a closer central
   office and an analog FDDA circuit from my central office, but these
   are just too expensive.  Is there an alternative I missed?

6. Should I just give up & be glad I can sometimes connect at V.32 speeds?

Thanks for your help!


John Braden     [e-mail]

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End of TELECOM Digest V13 #119
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