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- THE SYNDICATE REPORT
- Bell Information Transmittal No.5
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- Featuring:
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- Agents in Unix (n.wk 8\7)
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- Memory Management System (it.iam 8\11)
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- Argo, Microtel, & Litel Merging (m.am 8\11)
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- Fiber Optics & Competition (e.i.nl 8\11)
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- UNISTAR Bureau (n.mkt 8\15)
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- C-LAN (n.mkt 8\15)
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- Written by The Sensei
- Released Aug. 26 1986
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- The Syndicate Report is stictly Bell orientated information. Without some
- background, reading in this material could cause a problem to understand.
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- AGENTS IN UNIX:
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- Profiles of firms participating in Distributor Marketing's three-month--
- old sales agent program are now accessible in the Company's UNIX electronic
- information system.
- The profiles list the sales territory, product line, assigned
- distributor consultant, address, branch office locations and the name of a
- contact person at each authorized agency.
- The Unix data base also includes an explanation of the sales lead
- referral program, along with the "800" number employees should call to get a
- sales lead passed on to the agent.
- To review this information, UNIX users should begin at the main AIM menu
- and select Option 2 -- News Bulletins. Next select Option 8 -- Special
- Menu, and finally Option 7 -- Sales Agent Information.
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- MMS - MEMORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:
-
- MMS is a new machanized system that plays an integral part in the
- mechanized process. This Trasmittal is to introduce the new system and provide
- information regarding its purpose, benefits and relationships to other systems
- in the mechanized provisioning process.
- order activity into the ESS switch. The order activity entered through MMS are
- PIC selections and changes, Custom Calling, and TTS for non complex orders.
- Future enhancements to MMS will handle Centrex and Multiline Hunt orders.
- As MMS is deployed in each wire center, the RCMAC clerks will no
- longer be required to manually type those order activities into the ESS
- switches. The switches will accept and store the information and mechanically
- "flip the switch" between 1 AM and 2 AM on the due date.
- Since MMS is driven by COSMOS output, it should be transparent to the
- Installation organization.
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- ARGO, MICROTEL, AND LITEL MERGING:
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- It is not easy for a tiny telephone company to compete in the long--
- distance market with giants like AT&T, MCI, and the recently fored U S Sprint.
- Together, the top three companies have more than 90% of the $50 billion-plus
- U.S. long distance market. So three of the smallest competitors -- Argo,
- Litel, and Microtel -- have decided it's time to band together to survive.
- With the merger of GTE Corp.'s Sprint Communications Corp. and U.S. Telecom
- Inc. into the $1.8 billion U.S. Sprint, Litel President warns pf a "comming
- oligopoly" of massive long-distance companies. Mictrotel and Litel operate
- fiber-optic phone networks in the South and Midwest, while Argo runs a
- satellite-based national long-distance network for meduim-to- large business.
- The as-yet unnamed company should do about $150 million in sales this year.
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- FIBER OPTICS & COMPETITION:
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- With all this talk about fiber optic cables, some experts have been
- led to predict the demise of the satellite communication business. But the
- satellite vendors are not about to die. Now they plan to steal a page from
- cellular technology. Rather than launching several satellites that cover the
- entire U.S. with a single broad-beam signal, they are developing a "bird" with
- multiple antennas. Each antenna will serve one of the series of overlapping
- circles that cover the country. Because focusing the signal in a tight beam
- will increase the strength of the signal, smaller ground antennas will be able
- to pick them up. Earth stations could shrink to 1/10th their current size,
- thus costing tens of thousands of dollars instead of tens of millions. This
- would enable more companies to cut their communications bills by building
- their own earth stations and bypassing more costly land lines. Think about
- the possibitilies of satellite/cellular/wrist-radio technology.
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- UNISTAR BUREAU:
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- UNISTAR (Universal Single Call Telecommunications Answering & Repair)
- Bureau is one of Communications Services' newest marketing services.
- Unistar's purpose is if a person has any kind of telephone trouble, they
- call Unistar. A person does not have to know whether it's in their set or in
- their line. Just make onecall to Unistar and they do the rest. Unistar also
- provides people with customized reports and data on their service, including
- the number of repair calls, type of trouble found - weekly or monthly as they
- wish. Unistar employees take the calls, isolate trouble, test lines, and
- dispatch repair personnel if necessary. Also Unistar deals with vendors, other
- telcos and customers, acting as liaison and coordinator between all affected
- parties.
- Unistar has not had it's grand opening as of yet. Unistar will be
- expected in major cities by Sept.
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- C-LAN:
-
- By transmitting and receiving at high-frequency -- above voice range
- -- it's possible to transmit data simultaneously with voice over the
- same line with no interference. The advantage, is that one cicuit will handle
- both voice and data.
- In late August, Bell will begin marketing voice/data lines to some of
- its Centron and Centrex customers in selected areas. C-LAN will be only
- available to people served be IA ESS offices in downtown areas.
- Bell calls this new voice/data feature C-LAN -- an acronym for Centron-
- Centrex Local Area Network. C-LAN is extremely well-suited for small, medium
- and large data users. CLAN is capable of transmitting data at rates as high as
- 19.2 kilobits per second -- 16 times faster than the standard 1200 baud rate.
- Instead of modems, users use on-premise multiplexors, which translate
- a digital-bit stream to a higher-then-voice frequency.
- There are two types of service: 1- Private Facility Pooling (PFP), is
- simply incorporating CLAN over facilities. People who routinely send data
- between two points can use one line for voice and data. Initiating data
- transmission is as simple as keying in a three-digit access code. For
- subscribers with many users, a statistical multiplexor, or stat mux, can
- provide numerous transmission channels, both in the central office and to the
- subscriber premise. 2- Network Modem Pooling (NMP), uses the direct distance
- dial network to link CLAN users to a variety of computers and data bases
- throughout the country. Instead of each user owning a costly modem, the
- central office maintains a modem pool, which is shared by a number of sub-
- scribers -- a powerful enhancement to Centron/Centrex service.
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- If there is any question to the information in this file, contact the
- author. Now can be found on the Private Sector 20 Meg, 3/1200 baud
- system at (201) 366-4431 (2600 Magazine Bulliten Board).
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- This concludes this Transmittal No. 5 presented by:
-
- The Sensei - The Syndicate Report
-
- The information in this file is copyrighted and all rights reserved. This file
- may, in whole or in part be copied, photocopied, reprinted, translated, recuded
- to any electronic medium or machine readable form or reproduction in any manner
- as long as no part or parts of information is tampered without prior consent in
- writing from The Sensei, Syndicate Report Aug. 26 1986.
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