A Beginner's Guide to the Internet/INTERNET.ISO/text/telediag/tc13-129.txt

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TELECOM Digest     Wed, 24 Feb 93 02:59:00 CST    Volume 13 : Issue 129

Index To This Issue:                      Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Ameritech PCS Trial Update #4 (Andrew C. Green)
    Multi-Line Answering Machines: Summary (Paul E. Hoffman)
    The Moderator's New Employer (Andrew Luebker)
    Novatel Accessory Needed (Joe Smooth)
    Uniden Cell Phone Handset Question (Joe Smooth)
    A Pager For Jughead (Col. G.L. Sicherman)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1993 22:36:29 CST
From: Andrew C. Green <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Ameritech PCS Trial Update #4


Here's a long overdue update on the Ameritech PCS Trial, an test
involving several hundred ordinary citizens who have been issued
hi-tech portable digital wireless telephones and ordered to reach out
and touch someone with them. I have had my PCS phone since October of
last year and will presumably be using it through the end of the test
at the end of this year, unless Ameritech feels otherwise after
reading my postings. :-)

Following on the heels of several incentive cash payments for
performing such difficult tasks as making ten phone calls in ten days
($10) and carrying it everywhere for two weeks ($75), Ameritech
summoned many of us to their headquarters one evening for surveys and
interviews ($65). On the appointed evening I arrived at their
sprawling complex in Hoffman Estates, in the Land Beyond O'Hare.

This building deserves special mention. On a huge site, they've built
a high-tech, drop-dead, gee-whiz complex requiring hyphenated
adjectives to describe, apparently designed by Lee Iaccocca on
steroids. Anyone who doesn't leave this place with an overwhelming
sense of good old American "Can-Do" attitude is legally dead.

We were ushered in via the employee entrance, through a slick
ultra-modern security checkpoint and along a suspended walkway passing
through the middle of a large office atrium. Everything purposely
showed off its construction, from steel framing everywhere down to the
ridiculously overengineered lights illuminating the walkway.

 From my vantage point I could look down at cubicles on several floors
opening into the atrium from either side. "Hmmm," I thought, "I want
to make fifty copies of my resume and fling them off this balcony
RIGHT NOW ..."

Anyway, we were sorted into groups of about 30 each, and given a short
presentation showing Ameritech's plans, followed by a computerized
survey on PCs to collect our views. What follows here are my views
only, combined with comments overheard from others:

It turned out that there were three different models of phone in the
trial.  I had been issued a "medium"-sized CT2 SilverLink phone
weighing about seven ounces. They had also given out what they called
a "large"-sized DiamondTel 99X, about nine ounces, and a "small"-sized
NEC Portable Phone, with a claimed weight of three ounces, looking
vaguely like a pocket windshield scraper. Finally, as a promise of
things to come, they showed a Rolodex Directory Assistant credit-card
calculator and announced that they were thinking of doing a phone like
this in the future. I cringed at the thought of coming around a curve
and finding some bozo wandering into my lane as he picks at the tiny
buttons of that thing.

They also presented some alternative service area plans. Aside from
the obvious choice of simply swamping northeast Illinois with
1/2-mile-wide service cells, they also had three other options:
Chicago city limits only, major thoroughfares only, or payphone
locations.

The Chicago city limit idea basically involved saturating Chicago and
leaving out the suburbs altogether. This went over like a lead balloon
with the suburbanites.

The major throughfares idea made good sense. Transceivers would be put
in all public areas and along major routes, so that you could just
pull over if you wanted to make a call while you were out somewhere.
(When you're at home, you switch the PCS over to Private mode and use
your base unit anyway, plugged into your home phone line.)

The payphone idea was to have a transceiver built into, or hung on,
all public payphones. This makes sense initially, but on further
reflection means that in strange areas, you still have to find a
payphone for the purpose of not using it:

Me: Excuse me, where's the nearest phone?

Pedestrian: Well, there's one inside the supermarket, but it's closed.

Me: That's O.K. I just need to make a phone call.

The unspoken impression that this gave was that they were fishing to
see how soon they could launch the product, if it was possible to do
so before they had the Chicagoland area completely saturated.

Following the presentation, we were plonked in front of PCs for a
survey. This was a sort of statistical cross-product affair where
you're presented two pairs of options and asked to pick which set you
prefer. Then the options are rearranged and you're asked again.  After
a while I began to wish that they'd just drop all the statistical
gymnastics and ask us flat-out to rate each choice, but no. I answered
carefully, and gave high marks to the wide service area, low proposed
prices, inbound call capability and low rates.  I hammered the
credit-card phone idea and limited service areas. Had they asked, I
would have said that my preference is for a phone that has moderate
heft to it and is big enough to balance on my shoulder, at least until
they make one that I can strap on my wrist.  ;-)

In other news, reliability has been a bit of a problem. My neighbor's
original PCS expired within two weeks from some unspecified ailment,
but was promptly replaced by Ameritech. My original PCS also succumbed
after three months, with a pager problem that prevented you from
recalling the paged number, or even getting the darn thing to shut up
when it beeped. My phone was also promptly replaced, and although the
new one arrived with a dead backlighting LED in the keypad, it has
been performing all right for the most part. I have learned to live
with occasional dropouts and some befuddled low-battery behavior.

The Public/Private mode switching between air service and land-line
(base unit) use has come in handy. I worked out a method for getting
into our building after hours using the PCS to bypass our phone-dial
access panel at the front door (some details deleted for security!):

1) My PCS base unit is plugged in to my office phone. From outside
   the building, I dial the office switchboard from the building's
   front door access panel. As this is after hours, the night bell
   rings.

2) I switch my PCS to Private mode, and answer the night bell from
   outside via the PCS using my desk line. When I speak into the PCS
   I can hear myself on the access panel intercom.

3) I press "9" on the PCS to buzz myself in, and enter the elevator.

4) The elevator must be called up from an upstairs floor. Again using
   my PCS, I get on the office PA system and call someone to press
   the button on an upstairs floor. I'm up and in.

I'll post more details on the PCS as they occur. Tomorrow evening they
have another focus group session scheduled ($75). Don't thank me, I'm
just doing my job.


Andrew C. Green
Datalogics, Inc.      Internet: [e-mail]
441 W. Huron          UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg
Chicago, IL  60610    FAX: [phone]

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

From: [e-mail] (Paul E. Hoffman)
Subject: Multi-Line Answering Machines: Summary
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1993 22:40:20 GMT


Here is a summary of the messages I got concerning multi-line answering
machines. My original post was:

> I'm doing research for a friend. She wants five lines worth of outgoing-only
> answering machines, low cost. Same message on each, and in can be a barge-in
> system (one repeating tape with people coming in in the middle).

> --I know a company called "Skutch" makes some sort of system like this.
> Does anyone have a tele for them or a rep of theirs?

> --Are there industrial-strength single-line systems that are cheap? She
> doesn't mind duping the tape five times and dropping it in five machines
> if that's much cheaper and/or more reliable than a five-line system.

Here are the most useful replies:

 From [e-mail]

You may want to look at a company called Interailia (sp?) and also at
a company called Viking Electronics.  They refer to them as multi-line
announcers.  Most often you would use this at a movie theatre to
announce show times, etc.  Some models are very similar to answering
machines and others will actually store the message digitally.  A good
source for information on these type of devices is Telconnect
magazine.  They periodically run an issue on CPE auxilary equipment.
BTW CPE stands for customer premise equipment.

 From [e-mail]

You'd be much better off obtaining a multiport digital recorded
annoucement device, much like those used to provide message while on

hold for airlines, credit card firms, etc.  The annoucement is
recorded and stored digitally, so there's no moving parts or sound
quality degradation.  You need to find a multiport model which can
handle five lines.  And most have options to either have new call
enter in the middle of message, or continue to ring until beginning of
message.  Also get one with internal battery so you don't lose a
recorded digital message if you have a power outage.

 From [e-mail]

Skutch Electronics
209 Kenroy Lane #7
RosevilleCA 95678
[phone]

Skutch makes some very inexpensive and innovative products.  I'm not
certain they make a 5-line announcer.

You may want to consider using a service, rather than buying hardware.
For instance, Pacific Bell will sell me voicemail on a Centrex line,
for $20/month; the voicemail will answer any number of calls
simultaneously.  Similar results are available from paging companies,
altho they tend to stretch their resources a bit thinner at times,
which may result in busy signals.  If you have the phone lines
exclusively for the purpose of announcements, you could save a lot of
money with a service, disconnecting the existing lines.

If equipment is the only way to go, I've had VERY good experience with
Takacom over the last 7 years.  I have 26 of their three-line
loop-tape announcers; they run about $400/three lines.  None have ever
failed me.  They also have digital equipment.  1-800-421-1858, or you
can check with their local distributor, Tri-County Telecom,
818-885-1411, ask for Jack.  He, too, has never failed me.

 From: [e-mail] (Kennelmeister)

Sounds like what you want is similar to the things that broadcasters
use -- endless loop carts, or even better, digital recorders.  Sonifex
make stuff like this, along with phone interfaces.

That's one relatively expensive, but reliable option - these things
will run for tens of thousands of calls before the tape needs
replacing.

The other option that springs to mind is to get one of those
relatively cheap phone answering machines which digitally records the
outgoing message and either remove the i/c message tape, or set it to
announce only. If it works, buy four more. Cheap, and no moving parts.

 From [e-mail]

I don't know the cost-effectiveness of this, but your friend might
just want to get one answering machine and some kind of
teleconferencing bridge. If you take a meet-me type bridge and
configre each port to "listen-only", and then pump the endless-loop
tape in another port.  With that, you could then add more lines as
needed.

 From [e-mail]

        For announce only "barge in" applications, you might talk with
Henry Engineering.  I believe they make such a device using digital
voice storage.  It may also handle multiple lines, making only one
recording necessary.

Contact:        Hank Landsberg
                Henry Engineering
                503 Key Vista Drive
                Sierra Madre, CA 91024
                phone [phone]
                fax   [phone]

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

Date: Tue, 23 Feb 93 19:30:07 CST
From: Andrew Luebker <[e-mail]>
Subject: The Moderator's New Employer


Pat,

I found this article in a back issue of the {Minnesota Daily}
newspaper.  Are they also paying you that fat 28% commission of seven
cents on every quarter spent?  If so, you ought to be able to buy
plenty of cat food!

Minnesota Daily     Monday, April 30, 1990      Page 5
"Orange Phone rings in new era of cheap long distance calls"

     By Stephanie Armour
       Staff Reporter

  It may look like the Bat Phone, but it's not.

  It's called the Orange Phone, and local businesses think it will
ring in a new era of cheap long-distance calls.

  "It's turned the price back 40 years," said Bill Mangels, presi-
dent of Mega Orangge Marketing, a Plymouth coompany which markets the
phone to local businesses.  "It saves customers money and builds up
the use of pay phones."

  The Orange Phone, a pay phone that costs only 25 cents per minute
for continental long-distance calls, has been springing up in
businesses and on college campuses nationwide.

  While a three minute AT&T pay-phone call from the Twin Cities to
Floridta costs $2.75, the same call on an Orange Phone is only 75
cents.  Overall rates are one-fourth the cost of Bell pay-phone
services, and Mangels said users of the Orange Phone can call anywhere
in the United States except Alaska and Hawaii.

   Local marketers of the phone are banking that students will let
their fingers do the walking -- right on over to Alpha Print, where
the first Orange Phone in the Dinkytown area was just installed.

   "You know everyone is happy," Mangels said.  "You can use a calling
card, call 911, 411 and operator assistance."

   The Alpha Print phone has been in service for only a week but store
owner Ali Mahavadi said that it's been very successful.

   "When students come in for course material or copying, they can use
the phone," Mahavadi said.  "Prices are very cheap compared to regular
phones."

   But Alpha Print is just the beginning.  In the future, Mangels
said, he hopes to have at least eight other area stores busy with the
Orange Phones.

   "Usually businesses aren't known for producing long-distance calls
because of the rates," Mangels said.  "You have to pour in a lot of
change.  This is something that the pay phones couldn't do."

   The phone has also been a big hit with students at St. Cloud State
Universitty, said Jim Harstad, president of Telecommunication
Consultants Inc.

   Installed last September at St. Cloud State's Atwood Memorial
Center, the first Orange Phone earned about $100 a month for the
school, which leased it at a commission of seven cents per call, said
Joe Opatz, director of the center.

  "It's been used extensively," Harstad said.  "We go through over
4,000 minutes worth of calls a month."

   The phone has also been in stalled in three dormitories at St.
Cloud State, he said.
   However, Opatz isn't as optimistic.  Although he said the Orange
Phone waas initially popular at the student center, use of the phone
has declined.

  "The last report for March was about $66," Opatz said.  "I don't see
long lines waiting to use it."

   But Bob Albertson, creator of the Orange Phone, is expecting lines
to grow.

  Albertson, an inventor from Minnetonka, got the idea for an
inexpensive pay phone following his 1980 success in breaking up the
AT&T monopoply on long distance service.

   As a result of Albertson's dispute with the Minnesota Public
Utility Commission, the monopoly was dissolved.  Other competitors
were then able to bid for services in April 1989 -- including
Albertson, who bought $60 million in long-distance service from the
company.

   Because long-distance service is now offered by more than one
pay-phone company, Albertson siad, he was able to offer lower rates by
buying bulk amounts of time.

   Increased competition, technological breathroughs and computer
advances also contributed to the low rates.

services will be a boon -- especially on college campuses.

  "We want to get these phones at the U of M," Albertson said.  "And
the students want the phones."


[Moderator's Note: I must point out I an NOT employed by Orange Comm-
unications, I am merely an independent contractor for their new
service called the Orange Card, a no-surcharge calling card which
bills in six-second increments *including the first minute* at 25
cents per minute flat rate for calls all over the USA, using an 800
number for access to their switch.  I think perhaps I shall also have
something to do with the placement of the Orange Phones; that is not

resolved yet.

Thanks to everyone who helped me reconstruct the list of brochure
requests following the horrifying debacle on Tuesday morning. A couple
hundred of the brochures and applications were put in the mail Tuesday
afternoon. I'll mail more on Wednesday; everyone who wrote should have
it by the end of the week.  Consider this like an 'affinity calling
card' in our case: profits will offset the increasing costs I face in
moderating the Digest with its growing mailing list. This calling card
is best suited for SHORT calls of one to ten minutes from phones where
a surcharge would normally apply.

To answer a couple of technical questions brought up several times by
people who requested an application: yes, they offer actual
supervision, not just 'guesstimates' as to if/when your call connects.
The first minute is also broken into six-second intervals. Yes, you
can make local calls via their switch. No, they do not require you to
use their 1+ service, and they do not 'slam' or play games. At the
present time, their 800 number is *not* well known to hotels, thus it
is likely your call to their switch would pass unnoticed.  If a
calling card like this would meet some requirements of yours, then
please order it through me. :)  Send your snail-mail address to me at
[e-mail]  or via fax [phone].  Thanks.   PAT]

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

From: Joe Smooth <[e-mail]>
Subject: Novatel Accessory Needed
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1993 22:42:44 GMT


I am looking for the plastic "S" insert that is used in the Novatel
transportable bag phones ... I have called Novatel, and they don't
make them anymore. If anyone knows where I can get one, or has one to
sell, please let me know! Thanks a lot!

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

From: Joe Smooth <[e-mail]>
Subject: Uniden Cell Phone Handset Question
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1993 22:34:44 GMT


I was wondering if there was a way to modify a normal Uniden mobile
phone handset into one of the special 'programming handsets' used by
Uniden?

I have heard that you can do so by grounding a test line in the
handset or something like that, but I wanted some feedback first.

    If you know how it can be done, PLEASE let me know!

(I'm also interested in any information you have on Uniden mobile phones
at all. Thanks)

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

Date: Tue, 23 Feb 93 20:47:05 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: A Pager For Jughead
Organization: AT&T


In <[e-mail]>, mc![e-mail]
writes:

> I am at a total loss to imagine what legitimate need a high school
> student or younger has for to have a pager or cellular phone with him
> or her at school.  They are there to learn, period.  ...

A voice from the past!  As we enter a world in which we can talk
together just by wishing it, we still isolate young people in
institutions dedicated to the principle that whatever we need to tell
one another can be told with books.

No, pagers and schools don't mix.  But now that interaction matters
very much, and training people to serve as interchangeable parts for
the dying age of machines can only hurt us -- let's keep the pagers
and get rid of the schools.

Even if only to reduce drug use ...!


Col. G. L. Sicherman    [e-mail]


[Moderator's Note: That does it! Now for sure I am killing this thread
once and for all. I'm sorry I started it!  Further messages with
'pager' in the subject go straight to /dev/null!   PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V13 #129
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