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TELECOM Digest     Thu, 4 May 95 10:06:00 CDT    Volume 15 : Issue 221

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Very Unhappy Customer Writes to MCI (Philip L. Dubois)
    Suggestions For Two or Three Line PC Based Phone System?
(karlca@delphi)
    Florida 305/954 Split - Still Happening? (Greg Monti)
    Voice/Data Multiplexer for 64kb Leased Line? (Magnus Harlander)
    Taking my Laptop to the UK (Charles Ogilvie)
    Area Code 503 Split in Oregon (Leonard Erickson)
    Book Review: "Student's Guide to the Internet" by Clark (Rob Slade)
    Looking For Nationwide Data/Voice Providers (Jeff Tyler)
    High Speed RS422 I/F For PC (Russell George)
    Roaming in NYC (Tony Harminc)
    Com Problems With USR Sportster V.34 (Thor Stromsnes)
    Nokia 2110 vs Motorola 8200 (Nick Pitfield)
    Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? (John E.
Brissenden)
    Caller ID Format Varies? (Charles Copeland)
    Question From Brussels About Telecom in Latin America (Aurora
Ferlin)
    Re: ThinkPad Modem in India (Martin Kealey)
    Re: ThinkPad Modem in India (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh)

TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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----------------------------------------------------------------------



3 May 1995

MCI
P.O. Box 7400
London, KY  40742-7400

Re:  acct. # ------------

Sir/madam:

Having extricated myself from your company's incompetent clutches
(by switching to Sprint), I was content to let the matter rest.  You,
regrettably, were not.  Your employees continue to call to waste even
more of my time.  I therefore write to tell you not to call me -- more
specifically, not to call any of the numbers for which you formerly
provided service.

I was induced to switch to MCI from AT&T by, inter alia, your
representation that I would receive a certificate for a month's
free service (up to $1000), which certificate I could apply against
any month's bill I chose.  Your salesperson also made specific
representations about various services like account codes and 800
service.  These representations included prices.  I ordered some of
your products in reliance on these representations.

It soon became apparent that the service I received was not what I
ordered and the prices were not what they had been represented to be.
It took several weeks and much phone conversation and correspondence to
get it all straightened out.  Worse, the free-service certificate never
arrived.  Ever.  When I inquired, I was given some numbers over the
phone and told to simply attach a note containing these numbers to the
bill to which I wanted the certificate to apply and everything would
be fine.  So I did, and it wasn't.

Not long thereafter, I got a dunning letter saying that my account was
seriously past due.  It turned out that the certificate had not been
applied as I'd directed but instead to the most recent invoice.  I was
told that I should have received no dunning notice or calls, that my
account was current, and that everything was taken care of.  Shortly
after that, I got another dunning notice and more phone calls about my
past-due account.  This time, I was told that the certificate was
applied as MCI chose to apply it and that if I didn't pay the requisite
amount by the requisite date, my service would be cut off.

I know that the complaints of we few are far outweighed by the income
you get from the thousands of new subscribers you entice by false
promises of reliability and integrity.  I know that your contempt for
your customers is matched only by your greed for market share and that
you couldn't care less about anything that doesn't get the attention of
the FCC, which this letter almost certainly won't.  Nevertheless, I will
relate the foregoing facts to my friends and family, send a copy of this
letter to the FCC, and post this letter on the Internet, where maybe a
few thousand of the millions of Internet users will read it.

You are instructed not to call me or my family or my business or to send
me any solicitation materials by mail or otherwise.  You have wasted
enough of my time.


Sincerely,

Philip L. Dubois

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



Greetings,

I have a small office that is slowly increasing in size and business
and I have always been able to use one phone line and one person
answering it.  I now have a need to add one or two more lines but I
cannot hire another person quite yet to handle this (yet).

My requirements are for some type of system that will pick up my
incoming calls if someone is on line one, give them a welcome message,
allow them to hold until line one is available, and then forward the
call.  I would like the option of requiring them to leave a message
after some given time and the important part here is the ability to
answer more than one call at the same time.  Hunting them together via
Nynex is no problem from what I understand.

One solution would be to put a $50 answering machine on each line but
obviously it does not forward the call and its kinda 'crude' .  I have
checked around with some local company's and most have recommend PBX
systems or Key systems and then buy the software for the PC and link
them.  These have ranged in costs from $2000 to $10,000 and up for
complete systems.

My budget though does not begin to come close to that so any
suggestions, pointers or product recommendations that are within a
range of $500-$1000 would be appreciated.  Note: I do have some PC's
sitting around to use and I can "combine" several products to maybe
meet my needs.


TIA,

Karl      [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why don't you try a combination of PC
and voicemail you build yourself, possibly using Big Mouth or something
similar?  Have a PC answer your second line with a message that goes
something like this: "Thank you for calling; right now all agents are
busy with other customers, but while you are waiting several recorded
messages are available which may answer your questions, and of course
if you wish you may speak to an agent as soon as one becomes available.
For information about X, press one; for information about Y, press two.
Press zero at any time to wait for an agent to become available. If you
are calling from a rotary dial phone, please hold until an agent is
available."

You then take the half dozen or so 'most commonly asked questions and
answers' (if there is such a thing in your business, such as your hours
of operation, location, etc) and make little messages behind the various
buttons which can be pressed. After each message is played out, another
message comes on which says "Agents are still busy, please make another
selection or press zero if you wish to wait for an agent to become
available." They then press other buttons to hear other messages, or
simply wait. If they press zero to reach an agent, in the case of Big
Mouth at least, the transfer function causes the speaker attached to
announce to you that 'call is holding, please pick up the phone.' As
soon as you pick up the line and press a touch tone key on your end,
Big Mouth shuts itself off and waits for the next caller.

If you combine the Big Mouth transfer function with Call Transfer from
your local telco, then once the waiting call has been passed over to you
on the first line, Big Mouthh is freed up to take another call on
the overflow line and hold it until you become available.     PAT]

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



What has happened with the Florida 305/954 area code split?  My old
notes say it was supposed to have taken effect in early March, 95.  A
later note says authorities were debating whether a split or an overlay
was appropriate.  Haven't seen anything on it in comp.dcom.telecom in
the
intervening two months.  Any news from the Sunshine State?


Greg Monti      [e-mail]

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



We are looking for a data/voice multiplexer for a leased 64kb digital
line. We want to use some portion of the bandwidth for phone calls to
and from
a PBX extension and the rest for IP traffic. The leased line speaks
the G.703 protocol (there would be an alternative using I.430). Any
information about implementations, producers and distributors is
appreciated.


Thanx,

Magnus V. Harlander --- GeNUA    [e-mail]
Gesellschaft f"ur Netzwerk-      [e-mail]
und Unix-Administration ---      Tel: [phone]
--- and Physics Dep. TUM ---     Fax: [phone]

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



Does anybody know what I will need to purchase in order to use my
lapop in London and surrounding areas?  I think I will need some sort
of power adaptor and some sort of modem adapter.  If you have any
suggestions, I would really appreciate hearing them.  Also, does
anybody know any good PPP internet providers in the UK?


Thanks very much,

Charles   Please reply via email to: [e-mail]

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



According to tonight's news, NPA 503 will split. There had been
discussion about having an overlay, but apparently the comments to the
PUC were in favor of the split.

The new NPA will be 541. It will cover most of the state. Only the NW
corner of the state will keep 503. This includes Portland and Salem.
My guess is that it'll follow the LATA boundary from the coast until it
starts to turn south (somewhere east of Salem) and then the AC boundary
will head north. This is based on the crude maps shown so far, and a
glance at the LATA boundaries shown in the phone book.

The permissive period starts Nov 5, 1995 and ends Jun 30, 1996.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Around here somewhere I have a list of
which prefixes go where according to a reader who sent in the
information
and I shall try to publish that soon.    PAT]

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



BKSTDINT.RVW   950320

"Student's Guide to the Internet", Clark, 1995, 1-56761-545-7,
U$14.99/C$20.95
%A   David Clark [e-mail]
%C   201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN   46290
%D   1995
%G   1-56761-545-7
%I   Alpha Books
%O   U$14.99/C$20.95 800-858-7674 [e-mail]
%P   314
%T   "Student's Guide to the Internet"

Yes, this is well-suited to be a student's guide.  There is just
enough information on the various aspects of the Internet (well, we
could do with maybe just a touch more information on SLIP) without
going into turgid detail.  The tone is very light; almost, but perhaps
not quite, flippant.

After a general introduction to the types of applications, chapter two
talks about getting connected.  This topic still gets the weakest
coverage in Internet texts.  (The fact that this is understandable,
given the range of options, does not help the frustrations of the
uninitiated.)  The coverage here, while still weak, is better than
most.  Chapters three through ten give brief, but basic, information
on UNIX, email, Usenet news, Gopher, World Wide Web, ftp, IRC and
WAIS.  The selling of Gopher and WWW tends to be a bit
overenthusiastic, but Clark redeems himself with the first realistic
coverage of SlipKnot that I can recall.

Chapter eleven is a topical catalogue of resources, while twelve has a
list of access providers (including Freenets).  Chapter thirteen is a
miscellaneous "FAQ" (Frequently Asked Questions list) of random
information.  There is a helpful appendix listing Internet client
software and where to get it.

The tone and level are easily appropriate for the target audience.  A
good, basic starting point for Internet exploration.


copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995   BKSTDINT.RVW   950320. Distribution
permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's
book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest.


Vancouver      [e-mail]         | "Is it plugged in?"
Institute for  [e-mail]      | "I can't see."
Research into  Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1/  | "Why not?"
User                      .fidonet.org  | "The power's off
Security       Canada V7K 2G6           |  here."

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



My company is ready to submit an RFP for a nationwide voice/data
network.  We are replacing an existing uucp/ppp data network and
leased voice trunking with a private internet to tie our NYC office to
five regional offices around the company and to our existing Internet
connection in NYC.  We are open to all technologies with the only
stipulation being that the vendor must provide a total voice/data
solution and end to end technical sufficiency.  We plan to invite
anyone that claims to run a telco to respond to this RFP so if you are
interested, email me to conserve bandwidth.  We plan to release the
RFP in the next few days so a prompt response would be appreciated.


Jeff S. Tyler Pencom System Administration| |[e-mail] [home]
[voice/fax] 508-297-4316/3453 | |[e-mail] [office] 617-443-1111

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



We need a source for a high speed RS422 interface for a PC. As you
know the RS422 I/F is speced at 10 MB/s. Yet, the only serial cards we
have been able to find so far are speced at 115.2 kB/s. We really need
1-2 MB/s for our application. We need to synchronously pump blocks of
data to a telemetry bit sync which has an RS422 I/F.



╖_


Thanks in advance for your help,

Russell

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



What's the current state of affairs with cellular roaming in New York
City?  The local Cantel office first said it was turned off, then said
it was back on, and finally said that they didn't really know and I
should just try it when I get there!  I did try calling the NYC "A"
system roam port and keying in my own cellphone's number (the phone
was with me here in Toronto), and received an immediate reorder tone.
I would expect their switch to at least try paging my phone before
giving up, so perhaps this means things are not good.  All I really
want to do is make local calls, but it would be nice to be able to
receive the odd call too.


Tony H.

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



I am having some problems with my PPP internet hookup. After about
10-15 min online, my V.34 Sportster just "hangs up". I use trumpet
winsock and netscape software, and I have set the internal baud rate
to 115.200, in order to handle compession. Is this a hardware problem,
or what?


Thor

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



Greetings,

I'm about to buy a GSM phone, and have settled on either the Nokia 2110
or
the Motorola 8200. Does anybody have good or bad experiences or opinions
about these that they could share with me.

Also, could somebody tell me where I can find the files describing how
to
re-program certain things on these phones: eg I had the file for the
Nokia
101 last year and was able to change both the lock code and the start-up
message.


Regards,

Nick Pitfield

EMAIL     : [e-mail]
SNAILMAIL : Nortel-DASA Network Systems GmbH & Co KG,
An der Bundesstrasse 31, 88090 Immenstaad/Bodensee, Germany
VOICEMAIL : Germany [phone]    ESN 565-2057
            UK      [phone]    ESN 590-4476

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



Does Mexico / Central America use a digit analysis method for
calculating charges, or a metered pulse method?  What I'm actually
refering to is the SMDR output on a PBX.  I believe the U.S. is in the
minority in using digit analysis, or am I wrong?


Thanks,

John

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

0400))


The Bellcore spec GR-30 for Caller-ID format dictates it shall have
three parts:

1) 30 bytes of 55H (preamble);
2) 70-150ms of marks;
3) caller id data.

However I've noticed on our lines to GTE here in Dallas doesn't always
follow this standard. 90 percent of the time GTE conforms to the
standard, but the other 10 percent the preamble is entirely missing.

I wrote firmware to conform to the GR-30 Bellcore document, and now I
find telco doesn't conform. I've verified the missing preamble with
both my firmware and storage scope.

Curiously, the cheapo Radio Shack caller id box works just fine
whether the preamble is present or missing.

Is this some older equipment out there that conformed to some outdated
standard unknown to me?

Anybody know out there?


KC5LWF [e-mail]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So -- take a hint from the Radio Shack
people and write your firmware to accept the preamble if it shows up
and live without it if it doesn't. If the preamble is absolutely
essential to your application, then write a default one which your
firmware will apply when the 'real' one is missing. And how, you ask,
is the firmware going to know if its missing or not?  Look for some
unique characters or string of characters which appears in the preamble
but nowhere else. If that does not come through right away then swap
your own in there and proceed.     PAT]

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



I am a student at the Free University of Brussels and I am working on a
paper about telecommunications in Latin America. Any information about
policy, satellite communications, informatics or telephony is welcome.


Thank you,

[e-mail] (FERLIN AURORA) Student Communicatiewetenschappen
Vrije Universiteit Brussel


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do any of you folks ever go to the
library
and do your own research? Please don't keep asking me to do your
homework
for you.   Thank you.   PAT]

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



> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sid, in the future when you want to
have
> 'local calls' go to a different number, you might want to include an
> *area code* in your .signature so people can tell what is local and
what
> is not ...  PAT]

In the future when you want to have 'national calls' go to a different
number,
you might want to include a *country code* in your .signature so people
can
tell which zone you're calling from.


      Martin D Kealey             voice          fax            lat/long
home: [e-mail]  0-9-8150460   0-9-8150529
36.88888S/174.72116E
work: [e-mail]       0-9-3788611   0-9-3789010
36.85300S/174.77900E

Oops, sorry wrong .sig, try this one :-)

      Martin D Kealey             voice          fax            lat/long
home: [e-mail] [phone] [phone]
36.88888S/174.72116E
work: [e-mail]      [phone] [phone]
36.85300S/174.77900E


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, technically you are correct, but
since
by default, the Digest is primarily a USA thing -- about 90 percent of
the
readers are in the USA -- I suppose the country code is not absolutely
essential unless you are from another country.  Nice thought though.
PAT]

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



> I have an IBM 340 ThinkPad with an internal 96/24 fax-modem.  I will
> be taking this laptop back with me to South India (Hyderabad) later
> this year. [...] In the manual it says to use the internal fax/modem
> in the US only. What I would like to know is this because of some sort
> of regulatory warning -- or is it that these modems just won't work
> overseas (specifically I am interested in using it in India). Any

You're not supposed to use modems that are not locally approved here,
but they work fine. I don't see why there should be any problem; while
I haven't used a ThinkPad modem, the internal modem in Apple PowerBooks
work OK.

Not all places in India will have RJ11 sockets handy.


Rishab Aiyer Ghosh    [e-mail]
[e-mail]   Vox [phone] Voxmail 3760335
H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA

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

End of TELECOM Digest V15 #221
******************************