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From [e-mail]  Tue May  9 16:21:18 1995
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TELECOM Digest     Tue, 9 May 95 13:04:30 CDT    Volume 15 : Issue 230

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    MCI's Intra-LATA Call Director Problems (Scot M. Desort)
    Telcos, Film Scripts, Vertical Integration (Chris Roth)
    Caller ID Approved in Anchorage (Ed Bennett)
    World Cellular Report (Steve Geimann)
    Frame-Relay to ISDN and ARA - Impossible? (James M. Haar)
    555 Prefix Goes Public (Greg Monti)
    Cell Phones and Monthly Charges (Jonathan Thatcher)
    One Disaster After Another, it Seems (TELECOM Digest Editor)
    Job Openings at BellSouth (Chendong Zou)
    The Way Sprint Does Business (Lionel C. Ancelet)
    DID: Same as Early SxS Centrex? (Lee Winson)
    Job Opening - Camarillo, California (Matt Noah)

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



An MCI rep visited my office in October of 94 and talked me into
switching over from AT&T. After discussing various options, he
recommended the VISION plan. He also said they would install
Intra-LATA dialers to enable us to route that traffic over MCI (for
those who don't know, these boxes provide a false dial tone to you,
receive the digits you dial, and do an internal lookup. If the call is
an intra-LATA toll call, it prefixes your digits with 10222, seizes CO
dial tone, dials the number, then connects you to the call and drops
out of the picture. Local calls, 800, and 411/Operator are just passed
through to the CO without prefix). Great -- rolling all of our
discounts into one plan. Our combined intra/interLATA/800 traffic
averages $700 a month. We also have Bell Atlantic's Centrex CustoPak
(mini-Centrex). "No problem, the dialers work fine with Centrex ..."
says the rep.

First bill comes in. It's obvious to me, and the MCI rep at the "Proof
Positive" Service Center that we obviously should never have been put
on VISION, since VISION volume discounts start at +$1,000. Rep
graciously
switched me over to MCI Preferred. Switch complete, but 800 traffic
still coming over AT&T network. Dialers get installed by sub-contractor.
First day, centrex transfer won't work (Centrex custopak designates
lines as #XX, XX being 20-49, rather than the traditional XXXX). Three
days later, dialers reprogrammed remotely.

Over the course of the next two or three months, bills were coming in
for the closed VISION accounts, for FAX calling cards that were never
ordered, and for 800 service monthly charges (traffic still being
carried over AT&T). After 20 or 30 calls to Customer Service (I had
also received listings with at least seven different numbers for
Customer Service -- I am sure I now know why we are running out of 800
numbers in this country), bills started to get straightened out. Tried
to call a support service with a 900 number. Dialers blocked 900
numbers,
returning a corny reorder tone. No instruction by me to block 900. We
use these services quite often for network support. Called and had the
dialers reprogrammed again.

Receieved our April VISION bill (remember, this VISION account has
been closed since November). To my surprise, there was a *recurring*
charge for $700!!  The description on the bill -- "INTRALATA CALL
DIRECTORS". I flipped! The rep never told me there would be any charge
whatsoever for using these dialers to route traffic over *their*
network. Called my *always-out-of-the-office* rep and left a furious
message on voice mail. In the meantime, we switched our voice mail
system, and now needed to utilize the call forwarding feature we get
free with Centrex CustoPak. Pick up the line, dial *72. Expecting
second dial tone -- got the Intelogic Trace dialer reorder tone. Now,
I could *maybe* see them not knowing about the mini-Centrex #XX code,
but *72 has been around since the beginning of CLASS services. I
cannot believe these dialers would be installed with *XX codes
blocked. Calmly I walked into my wire closet and ripped the power
cords for the dialers out of the wall.

Rep finally called back, left a message for me stating that it was an
"error" and would be corrected. Why in the world would I pay $700 per
month or quarter for these dialers if their purpose is to save me a
few cents on each intra-lata call. If I save, say 5 cents per minute,
I would need to talk 14000 minutes to break even on the dialers. Given
my intralata volume of $300 per month, this is highly unlikely.

Moral of the story -- if you utilize *any* telephone features out of
the norm (CF, Centrex,900/976) and are deciding on putting these
dialers in, make sure you *explicitly* explain your requirements to a
technician. Support for the operation of these dialers is difficult to
obtain from MCI. All re-programming requests are routed through the
local sales rep (who is never in the office).  I know that AT&T is
also installing these dialers in NJ and other states where they are
tariffed for intra-LATA traffic, but they may use better dialers, or
have a better plan in place for supporting the end-users. Also make
sure you ask for a written confirmation of the installation and/or
recurring charges for the use of these dialers from your carrier.

The dialers installed by MCI are made by Intelogic Trace/Mitel. They
make a loud annoying clunk when they release the call to the CO (my
headset users have complained about this noise, but just started
getting used to it before I pulled the plugs on the damn things).


Scot M. Desort            [phone]
Garden State Micro, Inc.  [phone] Fax

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




The Regional Bell Operating Companies are using the First Amendment to
demand the right to purchase preexisting cable systems within their
service areas. And you thought their Rotary speeches for the last
twenty years meant that they'd compete with preexisting cable
operators!

Will such vertical integration mean that Ameritech, NYNEX, and
BellSouth executives will trip over themselves to bankroll scripts
similar to Silkwood, Roger and Me, Rollerball, The China Syndrome,
Power, The Formula, Norma Rae, Network, the President's Analyst, Bar
Girls, and Deal of the Century?

No. Telcos will scurry away from such projects. Who wants to be
associated with controversy? Vertical and horizontal integration will
increase. Concentration of these multinationals will increase.
(Multinationals? Yes. Take a look at the foreign holdings of the
RBOCs. Ameritech just bought up huge phone systems in New Zealand.
Don't they want us to believe that rising prices for phone service are
thrown back into local service to lower the price for everyone?
Someday?)

Let us hope that cross-subsidization will become part of public
awareness. Cross-subsidization is when an RBOC uses captive consumers
to fund risky and less-necessary services for upscale consumers. Price
of "lifeline" POTS (plain old telephone service) rises artificially to
artificially lower the price of expensive new services that, by and
large, the wealthy want, and could afford in any case.

There's no shortage of former FCC, PUC, and PSC commissioners who will
tell you that this is widespread and simply cannot be policed even
with a small army of investigating accountants.

Once the RBOCs start funding motion pictures, the question will be:
will cross-subsidization becomepart of public awareness? Perhaps
movies are less abstract. And the whole racket will be more relatable
and understandable.

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



On April 28, the Alaska Public Utilities Commission approved a request
by ATU Telecommunications, the LEC serving Anchorage, Alaska, to
provide Caller ID, Last Call Return, and Continuous Redial. Both
per-call and per-line blocking will be offered, and Last Call Return
will be configured so it does not work on blocked calls.

The initial offering will be for residential and single-line businesses
only. ATU expects to have the new services on line by early August.

ATU thus becomes the first Alaskan LEC to offer Caller ID. It was the
single most requested service in our history. You can expect other
Alaskan LECs to file for the service in the near future.


Ed Bennett   Sr. Communications Specialist
ATU Telecommunications, Anchorage AK
907 564-1742   [e-mail]

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



     Scandinavian countries had the highest cellular penetration at
end of 1994, with No. 1 Sweden nearly twice as great as U.S., and
well-established markets still showed sustained growth, U.S. Dept.  of
Commerce report showed.  Sweden had 1.3 million subscribers out of 8.8
million residents, 14.72% penetration, compared with 23 million in
U.S., 8.8%.  Report by International Trade Administration showed 52
million subscribers at year-end, 57% gain over previous year.  U.S.
accounted for 44% of all cellular subscribers.

     World Cellular Market report showed substantial gains in many
developed countries. "This remarkable sustained growth is seen even in
the oldest cellular markets," said Stephanie McCullough, analyst,
Office of Telecommunications.  Data showed substantial growth in
Japan, which exceeded 4 million customers recently after expanding to
3.5 million last year from 2 million in 1993.  Deregulation and
introduction of new digital network "doubled the number of subscribers
added in the first 14 years of cellular service," she said.  Japan
plans to end analog phone sales in April 1996.

     In Europe, Germany had 2.5 million customers, up from 1.8 million
year earlier, Italy grew to 2.2 million from 1.2 million, U.K. to 3.5
million from 1.97 million.  Report showed 9 nations exceeding one
million, with western nations more than 2 million.  "Additional growth
is promised in Europe where 4 new competitors will be licensed in
Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and Austria," McCullough said.
"Around the world, nearly 50 new networks are scheduled to come on
line in 1995."  U.S. growth was 43.9% over 1993.

     Norway followed Sweden in penetration with 13.2%, Finland 12.8%,
Denmark 9.8%.  Trailing U.S. are Singapore, 8.8%; Iceland, 8.3%; Hong
Kong, 7.7%; Kuwait, 6.6%; Canada, 6.5%.  Report showed 47 nations had
at least 1% of population with cellular telephones, but 63 had rates
below 1% with bottom 5 in Ukraine, Ghana, Cuba, Burma, Bangladesh.
Greenland, Virgin Islands, Andorra, Barbados, Fiji, Gambia, Nicaragua,
Angola, Laos, Cuba and Bangladesh had fewer than 1,000 phones each.

     Subscriber base more than doubled in Belgium, Brazil, Chile,
China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Greece,
Hungary, Israel, Korea, Kuwait, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Philippines,
Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, S.  Africa, Sri
Lanka, Turkey, Venezuela.

     Among equipment makers, Ericsson was listed as sole contractor or
joint provider on more than 135 of nearly 530 systems, followed by
U.S.-based Motorola with just over 118.  Both were dominant vendors,
followed by Nokia with more than 47, Siemens at 35, Northern Telecom
30, Plexsys 25, AT&T and NEC 20 each, Philips 13.  U.S. companies were
partners in more than 100 systems, led by AirTouch, AT&T, Bell
Atlantic, BellSouth, GTE, Millicom, Nynex, SBC, U S West.

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



Here is my scenario and question:

I have two offices, #1 is in Santa Rosa, and #2 is in LA.  Both
offices have their own LAN of Macs on ethernet.

Office #2 in LA has an ISDN set up for a couple of telecommuters, who
use ISDN for a high speed ARA (Appletalk Remote Access) line for file
sharing and for some client/server applications, such as 4th Dimension
databases.  Office #2 does not have ISDN internet access.

Office #1 in Santa Rosa will have one Mac as a web server.  A 128K
fraem-relay connection is planned (Netcom).  I want to use another Mac
on the LAN in Office#1 to connect occassionally to office #2 via their
ISDN connection.  I do not want to have an ISDN line in addition to
the frame-relay line installed at office #1.  I would prefer not to
have to get ISDN internet access for office #2, nor change the set up
in office # 2 at all.  What I would like to have happen is to use some
of the bandwith in the 128K frame connection to make a connection to
Office #2 via ISDN, while not disturbing the web server connection
(that is, durring the workstation session with Office #2 in LA, the
web server continues to serve to the web).

Is this possible?  I can't get a consistent answer from either service
providers or hardware vendors (Ascend says yes, Netcom says no, for
example).

I would think that somehow, magically and mysteriously, Pac Bell could
peel off the IP packets destined for Office #2, and reconvert them to
the ISDN (synchronous from packet based ?) protocol, and then
automatically open the ISDN connection to office #2.


Thanks in advance!

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



The following is a summary of a story entitled "Dialing Hollywood's
Number" which appeared in the {Washington Post} on May 5, 1995.

Telephone numbers in the 555 prefix have frequently been used by
Hollywood movie and television writers when one was needed as part of
a plot or script.  Famous past numbers: the Brady Bunch household 555-
6161; Mary Richards 555-7862; Charlie's Angels 555-0267.

Bellcore is now giving out numbers with 555 prefixes to businesses
nationwide.  About 1,400 numbers with 555 prefix have been assigned so
far.  555 numbers work in every North American area code.

Bellcore has still set aside 555-0100 through 555-0199 for use in
movies and TV, but pre-existing movies will still have numbers outside
that range that could now also be assigned to legitimate businesses.

Two issues have not been dealt with:

 -- how to route calls to 555 numbers, which may or may not be toll
calls
 from a given phone;

 -- how to bill for calls to 555 numbers (some could be toll free --
reverse charged).

[Monti note: The story doesn't say whether 555 numbers will be
reachable from every area code, i.e., will 615-555-2222 reach the
same location of the same company as 415-555-2222 does?]


Greg Monti   Arlington, Virginia, USA   [e-mail]

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



Can I purchase a cell phone, not pay monthly fees and still have
access to 911?


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the
way the cellular company is set up, and it also depends on whether or
not the area where you will be using the cell phone has 911 available
to cellular callers. Many areas do not, requiring the caller to dial
a seven digit number instead.   PAT]

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



So today, as I write this, much of New Orleans is pretty well under
water. Some eighteen inches of rain fell during the day and evening
on Monday, and more is expected today.

╖_



Anyone from southern Louisiana available among the readership to give
a summary of telecom conditions there at the present time?


PAT

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



This is posted for a friend, please use the contact info below:

DATE: May 4, 1995

CONTACT: Send text resume to Dr. Eric Kai ([e-mail])

LOCATION: Atlanta, Georgia

COMPANY:

BellSouth Telecommunications, which has revenues in excess of $13
billion and assets of over $28 billion, has several R&D positions
available in the Wireless Service Integration group of the Science &
Technology department.  Our charter is to:

- provide technical support to BellSouth's business units in developing
and
implementing the business strategies for wireless market;

- conduct technical evaluation, requirement specifications,
system/software
engineering, prototype/product development and technical/marketing field
trials;

- R&D technical solutions to offer integrated/enhanced wireless services
to
BellSouth consumers and/or PCS service providers within our region;

- interact with vendor in product selection, requirement definition
and/or
joint development to support wireless products and services.

EXPERIENCE/SKILL:

Successful candidates should possess M.S. or Ph.D. in EE, CS, Telecommun-
ication, or related disciplines.  M.S. with a minimum of three years
of experience (or equivalent) in the wireless telecommunication industry
having solid working knowledge of wireless networks such as cellular,
mobile
data and PCS is required.  Experience on system engineering, fast
prototyping
and software development on wireless product and services is highly
desirable.
Candidates must have expertise in at least one of the area below:

RF Design Area: solid experience in frequency planning, system growth
planning, cell site traffic analysis and RF propagation to conduct the
design/developement of a Radio Planning tool for cellular/PCS network
under CDMA, GSM and TDMA.  Familiar with the air interface standards.

Wireless Data Area: working knowledge with wireless data technologies
such as CDPD, PCS data over CDMA and GSM, and/or other mobile data
applications.

Network Area: knowledge of SS7, ISUP and ISDN signaling and/or
transport. Good understanding of HLR/VLR/AM mobility management under
cellular/PCS for CDMA, TDMA and GSM.  Familiar with IS-41/GSM MAP.
R&D experience in the transparency of integrated wireline and wireless
services using AIN capabilities and other intelligent network
features.

OAM&P Area: experience in numbering plan, CDR/AMA, cellular rate plan,
billing services and downstream data processing and management.
Working background in designing/developing OSS such as PCS/cellular
network managment, PCS performance tuning and traffic analysis,
customer trouble tracking, etc.

PERSONAL:

This individual must have:

- good interpersonal skills to work in a highly competent technical
team;

- motivation to understand the business needs of BellSouth and to find
effective matches between these needs and emerging technologies;

- ability to work in an effective, cooperative manner with other client
organizations within BellSouth as well as external companies.

OTHERS:

- U.S. Permanent Residentship required.

- Head hunters please send resume to Joan Powell @404-332-2131 for
filing.


Chendong Zou                                 Internet: [e-mail]
College of Computer Science, Northeastern University
360 Huntington Avenue #23CN, Boston, MA 02115     Phone: [phone]
WWW: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/zou              Fax:   [phone]

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



 ... looks strange to me.

I currently use a Long Distance Carrier which is not Sprint. A few
weeks ago I receive a phone call from Sprint, about their great new
rates for long distance calls. I say "Send me a letter with the
details of these new rates, then I'll let you know if I'm interested
in switching to you as a LDC".

The next evening, I get another phone call from Sprint. "This is to
confirm you're OK to switch to us", they say. I reply "Not at all. I
said I want a letter from you with your rates. Until then I stick to
my current LDC." They say "OK, we'll send you this letter".

Yesterday evening I want to send a fax overseas. I get a message from
the local telco "Your long distance service has been disconnected,
please call customer service".

I call customer service ... and I learn that my line was just switched
to Sprint! Needless to say, I asked to be switched back immediately to
my original long distance carrier.

I wonder I someone else had the same experience with LDCs literally
*forcing* business from customers?


Lionel


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you have experienced is a very
common
thing. The unofficial name for the theft of accounts by one long
distance
carrier from another is 'slamming', and although it does not happen as
much as it used to, it still is a well-known practice.  Thanks for
passing
along the warning that Sprint telemarketers are still up to their old
tricks.   PAT]

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



Somewhere I read that in the early days of Centrex, step-by-step systems
could be used pretty easily -- just allocate a block of it to that
subscriber.

I believe there were two possibilities.  One, where the equipment was in
the C.O. and every phone had a line to the C.O.  The other, was where
the equipment was on the customer's premises, and served by some trunks.

Say the customer had 555-1000 to 555-1999.  When the C.O. pulsed over to
555-1, the remaining digits would be transmitted over the truck to the
the selectors at the customer's location.  Isn't this the same principle
as DID?


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't know about SxS, but a firm I was
involved with in the middle to late 1960's had centrex provided from a
crossbar office. That particular office did not change to ESS until
about
1973 or so, and when it did the company's centrex changed from crossbar
to ESS along with it. It was sort of a funny changeover, regards how the
handling of calls changed, etc.  They also had an ACD (automatic call
distributor) behind the centrex both when it was crossbar and when it
was upgraded.  One thing telco was forced to do was get their records
for that subscriber in good order; when operating as crossbar, the
subscriber had at one point converted all the rotary dial phones to
touch
tone. Telco only got about half the records updated (out of about six
thousand extensions; this was a good size centrex). Comes the conversion
to ESS over a weekend, and Monday morning half the phones on the system
can't dial out! Their touchtones, although correcting making sounds to
the phone network) were not being recognized because in telco's esteemed
opinion, there were not supposed to be touchtones on those particular
extensions/lines.  After a couple days they had that corrected.     PAT]

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



I am looking to hire a DSP/Telco Systems engineer immediately.  The
candidate should have B.S. (M.S. preferred) in Electrical Engineering
and four to six years experience in DSP systems with an emphasis on
telephony.  My group works on Voice compression, fax, signaling,
telephony (analog and digital) and related systems.

E-mail, fax or mail your resume to:

Matt Noah, Manager     DSP Systems Group
A.C.T. Networks, Inc.  188 - Camino Ruiz
Camarillo, CA  93012   (805)-388-2474
fax:  [phone]         [e-mail]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V15 #230
******************************