A Beginner's Guide to the Internet/INTERNET.ISO/text/telediag/tc13-095.txt

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TELECOM Digest     Sun, 14 Feb 93 19:31:15 CST    Volume 13 : Issue 95

Index To This Issue:                     Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    900 Numbers Tarnished Beyond Repair? (James Deibele)
    We Have it Good in California ... NOT (Rich Greenberg)
    GTE Payphone With Sprint LD: Who Makes Refunds? (Gerrold T. Sithe)
    RJ-11 Jack on French Modem (Lars Poulsen)
    How Does Video Phone Work? What Software is Used On-line? (Danial Ho)
    Handheld AMPS Cellular - Never Below Full Power (600mw)? (Lauren Weinstein)
    Looking For Cheap Used Dialogic Boards (John V. Jaskolski)
    Great Magazine Article About FAX (Jim Haynes)
    IXO.TAP.protocol in Archive (Brad S. Hicks)
    What Number do I Dial From My Phone to Get My Phone to Ring? (J. Jaskolski)
    DS0 Portion of a T1 (Fred R. Stearns)
    V & H to Latitude/Longitude? (Tom Libert)
    Does Anyone Know Tellab's Phone Number? (John V. Jaskolski)
    Bell Canada Charging for 411 (Tony Pelliccio)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (James Deibele)
Subject: 900 Numbers Tarnished Beyond Repair?
Organization: TECHbooks --- Public Access UNIX --- [phone]
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1993 22:43:51 GMT


I suppose that legally there may have been reasons for accepting
anything and everything to put on a 900 number -- the big long-distance
carriers had to do it to keep their "common carrier" status.  But it
seems to have been really short-sighted.

I was talking to a developer friend, and he was interested in 900
numbers as a way of selling his shareware: I'd set up a normal
DOS-based BBS for him, and people could call up and download the
program.  He'd only make a few dollars per download, but he'd have the
money without having to take phone orders or mail out floppies.  Say
he got a steady number of calls, five or ten a day at a profit of
$5-10 each call. He'd be making a little over $1000 month after
deducting the price of 900 setup charges and usage charges.

He'd be happy with that, his customers would be looking at $15-$20 for
his program, and the phone company would make its chunk, too.  We
figured that uncollectibles would be small -- it'd be hard to argue
with a straight face that "I called that 900 number by mistake and
stayed on for an hour.  And then I called back the next day for
another hour (to get some of his add-ons) by mistake too".

So I've poked around a little bit, and it's been interesting: 900
number service providers are not listed in the local directory, nor do
any of the long distance carriers advertise that they do 900 service.
They're not listed in the telecom archives, at least not under any
obvious file name.  Calling Sprint, I got a package of information
showing page after page of restrictions on what could and could not be
done.

One of the restrictions was a maximum of $15 a call, which figures out
to $.25/minute.  Problem is, they charge .19, .24, or .22 cents a
minute depending on how much you use -- starts low, jumps at 50,000
minutes, drops a bit at 250,000 minutes.  He'd almost certainly always
be in the low end, so if someone could download all of his program in
a few minutes (say they were using V.32bis), he'd be able to make more
money than if somebody were to download at 2400.  1200 would be close
to break-even, and 300 simply couldn't be supported.

I'm glad to see that Sprint does some kinds of restrictions on 900
numbers.  I know that when I hear "900" I immediately start thinking
"sleaze, sleaze".  It's just too bad that with Sprint he can't charge
$25 for a call, get the customer's name and address, and mail out a
disk and printed manual.  Or do whatever it is he'd like to in terms
of charging X price for Y benefits.

Locally, the State of Oregon uses a 976 number to give road
conditions.  But mostly I see this type of stuff subsidizing the local
newspapers, which use 976 numbers for "personals", or on the cable
channels in "psychic" ads.  ("It's like a vacation for your mind."
goes one ad.)  This is really too bad -- there've been times that I've
wanted a transcript of a show, but it's a pain to get out the
checkbook and mail off a check and letter.

Will 900/976 numbers ever be "cleaned up?" is my general,
philosophical question?  And more specifically, is there a 900 service
provider aimed at people like my friend, who's selling a tangible
product?  One where he won't have to subsidize all the chargebacks
from people pissed at being charged $4/minute for IQ tests (another ad
that runs frequently)?


[e-mail]                   "2091 newsgroups & nothing on ..."
PDaXs gives free access to news & mail. [phone] - 1200/2400, N81
Full internet (ftp, telnet, irc) access available. Voice: [phone]


[Moderator's Note: Even 900 sex lines are not necessarily bad. The
good or bad comes from the way the operator of the service wishes to
handle it. It is true there are far more ripoffs than there are good
900 services (sex or otherwise), but there are information providers
giving value for the money via 900. There are premium lines charging
as little as a dollar for a minute or two, and many people doing what
your friend is doing; selling books, software, technical support and
more over a 900 line. Done properly, it can be profitable without
being a ripoff in the process.   PAT]

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

Date: Sun 14 Feb 93 12:19:16 PST
From: [e-mail] (Rich Greenberg)
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: We Have it Good in California ... NOT


 From today's (2/12) {L A Times}, an item in the "Only In LA" column
by Steve Harvey:

Another Cellular Phone Scare Story:

You've heard the reports that those trendy high-tech gadgets could be
dangerous to your health.  But what about to your pocketbook?

During a federal drug trial in L.A., a rep for a cellular company
produced the suspects' phone records -- including calls that didn't go
through.  She pointed out that the lucky prosecutors had unusually
extensive records because users of such phones in the L.A. area are
billed even for calls that aren't answered.

Out of curiousity, Judge Dickran M. Tevrizian Jr. asked wether there
were any areas where users are not charged for uncompleted calls.

"Just about anywhere else," the rep answered.


Rich Greenberg      Work: [e-mail]   310-417-8999
N6LRT               Play: [e-mail]       310-649-0238
What?   Me speak for Amdahl?  Surely you jest....

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

From: [e-mail] (Gerrold T. Sithe)
Subject: GTE Payphone With Sprint LD: Who Makes Refunds?
Date: 14 Feb 1993 12:55:16 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)


        I once called long distance on a GTE payphone with Sprint for
its default carrier.  The call was abnormally cut off as was a second
attempt.  I called the GTE operator about a refund.

        She said since Sprint was the long distance carrier, I had to
call them for a refund.  So I called the Sprint operator.  She said it
was a GTE payphone that took my coins, so only GTE could make the
refund.  I again called a GTE operator who again insisted Sprint was
responsible.  So I again called a Sprint operator who again insisted
GTE was responsible.

        At this point I stomped away from the payphone, unable to make
my call, unable to get a refund, and pretty damn mad.  Anyone know
which company was responsible for the refund in this case?


[Moderator's Note: All telephone companies act as collection agents
for all other telephone companies. That is, you deposit coins in the
phone of one company and internally they pay the other companies
involved. You use your calling card from one telco to originate a call
via another telco and the second telco bills the first one who in turn
bills your account. Whoever collected your money should refund your
money and reverse any transactions generated as a result back to
wherever they came from; then that telco accepts the chargeback and
reverses it back to whoever originally got the credit from them, etc.

Since you put coins in the coin box, the only mechanism for refunding
coins collected in error is by either returning the coins in the mail
to the customer or issuing credit to a telephone bill (with some telco
somewhere). GTE would then bill the offsetting charge to the inter-
telco account for Sprint -- to the same place they had previously
billed the credit for the coins they had colleted from you.  I doubt
anyone would investigate to see *whose* facilities caused the abnormal
termination of your call. I suppose Sprint could refuse to accept the
chargeback saying it was GTE facilities at fault and reverse the
chargeback to GTE, but even the $5 per hour clerk at either end
handling the paperwork (no actual *money* ever changes hands between
telcos -- just an unending series of IOUs passed back and forth every
day) would soon realize there was a limited return for the time
involved in handing IOUs back and forth and would find it within his
authorization to write it off to customer goodwill. Prior to divesti-
ture, AT&T had a department called "Separations and Settlements" which
employed a few hundred people who handed IOU's back and forth between
the various Bell companies, AT&T, GTE and all the independent telcos.
Actual money would change hands between the bunch of them maybe once a
year or so as needed to zero things out. The rest of the time all that
they passed among themselves were slips of paper.  PAT]


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

Date: Sun, 14 Feb 93 17:38:21 PST
From: [e-mail] (Lars Poulsen)
Subject: RJ-11 Jack on French Modem


A French built modem showed up on my desk today for evaluation of
software compatibility. I need to see if I can get it to speak to the
PBX in my lab (a KXT-30810).

The modem came with an RJ-11 like jack on the back, and an interesting
adapter cable with an RJ-11-like plug on one end, and a six-pin
art-deco 25 mm wide by 50 mm high plug with a spade with six contact
ribbons sticking out the back.

My first hope was that I could just attach to the RJ-11, but no such
luck. Visual inspection of the PCB reveals that if we number the pins
1 2 3 4 from left to right, pins 1 and 3 are connected together, and 4
is connected separately, while 2 seems not to be connected.

I connected tip and ring to 1 and 4, and managed to receive RING RING
RING, but I do not get a "voice" path established. I also have failed
to make outgoing calls.

The PBX provides 26V of battery and 90V of ringing voltage.  This has
been enough for everything else that has been through here.

Does anybody have specific information on French wiring habits?


Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer    Internet E-mail: [e-mail]
CMC Network Products / Rockwell Int'l    Telephone: [phone]
Santa Barbara, CA 93117-3083        TeleFAX:   [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Danial Ho)
Subject: How Does Video Phone Work? What Software is Used On-line?
Organization: Fujitsu NTS
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1993 22:45:43 GMT


I have basically two questions.

1) How does AT&T's video phone work?

AT&T phone can transmit video signal and voice signal at the same
time.  Does the phone transmit two signal frequencies over the same
phone line, or does it merge the two types of data into one byte
stream down the phone line?  Also, if I want to build a video phone
that can talk to AT&T's phone, what standard or protocol should I
follow?

2) If I want to provide on-line services, are there any software
libraries that I can purchase to help me write the program?  The
libraries should provide high level functions so I can call them
instead of setting bits and bytes directly in the program.

If you know of the answers or can tell me where I can find the
appropriate reference material, I would really appreciate it.


Thank you,

Daniel Ho

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

Date: Sun, 14 Feb 93 11:50 PST
From: [e-mail] (Lauren Weinstein)
Subject: Handheld AMPS Cellular -- Never Below Full Power (600mw)?


Greetings.  We've now seen a variety of conflicting reports regarding
AMPS power control.  I have messages from three different people
working in the industry each describing contrary situations, and all
of them claiming to base their information on power control message
statistics.  It's starting to look like geographic and administrative
decisions may result in different use or non-use of AMPS power control
in different areas.

But ... we've now strayed from the original reason for this
discussion.  We were talking about radiation from handheld cellular
phones.  We've recently seen messages (including in this Digest) from
cell folk saying that even in areas where AMPS car phones are power
controlled, handheld phones are still being held at their full power
of 600mw at all times.  It would be interesting if somebody could
address this issue directly.  Are there systems where handheld AMPS
phones are routinely being ordered down below their max of 600mw?
Obviously, if power control isn't being *used* for handheld AMPS
phones, it effectively doesn't exist for those users.


 --Lauren--

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

From: [e-mail] (John V. Jaskolski)
Subject: Looking For Cheap Used Dialogic Boards
Date: 14 Feb 93 19:20:43 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Boston University Dept. of Cognitive and Neural Systems


I am looking for CHEAP USED (old) Dialogic boards.  Specifically, I am
interested in Dialogic's D121 Voice Boards (12-line voice processing
board) older versions are fine; Dialogic's LSI120 Loop Start Interface
(used to interface D121's with analog installations). I want at least
two of each.  Also of interest is the MSI baseboard and any other used
boards.  Anyone who has any of these USED and wants to get rid of them
(or if you know of anyone who might have them) please let me know.


Thank you very much,

John V. Jaskolski

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

From: [e-mail] (Jim Haynes)
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 93 17:52:30 -0800
Subject: Great Magazine Article About FAX


The February, 1993 issue of {IEEE Spectrum}, page 46, has an article
about Fax by Jonathan Coopersmith of Texas A&M.  It's a summary of 150
years of history.  The author is writing a book on the history of the
facsimile machine.


[Moderator's Note: Readers should see an issue of the Digest issued
earlier this weekend for a more detailed review of this article.  PAT]

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

From: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=[e-mail]
Date: 14 Feb 93 16:20:12 GMT
Subject: IXO.TAP.protocol in Archives


Apparently, the only way to get a copy of the IXO/TAP protocol
specification is to own a paging company and read it out of your
paging system's central computer's manual.  Some companies' technical
support staff will provide you with a copy, but most won't.

This finally offended me enough to do something about it.  Someone
from Telebit faxed me a copy; I'm paying that debt forward by rekeying
it into a plain ASCII document, which I've sent to Pat to include in
the Telecom Archives as file IXO.TAP.protocol.  Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Rekeying this document may be bending the Fair Use
doctrine; I'm not enough of a lawyer to know.  The IXO.TAP.protocol
document is closely adapted from chapter 7 of Glenayre Electronics'
publication GLP-3000-180 issue 5, and is Copyright Jan 30, 1991 by
them; I won't bother asserting copyright on my annotations at the end
of it.  Since it's a small portion of the overall work and I'm making
zero dollars and zero cents off of it, and since I consider this
distribution to be both educational and informal, I think my rekeying
of it is legal.  If you (or Glenayre) think otherwise, take it up with
me, not with my employer.


J. Brad Hicks     Internet: mc![e-mail]
X.400: c=US admd=ATTMail prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad


[Moderator's Note: Brad's file will be available in the Archives as of
Monday morning, to be grabbed using anonymous ftp cs.mit.edu.    PAT]

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

From: [e-mail] (John V. Jaskolski)
Subject: What Number do I Dial From My Phone to Get My Phone to Ring?
Date: 14 Feb 93 19:27:18 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Boston University Dept. of Cognitive and Neural Systems


I presently live in Boston.  When I used to live in Milwaukee, WI, I
could dial "97" and the last five digits of my telephone number, push
down and release the hook, hear a tone come over the line, hang up,
and my phone would ring.  Does anyone know what I can dial from Boston
to do the same thing?  In other words What number do I dial from my
phone to get my phone to ring? (From Boston)


Thank You,

John V. Jaskolski



[Moderator's Note: Please reply direct to Mr. Jaskolski.  PAT]

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

From: ddssuprs![e-mail] (Fred R Stearns)
Organization: Dickens Data Systems, Inc.
Subject: DS0 Portion of a T1
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1993 19:40:15 GMT
Organization: Dickens Data Systems, Inc.


How is the A/D and D/A conversion performed to create the digital data
from and analog voice circuit to the 1/24 digital circuits of a T1
service?  Is it CVSD, or seven-bit samples at 8KHz, or something else?


Fred R. Stearns -- [e-mail]

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

From: Tom Libert <[e-mail]>
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 93 14:13:05 EST
Subject: V & H to Latitude/Longitude?


FCC Tariff 4 (available from Bellcore and NECA) provides "vertical and
horizontal" (V & H) coordinates for all wire centers in the US.  There
is a simple way to determine the distance between wire centers using
the V & H coordinates.  Some sort of map projection must have been
used to convert latitude and longitude to V & H; I'd like to invert
that mapping (i.e. convert V & H to lat/long).  Does anyone have
details?  As an incentive, I'll provide a free copy of the latest isue
of NECA Tariff 4 to anyone who provides the anwer.

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

From: [e-mail] (John V. Jaskolski)
Subject: Does Anyone Know Tellab's Phone Number?
Date: 14 Feb 93 19:29:42 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Boston University Dept. of Cognitive and Neural Systems


Does anyone know Tellab's phone number?


Thank you,

John V. Jaskolski

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

Date: Sun, 14 Feb 93 15:21:46 EST
From: Tony Pelliccio <[e-mail]>
Subject: Bell Canada Charging For 411


In most parts of the US it's a fact of life. You're allowed roughly
five free calls, and then after that it's around 25 cents a pop.

Besides, that's why you get a directory every year ... so YOU can look
it up. Now they've given you an incentive. :)


Tony

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

End of TELECOM Digest V13 #95
*****************************