HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Date: 30 Sep 1992 20:30:32 GMT
From: aa571@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Gail  M. Hall)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: A Good Way to Play a Micro Tape Over the Phone?
Reply-To: aa571@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Gail  M. Hall)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 749, Message 2 of 13

Here is the situation.  I have a call-in dictation system that doctors
can use to call in to dictate their reports for me to type.

However, some doctors still like to use their little dictating
machines that they can carry in their pockets and would like their
secretaries to play the tape over the phone into my system.

Normally this is a very unsatisfactory process because the machine
they use is very "low-fi" and then with the relatively low fi from the
phone line, what we end up with is a mess.

I have seen those little gadgets in stores that can attach to the
phone line and that you can attach a recorder to to record a
conversation over the phone.  What I am wondering is:

1.  Can you reverse that little gadget to go through the phone line
by PLAYing it instead of on record to play the tape from the office
in order to avoid room noise, etc.?

2.  If not, is there somewhere an INEXPENSIVE gadget that will do the
same thing?  My dictation system dealer does not know of such a
product.  They make the little hand-held machines, the transcribers,
and the phone-in dictation systems, but not a thing like I am
interested in.

This would need to be an inexpensive item.  Doctors are not going to
want to pay big bucks for this as they have enough big bucks expenses
to worry about.

When doctors can use the phone my setup works very nice.  There are
some, though, that would really rather use their hand-held machine and
let the secretary send the whole tape via phone at one time.

Thanks for any good suggestions.


Gail M. Hall   Internet:   aa571@cleveland.Freenet.Edu
Bitnet:     aa571%cleveland.freenet.edu@cunyvm    FidoNet: 1:157/2.4
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1992 21:03:56 -0500
From: Charlie.Mingo@p4218.f70.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Charlie Mingo)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: AT&T Wants $3 For International DA
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 732, Message 7 of 8

> [Moderator's Note: The same gentleman's voice on the intercept I heard
> the other day is used in the message France plays over and over for
> callers to Directory Enquiry who must sit in a queue for five minutes
> waiting their turn: 'Telee-kom Services ... we're trying to extend
> your call.  Please stand by,' followed by two or three bars of music.
> This ten second blurb followed by five seconds of silence plays over
> and over to callers in the queue for directory, about four times per
> minute for 20-30 recitations before the French operators deign to
> respond and look up the number requested. ("Oui, Pittsburgh? I'm soo
> sorry that mademoiselle waited ten minutes then got cut off without an
> answer, and had to dial again and wait five more minutes.")  If the
> AT&T IOC has any production quotas for their operators, overseas DA
> will blow it every time.  It is a big money loser, even at $3.00.  PAT]
  
    Now that AT&T is charging $3 and taking 15 minutes to come up with
a French phone number, may I remind people that Minitel Services Corp.
will find any number there in seconds for $.17/minute.

    There are free Minitel emulators available for Macs and Pee Cee's.
I don't know why AT&T doesn't try using Minitel, since that's how the
French look up numbers.

    Anyone interested can email me for details.  (No connection to
Minitel except as a customer.)


[Moderator's Note: Well in fairness it is not *usually* fifteen
minutes, but four or five minutes is not uncommon. And at least it is
not like some places in Central America where I have heard the
operator put the phone down; go somewhere to look in books and come
back to the phone a couple minutes later to check on the spelling of
the requested listing; then walk away again and return sooner or later
to say the number still could not be found. Australia, New Zealand
and the UK have a real class act where directory is concerned. Their
operators answer quite quickly, and in the case of the UK, the operator  
types it in the computer and you hear a voice response within seconds:
"The number you require is xxxxxx; I repeat, the number you require,
etc ...".  Like the USA, once it is found, the operator leaves the
line and the robot takes over.   PAT]
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 92 12:01:32 CDT
From: cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: AT&T Public Phone 2000
Organization: Villa CyberSpace, Minneapolis, MN
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 740, Message 1 of 9

On a trip to California last week, I had the chance to try out an AT&T
Public Phone 2000.  This is the one with the terminal screen and
keyboard, and a swipe-reader for your calling card.  Pretty nifty
gadget.

I was able, after reconfiguring the terminal parameters, to call my
home machine and check my e-mail.  The VT-100 emulation seems solid,
although I didn't test it exhaustively.  It'll be interesting to see
what the bill looks like.  The posted rate is $2.50 for the first ten
minutes.  Not altogether out of line, since I didn't have to carry
along a laptop.  There is an RJ-11 jack, in case you want to use your
own computer.

One thing I noted is that, although the phones (in Salt Lake City and
Los Angeles) were among collections of USWest pay phones, the
swipe-reader generated an "Invalid Card" message when I tried to use
my USWest calling card.  The list of acceptable cards, shown after
mine was rejected, included Southwestern Bell cards, but nothing for
USWest.  Yet, when I entered my calling card number manually, the call
went through without incident.

One thing to note with this unit is that the terminal parameters will
always start out at 1200 bps, 7E1.  It appears primarily intended to
check your AT&T EasyMail.  The ergonomics could use some study, too.
Many of the units were set into the stand-up mini-kiosks, where the
keyboard was uncomfortably low for standing use.  In the Salt Lake
City airport, they were also available in the sit-down kiosks, but
those were canted toward the entrance (at the same angle as a standard
pay-phone), which made the keyboard awkward to use.  None offered a
place to set your laptop, should you choose to use it.


Roy M. Silvernail |+|  roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 92 14:28:45 CST
From: Jack Decker <Jack@myamiga.mixcom.com>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Stop the Presses, Call the Police!
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 742, Message 2 of 9

In message <telecom12.730.9@eecs.nwu.edu>, Carl Moore (VLD/VMB)
<cmoore@BRL.MIL> wrote:

> To summarize: 650611 in the Netherlands (at Amsterdam?) got a lot of
> calls, and on many of them only the last 4 digits got through, causing
> many calls to reach police at the 0611 emergency number.

> What kind of exchange is it that strips some leading digits off and
> processes the remaining digits, within what is apparently only the
> local phone number?

Maybe one that is so clogged up that it doesn't give dial tone for two
or three seconds, during which time customers who don't bother to
listen for the dial tone have already dialed two digits?

It's also possible that, if it's an old step-by-step exchange, a
leading "5" might be "absorbed" for some reason (for example, if a
neighboring exchange had numbers that all started with "52" and
another adjacent exchange had numbers starting with "53", a leading
"5" might be "absorbed" and only the second digit used to route the
call).  Thus, if a customer dialed the "6" before the dial tone was
present, and the "5" was absorbed, then only the "0611" would be seen
by the switch.

Those are two likely possibilities.


Jack Decker    jack@myamiga.mixcom.com    FidoNet 1:154/8
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 00:33:13 EDT
From: JOHN SCHMIDT <schmidt@auvax1.adelphi.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Unusual Busy Signal
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 740, Message 5 of 9

With all the discussion here of unusual intercepts, busy signals not
recognized by modems, etc., has anyone else here ever called a busy
number in Botswana?  You get a recording, in Tswana accented English,
which says "The Botswana telephone you have called is busy, please
call again later."  Very polite, but your modem or fax machine is
going to be rather confused.  By the way, Botswana has a pretty good
telephone system, mostly digital switches and a digital microwave
backbone.  They have been adding lines at a substantial rate, but
there is still a significant backlog of service requests.  When I
visited there in 1990, there was a trade fair in Gaborone, where they
had a booth, complete with examples of old style phones they used to
use.  I asked them about the unusual "busy signal", and they indicated
it was controversial, because of the modem etc. problem, but recent
calls there prove to me they still use it.

They have a pretty decent phone book, about 1" thick, includes white
and yellow pages, printed from opposite ends of the directory, upside
down from each other.  You flip the directory over vertically to
switch from white to yellow pages!  Does anyone know anywhere that
does this?  The directory also includes the usual Government listings,
a directory of fax machine numbers (surprisingly long) a numeric
(reverse) directory for every exchange, a directory of every post
office box in the country (unfortunately arranged in PO box order!),
road maps of the country and most of the major towns and cities, a
history of the country, a description of major points of interest,
tourist information, etc.  Very complete and well organized (except
for the PO boxes being in numeric order).  I am told subscribers have
to buy their copies, I don't know how much, but since the one I just
saw ('92 edition) was in the apartment of a Botswana student here, it
can't be outrageously expensive.  BTW, this is published by Botswana
Telecom, not a seperate organization.


John H. Schmidt, P.E.         Internet: schmidt@auvax1.adelphi.edu
Technical Director, WBAU      Phone--Days     (212)456-4218
Adelphi University                   Evenings (516)877-6400
Garden City, New York 11530   Fax-------------(212)456-2424
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 13:05:58 PDT
From: DLynn.El_Segundo@xerox.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: N0N/N1N Exchanges and 1+ Dialing
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 746, Message 5 of 11

wariat!catfood@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu writes:

> Within area codes which contain N0N or N1N exchanges, is it always
> required to dial all ten digits of numbers within the area code?

I guess you haven't been reading the Digest long enough to have seen
the lengthy N0N/N1N discussions.  But to summarize:

Los Angeles (213) was the first to go to N0N and N1N exchanges.  From
the first day that "dial 1 first" was implemented in Los Angeles
(which was many years before the N0N/N1N exchanges), it always meant
"an area code follows".  It never meant "a toll call follows".  So the
1 first always distinguished areas codes from exchanges.

However, dial zero first is a different can of worms.  Dialing zero
before a phone number always meant you wanted assistance from an
operator (or a mechanized one), not that you were necessarily going to
dial an area code.  So area codes and N0N/N1N exchanges have always
been distinguished on zero-first calls in Los Angeles by timeout.
Dial zero, seven digits and wait awhile.  Of course if the second
digit after the 0 is non-zero/one, the timeout becomes unneeded, but I
don't know if all dialing equipment in use here is that smart.
Besides, timeouts will be necessary in this case in the future when
area codes start using non-zero/one second digits.

This has not always been the way it is done throughout Pac Bell land.
Dial-1-first in 714 (which adjoins 213, and includes many suburbs of
Los Angeles) for many years meant "a toll call follows".  A big public
education campaign was held many years ago in 714 to announce the day
the policy changed to dial 1 means "an area code follows".  Pac Bell
told us that this inconvenience was necessary to allow more exchanges
in 714.  I still have not seen a N0N/N1N exchange in 714 though.

The fact that Pac Bell went to the effort to standardize dial-1-first
policy leads me to believe that they have no plans to change to a
dial-ten-digits-always scheme, as is used in some areas.


Don Lynn
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992  09:29:48 EDT
From: FZC@CU.NIH.GOV
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Info Requested About the Facilities of Off-Line Mail
Reply-To: TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 737, Message 3 of 6

I am attempting to document, for the purpose of submitting the
technical specifications as an Internet RFC, the means to perform
off-line mail processing.

This is a means, currently done mostly on micros, where the user tells
the system having mail to send it to him as a "packet" in compressed
form.  His own computer unpacks and displays messages one at a time.

I would like anyone who has any information about any of the following
to forward responses to me at the address TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM.  All
information will be used for the purpose of creating the set of RFCs.

1.  Methods of file transfer which provide for reliable
    data transfer and can keep file name and date information.
    Currently only ZMODEM and Kermit are the only ones I know
    of that handle these (ZMODEM will implement YMODEM too.)

2.  Methods of compression of text files and archiving of them
    into a single archive file.  I have specifications for
    ZIP; and I think I can figure out ZOO (and I have Rahul
    Dhesi's address, anyway), what I want to figure out is
    the methods for the TAR archiving system and for the
    COMPRESS compression package.  I'd also be interested in
    ARJ, LHA, and LBR archivers and SQ/USQ compressors as
    well as any others which are publicly documented and
    might be accessible on other systems.

I will appreciate any assistance I can get in this matter.
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1992 21:33:34 GMT
From: dag@ossi.com (Darren Alex Griffiths)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Speech Recognition Added to Telephone Messaging System
Organization: Open Systems Solutions Inc.
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 733, Message 3 of 13

john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes:

> As an indication as to how well this will all work, it probably should
> be noted that Unisys is the vendor for [drum roll] -- Pac*Bell's
> Message Center. We certainly know how functional and reliable THAT
> system is!

I believe that's only partly correct.  It's my understanding that the
system is composed of products from a number of vendors.  An
accquaintance of mine was one of the managers in charge of setting the
system after he left a company called Digital Sound in Santa Barbara
and I believe that much of the equipment used was from Digital Sound.


Cheers,

Darren Alex Griffiths         dag@nasty.ossi.com
Open Systems Solutions Inc.   (510) 652-6200 x139
Fujitsu Ltd.                  Fax: (510) 652-5532
6121 Hollis Street            Emeryville, CA 94608-2092
Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1992 16:56:29 GMT
From: cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (gordon hlavenka)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Non-Air Air-Phone
Organization: Vpnet Public Access
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 757, Message 11 of 13

> When I took the ferry across Lake Michigan from MI to WI this summer,
> there was a phone or two on board that looked like the phones on
> air-planes.

> [Moderator's Note: Maybe they were not Airphones but were operated
> like marine radios.   PAT]

When I was at GTE Airfone, (from their infancy until exactly three
years ago) they had ongoing projects to install payphones on Amtrak
trains, airport limousines, and west-coast ferryboats.  These systems
used cellular links to provide the service.

It wouldn't surprise me if they used the Airfone cordless handset
systems with cellular transceivers to provide ferry service.  It's
technically not a difficult leap.


Gordon S. Hlavenka   cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 22:33:05 GMT
From: johng@comm.mot.com (John Gilbert)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: What's in a NAM
Organization: Motorola, Inc. Land Mobile Products Sector
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 755, Message 4 of 12

In article <telecom12.752.12@eecs.nwu.edu> bill@eedsp.gatech.edu writes:

> Many Audiovox cellular phones have an unlimited number of NAMs.  It is
> not a pre-programmed, automatic thing, however.

> All one has to do to change NAMs is to enter the five-digit system ID
> and ten-digit phone number for the new NAM, then press Func-6.  The
> new NAM will be in effect until it is changed.  This works an
> unlimited number of times.

I wonder what Audiovox does about the "access overload class,"
"Systems Station class mark," and "Systems group ID mark" fields that
are normally part of a NAM?  These fields are normally programmed by
the dealer when a phone is put on service.


John Gilbert  johng@ecs.comm.mot.com
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 23:02:33 GMT
From: ffuentes@tolten.puc.cl (Fernando Fuentes SCC)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Cellular Interception in Private Talk
Organization: Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 748, Message 8 of 12

Maybe this is not of interest in this group, but I'm very curious
about something. Last month, here in Chile, a senator had a private
conversation by a cellular phone. A day after, someone appeared on TV
who exposed to the people that conversation. A lot of controversy
have been happening since then.

Part of the controversy is related to the possibility of listening to
cellular conversation. I figured out that it is possible, but the
answer is how easy is it; what are the technical problems; can the
conversation be followed between cells?  I will appreciate an answer.


Fernando Fuentes
SECICO     Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
Vicuna Mackenna 4860, Santiago, Chile    ffuentes@tolten.puc.cl 


[Moderattor's Note: We have touched upon this several times recently.
Cellular calls are quite easy to intercept on a scanning radio which
covers the 800 mh range of frequencies. The 'technical problems'
consist of sometimes having to make a small modification in the radio
itself. Conversations cannot easily be followed between cells.   PAT]
Date: 2 Oct 92 09:47:49 GMT
From: tholome@bangalore.esf.de (Eric Tholome)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: French Telecom Pay Phones (was My Favorite Intercepts)
Reply-To: tholome@bangalore.esf.de (Eric Tholome)
Organization: ESF Headquarters, Berlin, FRG
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 755, Message 7 of 12

In article <telecom12.752.4@eecs.nwu.edu>, lott@informatik.uni-kl.de
(Christopher Lott AGSE) writes:

> First, when you call a number from a pay phone, you have to endure a
> 45-second advertisement for French Telecom, how wonderful.  When
> you're trying to get through to a busy number and it takes one minute
> just to dial and get a ring (I timed it), this is NOT acceptable.
> Paying for a service and then getting hit with an ad that makes the
> service basically an order of magnitude slower really infuriated me.

Well, Christopher, I've spent quite a long time in France (around 22
years) and made extensive use of pay phones, and I have no idea what
you are talking about. What kind of advertisement? I can only think of
the little recording that you get when you call a 05- (the French
equivalent to 1-800) number that tells you that the receiver of the
call is paying for it (but this is no advertising, is it?), or maybe
the "on hold" tunes that you can get for minutes when you call an
overloaded service, but this isn' t general at all.

Regarding the time it takes to connect, before France went to tone
dialing, it would take some time to generate the pulses, but this
wasn't special to pay phones. Now that most French pay phones use tone
dialing, your number is sent in a couple of seconds, and it usually
takes no more that five or six seconds to get the ring. Not a
minute ...

When did you experience this? (twenty years ago?) On how many calls
are you building these statistics? (one, two, ten, a hundred, ...?).
Please be more specific, so that we can try to understand what
happened, but really, your complaint doesn't reflect AT ALL France
Telecom's service quality.


Disclaimer: my only relation with France Telecom is as a former
(usually satisfied) customer.

Eric Tholome  ESF Headquarters       internet: tholome@esf.de
              Hohenzollerndamm 152   UUCP:     tholome@esf.uucp
              D-1000 Berlin 33       Ph.:      +49 30 82 09 03 25
                           Germany   Fax:      +49 30 82 09 03 19
Date: 28 SEP 92 01:23   
From: MPA15C!RANDY@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: FCC Actions Reported
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 743, Message 7 of 8

In a September 18 story headlined "FCC Moves to Increase Competition
Among Local Phone Service Providers," the {L.A. Times} reports on some
recent FCC actions.  It said the FCC took "sweeping steps" to allow
companies with fiber networks to connect to the local phone companies,
thus competing with them in offering long-distance to local
businesses.

It said the FCC also proposed to increase this competition in the
future, to include small business and consumers.

{The Times} quoted FCC Chairman Alfred Sikes as saying the ruling is
historic because it opens up "one of the last monopoly reserves" of
the Baby Bells and other local phone firms to competetion.

The story also said the FCC voted to change the prices that local
phone companies charge the long-distance providers for connections,
but the new prices won't go into effect for at least a year.

{The Times} also reported that the FCC issued new telemarketing rules,
which it said did not go as far as some consumer groups and members of
Congress wanted.  Under the new rules, telemarketers can only call
between 8 am and 9 pm, use of computer dialing is restricted, and
companies must not call people who ask not to be called.  But such
no-call orders must be done on a company-by-company basis; there is no
central registry.  Failure to honor such a no-call request could lead
to civil prosecution in state courts and a $500 fine.


Randy Gellens         randy%mpa15ab@trenga.tredydev.unisys.com
I speak for myself only                or rgellens@mcimail.com