A Beginner's Guide to the Internet/INTERNET.ISO/text/telediag/tc13-096.txt

Text File | 1993-02-16 | 15.8 KB | 437 lines

TELECOM Digest     Sun, 14 Feb 93 21:12:30 CST    Volume 13 : Issue 96

Index To This Issue:                     Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Pacific Bell, Caller ID, and PRIVATE (Graham Toal)
    Re: Pacific Bell, Caller ID, and PRIVATE (Henry Mensch)
    Re: Overseas Directory Assistance (Steve Brack)
    Re: Yellow Pages Data on Disk Wanted (James Deibele)
    Re: Hilton Hotel Telephone Surcharge (Carl Oppedahl)
    GTE On the "Move" (Paul Barnett)
    Re: PacBell IntraLATA Rate Ripoffs (John Higdon)
    Re: White House Phone Factoids (Kenneth Herron)
    Re: Ma Bell Calling (Donald E. Kimberlin)
    Local Calling Area Re-Organization in SE-WI ([e-mail])
    Alphanumeric Pagers Question (Samuelson S. Rehman)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 14 Feb 93 21:43:50 GMT
From: Graham Toal <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Pacific Bell, Caller ID, and PRIVATE


Definitely sounds like guerrilla tactics from the California telco.
Couldn't they have supplied partial information like the area code for
California but with the exchange/telephone no blanked in some way? eg
415 xxx xxxx or whatever it is?  Perhaps if here *is* a technical
alternative, you should all call your PUCs to get it implemented?


G

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

From: [e-mail] (Henry Mensch)
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 93 15:11:44 -0800
Subject: Pacific Bell, Caller ID, and PRIVATE
Reply-To: [e-mail]


[e-mail] (Steven H. Lichter) wrote:

> We just were notified that PacBell will be offering Call Trace, last
> number call back. You will not know the number in either case ...

Does this mean the number won't appear on my bill, either (and that,
potentially, I won't know in advance that I'm making a toll call)?  I
got the enclosure in this month's bill, also, and haven't called them
on it yet.


# henry mensch / booz, allen & hamilton, inc.  / <[e-mail]>

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

Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1993 14:07:25 -0500 (EST)
From: [e-mail] (Steve Brack)
Subject: Re: Overseas Directory Assistance


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
writes:

> I recently found the "invite to stay on the line" to cause a
> problem.  Since the "called party" had not disconnected, I could not
> use the # to place another call without rekeying my credit card
> number.  Slowed me down a bit ...

One of the telecom jobs I've held involved working with headset phones
where dropping a call was inconvenient, invloving physically
disconnecting the phone.  When calling DA, all I would do is ask the
DA operator to drop the call when (s)he finished.  If I forgot to ask,
I'd have to wait to get reanswered, then ask to be dropped.

Usually, the operator would manually recite the number instead of
passing me off to the recording, as would normally be done.


Steven S. Brack           [e-mail]
Toledo, OH  43613-1605    [e-mail]
MY OWN OPINIONS           [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (James Deibele)
Subject: Re: Yellow Pages Data on Disk Wanted
Organization: TECHbooks --- Public Access UNIX --- [phone]
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1993 22:13:00 GMT


[e-mail] (Lynne Gregg) writes:

> Anyone have ideas for sources for Yellow Page data on disk?  I'm
> looking for YP's for most major cities.

DAK regularly lists one of the Yellow Pages on CD-ROM in their
catalog, which I just received a few days ago.  Unfortunately, they
restrict it to people who are buying one of their CD-ROM drives, but
at $69 for the disc and around $200 for the drive, it's not such a bad
deal.  I think the name is "PhoneDisc USA" or something like that.  I
don't have DAK's phone number in front of me, but you should be able
to get it from 800-555-1212.  Or you might be on Drew's mailing list,
too.

There's supposed to be at least one competitor in that price range,
but I don't have any more information on them.

Note that it will only let you print out 25 names at a time, so it's
not very good for slurping up whole cities at a time.


[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]

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

From: [e-mail] (Carl Oppedahl)
Subject: Re: Hilton Hotel Telephone Surcharge
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1993 23:01:39 GMT


In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jerry Leichter)
writes:

> I recently ran across a personal record for additional hotel charges,
> at a location our Moderator may appreciate: The O'Hare Hilton.
> According to the rate card in the room - at least they provide that
> now! - the charges are as follows:

(Charges deleted here for brevity; see original posting.)

> I made my calls from the lobby, which actually had a couple of the new
> AT&T model 2000 phones.  (The ones in the lobby don't have keyboards,
> but the ones on the second floor, where the conference rooms are, do.)

The hotel's policy is, of course, an outrage.  When I encounter this I
always write a letter to complain.  The idea that they would charge $1
for me to call an 800 number (who cares whether it is to a long-distance
carrier or not) galls me.

I, too, take my business to the lobby.

But think -- wouldn't we all be smart, when we are making our hotel
reservations in the first place, to ask what the policy is for local
calls and 800 number calls?  And take that into account when choosing
where to stay?

I like the way it is when I stay in a ski condo in Vail ...

There is a card on the phone, that says something like this:

       Please use your calling card for all calls.
       Local calls are free.
       Please do not direct-dial any toll calls.
       If you do, we will charge $20 extra for the
       hassle of going back and posting it to your
       charge card later.

I have set up 800 numbers to ring to each of the four or so phone
numbers I call most often (home, office, etc.) and when I dial those,
I get several benefits:

No first-minute surcharge as there would be for a calling card call;
the hotels, some of them at least, do not charge for it as they do not
recognize the number as a calling-card access number; I can call from
pay phones etc. and dial fewer digits, and do not have to worry about
someone looking over my shoulder and seeing my calling-card number.


Carl Oppedahl AA2KW  (intellectual property lawyer)
30 Rockefeller Plaza   New York, NY  10112-0228
voice 212-408-2578     fax [phone]



[Moderator's Note: Have you ever considered having a call-extender
type of device put on a line -- with a complex security code -- and an
800 number in to it to be used for ALL outgoing long distance calls?
That way you would get the direct dial rate on all your long distance
calls no matter where you are when you need to make a call. The
'surcharge' would be whatever you pay per minute on the 800 line, but
the combination of charges would often times still be less than making
a call via the hotel switchboard with its surcharge, or the surcharge
your calling card requires.  Your biggest savings would come on very
short calls where there is no oppotunity to spread the surcharge over
several minutes.  PAT]

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


From: [e-mail] (Paul Barnett)
Subject: GTE On the "Move"
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 93 17:24:15 CST


 From the {Dallas Morning News}, Sunday, 2/14/93.
Front page, upper left hand corner

"Moving fast on all fronts"
Key GTE unit gears up for mass re-engineering
First in an occasional series
By Diana Kunde, Staff Writer of the Dallas Morning News


The executive on the videotape strides to some empty office cubicles
and delivers a stark message to GTE employees: "To be honest, this
isn't the last empty cubicle you're going to see."

But with the threat comes a challenge: "In a sense, these careers
weren't ended by GTE," he continues.  "They were ended by other
companies, by competition."

This is the new reality at GTE Telephone Operations, based in Irving,
where management wants nothing short of a complete culture change --
from bureaucratic to lean and creative, from a regulated utility to a
telecommunications services company.

In a considerably more competive world, GTE believes that its
Telephone Operations unit must adapt to a fast-moving environment, and
it must do so quickly.  Conscious of troubles at industry giants such
as General Motors Corp. and IBM, the relatively prosperous company
wants to move before crisis hits.

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

That's just the front page.  The rest of the article fills up an
entire page in the interior of the first section.

There's an sidebar with a sampling of the goals of GTE Telephone
Operations, extracted from an employee handbook.  I'll follow up with
it later if there is any interest.

I'm not an apologist for GTE: I'm simply a residential customer that
has experienced many of the frustrations detailed by other readers of
this newsgroup.  The whole article reads more like marketing
propaganda than anything else, but I thought it was interesting to see
"The Phone Company" admit that they might be doing something wrong.


Paul Barnett
MPP OS Development     (214)-497-4846
Convex Computer Corp.  Richardson, TX

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

Date: Sun, 14 Feb 93 15:22 PST
From: [e-mail] (John Higdon)
Reply-To: John Higdon <[e-mail]>
Organization: Green Hills and Cows
Subject: Re: PacBell IntraLATA Rate Ripoffs


[e-mail] (Glenn McComb) writes:

> I've been getting a lot of mail regarding my post about Execuline

> They CAN change your phone to their system as primary carrier (1 +
> dial), but I opted to stay with MCI until I got some experience with
> them.

But what is the mechanism for offering intraLATA bypass? This CANNOT,
repeat CANNOT be done via FGD ("1+" or "10XXX" dialing). Pac*Bell will
not complete the call in this manner.

Does Execuline offer 950 service?


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

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

From: [e-mail] (Kenneth Herron)
Subject: Re: White House Phone Factoids
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1993 23:44:30 GMT


[e-mail] (Rob Knauerhase) writes:

> "Contrary to widespread belief the old "hotline" between Washington
> and Moscow was not a telephone to warn against an impending doomsday
> attack, but rather a teletype manned at the Pentagon."

Tom Clancy's latest book, _The Sum of All Fears_, makes several
references to this hotline.  It's a work of fiction, but knowing Mr.
Clancy it's probably pretty accurate.  A very good book overall.


Kenneth Herron     [e-mail]    University of Kentucky
[phone]    Dept. of Mathematics

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

Date: Sun, 14 Feb 93 23:54 GMT
From: Donald E. Kimberlin <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Ma Bell Calling


In one of his typically insightful commentaries, John Higdon replied
to <[e-mail] (Robert L. Stinnett) about telephone
dial services and rates over a lifetime of experience.

However, John seems to, perhaps in the crunch of netmail haste, gotten
a point of reference reversed.

Concerning the relative cost of a DDD adventure as a youth in 1957,
John wrote:

> But ah, yes, the "good old days". I remember playing with the
> family phone circa 1957. I used to love dialing various numbers and
> listening to the sounds of the connections being completed. One time I
> dialed "212 990 1111" and was greeted with a Manhattan traffic report.

> As soon as I realized what it was, I hung up. The charge? $2.00! And
> those were 1957 dollars. (Today it would be what? $.20? Terrible!)

That prompted me to get out a shareware program that's stowed around
here, and see what the current dollar cost of $2.00 expended in 1957
was.  Well, my shareware program is only updated to 1990, but it said
that what John ran up on his parent's phone bill in 1957 would have
amounted to $9.29 in 1990.  Conversely, if John was thinking about a
20 cent first minute in 1990, its equivalent on Mom and Pop's 1957
bill would have been four cents!

I think Mom and Pop would get rather more concerned today about Little
Johnny blowing nine bucks as they would have about him doing it with
four cents back in 1957 ...

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

From: Ron <[e-mail]>
Subject: Local Calling Area Re-Organization in SE-WI
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 93 10:56:44 CST


Many months ago, early last year, it was announced to the public that
the Local Calling Area in Southeastern Wisconsin was going to be
changed to be equal for all parties.

The proposal was for the local calling area to be a 25 mile radius
from your CO.  So everyone's calling area would be different depending
on where they are calling from.

A decision on this proposal was due late last year if I recall
correctly, but nothing has been announced.

Does anyone know anything more on this?


Thanks,

Ron     Lightning Systems, INC.   [e-mail]  [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Samuelson S. Rehman)
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1993 17:39:46 -0800
Subject: Alphanumeric Pagers Question


Shawn Nunley wrote...

> If someone is willing to email me the spec for IXO pagers, I would be
> willing to create some Procomm scripts for sending pages to alpha
> pagers.  All I really need is the process for calculating the
> checksum, because I have already figured out the rest.

I've extracted this small portion of code from my IXO/TAP com. stack.
Hope this helps:

 ---------------------------------------------  s.snd.c:ixo:ixo_CalcCheckSum

int    i,
            sum,        /* Local cardinal for dec checksum    */
            buflen;        /* Length of packet buffer        */
char    cs_str[20];        /* Local string fro hex checksum    */

    /* ... parts of code truncated ...*/


    /* Start calc checksum */
    if (!ixo_sil) printf( "page:    Calculate CS...\n" );
        sum = 0;
    for( i=0; i<buflen; i++)
        sum += (buf[i] & 0x7F);

    /* Convert checksum to hex */
    cs_len = sprintf( cs_str, "%X", sum );

    /* Convert the checksum from hex to BBL format */
    for(i=cs_len-3; i<cs_len; i++)
    {
        if ( cs_str[i] >= 'A' )
        cs_str[i] -= 7;
    }

    /* Append checksum string at the end of packet buffer */
    buflen += sprintf( &buf[buflen], "%.3s\r", &cs_str[cs_len-3] );

   ---------------------------------- end of extract

If you want the lastest specification of the IXO/TAP protocol, you
might wanna write to British Telecom.

One thing you might want to know, most paging terminals claims they
support IXO but I have not seen two that works the same. I had write
different modules to support five different modules. I think
supporting Glenyare and Motorola terminals are quite enough.

Also, different paging terminals support different transmission length
and displayable charsets.

P.S. A quick question: Is anyone here using EMBARC ?

Good Luck!


Best Regards...

Samuelson S. Rehman
{Systems Programmer - RnD.NCA, Director of NIS Systems}
Newspager Corp. of America

voice:[phone] | fax:[phone] | email:[e-mail],[e-mail]


[Moderator's Note: I want to remind all readers of the new file in the
Telecom Archives covering this very topic in detail. You should pull a
copy if the topic is one of regular concern to you.   PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V13 #96
*****************************