Date: Sun, 26 Jul 92 15:09:48 PDT
From: aimla!ruby!rudholm@uunet.UU.NET (Mark Rudholm)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: CLASS/ISDN
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 588, Message 5 of 5

In article <telecom V12 I584 M6> Jon Baker of AG Communications
Systems responds to J. Higdon's discussion of the lack of CLASS/ISDN
offerings from the GTE LEC:

> The GTD5 has offered SS7 and CLASS services for about 4 years now.
> All of the GTD5's in GTE West are, most definitely, without a doubt,
> 100% certain, capable of providing SS7 and CLASS features.

> When, and if, these services are deployed in your area is dependent on
> the local telephone company (in this case, GTE West).
                                             ^^^^^^^^ 
Mr. Higdon lives in California, as do I.  The last time I checked, the
GTE company that is a pathetic excuse for a LEC in California was
called "GTE California," not "GTE West."  I won't go into the details
of the kind of "service" they offered me (NO CANCEL CALL-WAITING,
3-WAY THAT SOUNDED LIKE 7448, MASSIVE OVERCHARGES, INCOMPETENCE AT
EVERY LEVEL) because I think we all know.  When I was "served" by GTE
CA, I was on a DMS100.  I know that this is a very good switch because
I've been on one that was in use by Pacific Bell and it worked
beautifully.  I'm also convinced that the product made by Mr. Baker's
company (the GTD5) is an excellent one as well, I just don't think GTE
CA sets them up properly.

Now that I'm safely back in Pacific Bell's territory, I have some news
on the CLASS features that they started to make available last week.

I ordered all three that are available: Distinctive Ringing, Selective
Call Forwarding, and Last Call Recall.  All of them are limited to
work with SS7 equiped INTRA-LATA switches (NO GTE CA).

Last call recall simply notifies you, via a distinctive ring, when a
busy phone you want to call becomes available.  It also works as a
"redial" for calls that were successful.  Distinctive Ringing and
Selective Call Forwarding allow you to maintain a list of ten phone
numbers that ring your phone distinctively or are selectively
forwarded.  An interesting feature of the editing utility used to
maintain these two lists is that you can add to your list the last
person who called you.  

Of course, when you review the contents of your list, the entry is
just labeled "private" so there is no way to learn the number of the
person who called you.  But, if you try to explicity add a number to
the list that is already in a "private" entry, you are told that the
number is already on the list and all future references to the once
private entry become the normal, non-private.  So if someone calls you
and you have a pretty good idea who it was but want to be sure, you
just go into the list editor and add the last number that called you
and then attempt to explicitly add the number you suspect called and
you can learn if that was in fact the person who called or not.  In
fact, you can verify as many numbers as you care to key in.  It's
certainly not CALLER-ID but it isn't without its usefulness.

Speaking of CALLER-ID, I really think that Pacific Bell and GTECA have
the wrong idea.  I do not think that universally available blocking
will severly reduce the attractiveness of this service.  The LECs seem
to think that if blocking is available, it will neccessarily always be
used by callers.  Think about it, not ALL calls are harassment calls.
Think about the calls you make, how many of them do you want to make
anonymously?  Personally, I can't think of any.  When I call my
friends, I WANT them to know it's me.  When I call businesses, I
usually end up giving them my phone number anyway verbally, which is,
mind you less reliable data transfer.  Also, when I call friends that
I speak with frequently, I wouldn't have to leave a message on their
answering machine at all, I could just let it capture my number.  Not
only would that be just as good as the message "Hi, it's me, gimme a
call," but it would be FREE.  

It seems as if ALL the CLASS features have been installed on my switch
(1AESS 213 WEbster 0)but are just not active because I get a seconday
dial-tone when I dial *67. Also, when I dial *69, *57 etc. I get "the
service you are requesting is not available on this line" rather than
the "we're sorry you call cannot be completed as dailed" that I get on
all the unused *NN codes.  It is for this reason that I am quite
convinced that Pacific Bell's rhetoric about "studying the financial
feasability of offering Caller-ID before we decide to offer it" is
just a ruse to get the CPUC to change the blocking requirements.  I
hope the CPUC calls Pacific Bell's bluf by just saying "Fine, don't
offer it, lose a potential $5.95 per line."  

If the CPUC did that, Pacific Bell would find Caller-ID quite
financially feasable regardless of blocking requirements rather
quickly I'm sure.  I know a lot of people's initial response to
Caller-ID is "oh no, that's terrible, I'm just going to prepend all my
calls with *67," my initial response was the same, but then I gave it
some thought.  Too bad Pacific Bell and GTE California refuse to do
the same.


Mark D. Rudholm   rudholm@aimla.com   Philips Interactive Media