HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 92 02:42 PDT
From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Living in the Past
Reply-To: John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com>
Organization: Green Hills and Cows
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 760, Message 2 of 12

Bob_Frankston@frankston.com writes:

> One frustrating thing about Telco is that they don't understand
> anything beyond POTS.  For example, when installing a line next door,
> they took out one of my pairs and claim they can't promise to repair
> it till 5pm tomorrow.  I asked them to busy out the line in the
> interim since anything more complicated would utterly confuse them.

Which Telco is this? It does indeed sound like something out of the
past in an era when the customer was not to know anything about how
"the system worked". What happened to the pair history and service
records? Sounds like heads need to roll.

> Naah, that would require a company that has a modicum of understanding 
> a competitive marketplace.  After all, if car drivers had no choice 
> to buy buggy whips, why improve them.

Again, which telco is this? Pac*Bell has apparently resigned itself to
the inevitability of a competitive environment. For the past couple of
years, there has been a wonderment of "can do" flexibility. One can
now get digital entrance facilities for POTS for no extra monthly
charge.  Installs happen same day as the order. Repair service is
nothing short of miraculous.

When I order temporary service for a radio station event, it takes
less than three minutes to get an order number, telephone number, and
disconnect order number. (Another well known telco who claims to do
business in this region cannot take the order in this manner. First,
one must explain what a "one-emm-bee" is. Then, since the person who
answers the phone is completely powerless, someone has to call you
back. Then there a discussion as to why the service will only be
connected for three days. This unnamed telco cannot take a disconnect
order at the same time as an install order, so one has to remember to
call back to have it disconnected AFTER the event. And on and on.
Since I have been roundly critisized for speaking ill of this telco,
the name will remain unmentioned.)

If you think telcos are bad now, you should have seen them in the
"good old days".


John Higdon  |   P. O. Box 7648   |   +1 408 264 4115     |       FAX:
john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 16:25:23 GMT
From: rees@pisa.citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Network Installation Box Installation Rules
Reply-To: Jim.Rees@umich.edu
Organization: University of Michigan CITI
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 762, Message 8 of 16

In article <telecom12.755.8@eecs.nwu.edu>, David <ofsevit@nac.enet.dec.
com> writes:

> I just had a second phone line installed in my home, and the
> Network Interface Box was installed on the outside of the house.  This
> strikes me as a problem, since it leaves the box open to weather,
> vandalism, and theft of service.

Anyone who taps into my network interface box (which is unlocked) had
better have an ISDN set capable of operating on the U interface.
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 21:55:55 GMT
From: zafiris@gagme.chi.il.us (John Zafiris)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Vendors of SS7 Software Wanted
Organization: Gagme Public Access UNIX, Chicago, Illinois.
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 738, Message 4 of 14

I'm looking for vendors which provide SS7 or C7 software; specifically
vendors who can supply MTP and TUP.  SCCP, ISUP, and TCAP would be
nice too.

Any leads would be very much appreciated.

Please call me at (708) 632-4653 or post to this newsgroup rather than
replying directly to me by email.


Thanks,

John
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1992 13:51:28 -0500
From: tbruseha@ems.cdc.com (Tom Brusehaver)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: U.S. Cable Television Re-Regulation
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 3 of 8

Ouch!!!

> [Moderator's Note: The cable people have tried for a couple years to
> get me to sign up ... I refuse to. We keep our television mainly so
> the little one (three years old in December) can watch the *nice*
> programs on public television. The rest of us listen to WNIB or
> watch Channel 11 (public/educational television) sometimes.  PAT]

The story goes, I let my kid watch the "good" stuff on TV.  The
reality is you are giving your kid a habit to watch TV, there is some
good stuff on it, a little bad won't hurt.  Take the TV away before it
is too late.  I am trying to wean an 12 year old, and a 10 year old
because they have the TV habit.  Give them something to do that is
more fun, and potentially more educational to replace it, though.

Here in Minnesota, there are only a few months of good weather
outside, you find many kids hanging around in the house watching TV.
This isn't good for them.  We take the TV away in the summer.

Good Luck.


[Moderator's Note: I would like to mention that Minnesota Public Radio
is one of the finest airwave resources I know about. We gets lots of
MPR stuff here via either WBEZ (the NPR outlet here) or sometimes WNIB
does some MPR stuff. At our home we keep his television watching under
control. Other than channel 11 programs, he gets to watch the Three
Stooges and *selected* Saturday morning cartoon shows. I think I have
bought at least a hundred of the Little Golden Books for children for
him and we read those instead (or his mom and dad read to him.)   PAT]
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 92 22:24 GMT
From: Richard Cox <mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Local Battery                       
Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 759, Message 13 of 14

Gabe Wiener (gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu) writes:

>> In a local-battery phone, how was the battery charged?

>  It wasn't.  When you found that you started to have difficulty hearing
>  the calling party, you opened up the phone and replaced the battery.

Nope, the battery was for the microphone circuit.  It was when the
*other* party couldn't hear you, that you changed the battery.  It's
only in very recent years (relatively speaking!) that incoming speech
has been amplified.


Richard Cox

Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF
Voice: +44 222 747111      Fax: +44 222 711111      VoiceMail: +44 399 870101
E-mail: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 12:29:56 -0700
From: kehoe@netcom.com (Thomas David Kehoe)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Manufacturers of Phone Patches Wanted
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 756, Message 6 of 8

I'm developing a product for stutterers that will process speech when
talking on the telephone.  To connect the processor to the phone, I
bought a "phone patch" for ham radios, the MFJ Telepatch II, for
$69.95.  It works fine, but if I get this working well I'd like to
sell them.  I'd like to find a cheaper phone patch, without the ham
radio features I don't need.

Are there other manufacturers of phone patches? I have the schematic
for the MFJ unit, but if other phone patch schematics are available,
I'd appreciate a reference.

All I need is audio in and audio out.  My processor unit will have
volume controls for both.  I suppose I should have something to keep
the outgoing level below -20dBm, as I understand that the phone
company doesn't want levels over this.

I don't think I need the microphone or speaker jacks, null adjustment,
etc., that the MFJ unit includes.  I don't need the circuits to switch
between sending and receiving voice, as telephones do both at the same
time.

Lastly, if I sell more than 20-30 of these, I'll have a complete
circuitboard designed with a phone patch on it.  If it connects to the
handset jack, not the phone line, can I avoid FCC Part 68
certification?  I understand that certification costs about $20,000.
Will the phone patch circuit be substantially different?


Thomas David Kehoe   kehoe@netcom.com   (408) 354-5926
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 10:11:10 CST
From: apollo@n2sun1.ccl.itri.org.tw (Yee-Lee Shyong)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Please Explain BORSHT Functions
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 738, Message 11 of 14

What's the BORSHT functions for telephone service in central offices?

I read some articles which present two type of Subscriber Line
Interface Circuit(SLICs).

	1. 2-wire <-> single-ended
	2. 2-wire <-> 4-wire
	Why? What's the difference between them?

Why can not subscribers use the single-ended circuit to communicate
with local exchange if the first coversion is available?


Thanks!

Apollo
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 13:51:27 GMT
From: dancer!whs70@uunet.UU.NET (22501-sohl)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: TASI (was AT&T Announces Encryption Security Device)
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 744, Message 12 of 14

In article <telecom12.735.6@eecs.nwu.edu> gerg@netcom.com (Greg
Andrews) writes:

> Are there muxes that rely on silences like that?  If so, they would
> have severe trouble with modems.  Modems do precisely the same thing
> as this encryption device does -- transmit a constant signal level
> without pauses.

I don't know about today, but in the past there was.  A system called
TASI was used on international cables to make use of the slices of
silence in each direction.  I suspect it has long since been abandoned
as circuit capacity has expanded tremendously since the time it was
used.  The acronym TASI was something like: Time A????? Speech
Interpolation I think.


Standard Disclaimer- Any opinions, etc. are mine and NOT my employer's.

Note - If email replying to me with an automatic addressing process
bounces, manually address the resend using one of the addresses below.
Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.)
Morristown, NJ             email via UUCP      bcr!dancer!whs70
201-829-2879 Weekdays      email via Internet  whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 20:56:34 GMT
From: gerg@netcom.com (Greg Andrews)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: AT&T Announces Encryption Security Device
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 735, Message 6 of 13

In article <telecom12.725.8@eecs.nwu.edu> Willis H. Ware <willis@iris.
rand.org> writes:

> With a press release dated Sept 10, AT&T announced its "bump in the
> cord" security device for ordinary phones.

 <comments on construction, encryption algorithms, etc., deleted>

> There is one technical issue that is not addressed and some phone
> users are going to get surprised.  An encrypted digital data stream is
> continuous; it never has gaps even though the underlying conversation
> does.  Thus the gaps in speech which multiplexors exploit to put more
> than one conversation on a circuit are going to be upset and possibly
> not function properly.

Are there muxes that rely on silences like that?  If so, they would
have severe trouble with modems.  Modems do precisely the same thing
as this encryption device does -- transmit a constant signal level
without pauses.

If a customer's telephone line can handle modem traffic, then I would
expect it to handle the encryptor traffic also.


Greg Andrews   UUCP: {amdahl,claris}!netcom!gerg  Internet: gerg@netcom.COM
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 15:14:45 EDT
From: fraser@ccl2.eng.ohio-state.edu
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: CAST Roundtable Schedule, Columbus, OH
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 749, Message 1 of 13

CAST Roundtable Schedule for Autumn Quarter, 1992:

CAST, the Center for Advanced Study in Telecommunications, at The Ohio
State University, holds Roundtables every other week during the school
year for informal presentations and discussions.  If you are planning
to be in Columbus for one of these dates, please join us.

CAST Roundtables are every other Wednesday from 4:30 to 6 in Room 115
of the Ohio Legal Center, 33 West 11th Avenue.

 -- October 7 - John Dimmick, Department of Communication, OSU, on
"Telephone gratification and personal telephone networks." Professor
Dimmick will report on the results of two studies, one in Columbus and
one in Ohio.  Using the data from these studies, he (1) measured the
gratifications or utilities that underlie telephone use and (2)
developed a typology of personal telephone networks.

 -- October 21 - Stephen Williams (from Dayton) on his new company
that is working to provide turn-key Local Internet Gateway (LIG)
access systems for commercial and private use.

 -- November 4 - Robin Snyder on MetroComm, a local bypass operator
in Columbus. 

 -- November 18 - John Fulton on Huntington Bank's Smartphone. 

 -- December 2 - David Landsbergen (Department of Public Policy and
Management, OSU) on economic development and telecommunications. 

Parking is available in the parking garage just north of the Ohio
Union on N. High St.  From the garage, walk south on High Street (past
the Union and the Law School) and turn right (west) onto 11th.  The
Ohio Legal Center will be on your left.

Reports on the CAST Roundtables are carried in our newsletter, the
CAST Calendar, available in printed or electronic form at no charge.
Send email to fraser-j@eng.ohio-state to subscribe (specify printed or
electronic form).

For more information, call Jane Fraser at 292-4129 or Sue Brown at
292-8444.
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 17:26:58 EDT
From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL.MIL>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Automatic Transfer of Phone Calls
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 749, Message 6 of 13

I have called the {Wilmington (Del.) News-Journal} sports-results line
(i.e., recorded info) at 302-324-2828 a few times recently.  I hear
about one or two seconds of some "on-hold" recording (music or a
spoken advertisement) and then get transferred automatically to the
sports- results recording.

302-324 is a New Castle prefix, reflecting the suburban location of
the {News-Journal} offices (they were formerly downtown).
Date: 28 SEP 92 01:08   
From: MPA15C!RANDY@TRENGA.tredydev.unisys.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Telecom in the Midwest
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 6 of 8

Last week, the {L.A. Times} had a several-page story on the growth of
telecom related business in the midwest.  The article said that farm
communities were being wired with fiber, and companies were relocating
or establishing businesses such as customer service, order taking,
reservation taking, and telemarketing in small farm towns.  It said
the companies loved the low wages and dramatically increased
productivity, and the employees (a lot of farmers' wives and other
family) liked the extra money unrelated to farming, and the health
benefits.

The {Times} reported that new companies were searching out more
isolated areas, as the existing ones were saturated, with no available
workers.


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


[Moderator's Note: That has been the case for many years. Even twenty
years ago, Tulsa, OK was considered an ideal place for telemarketers
as was Omaha, NB. Why?  Because they had the least-expensive WATS
costs of anywhere in the USA. After all, the most you can go in any
direction from Tulsa is 2000 miles or less, unlike being located on
the coasts where calls to the opposite coast travel 4000 miles and
cost considerably more.  PAT]
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 15:37:49 +0200
From: hansm@cs.kun.nl (Hans Mulder)
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 733, Message 10 of 13

Carl Moore writes:

> 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.

Yes, that's what happened.  Except it wasn't in Amsterdam, but here in
Nijmegen.  Local numbers in Amsterdam grew to seven digits last year.

> 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?

An overloaded one.

I guess the same phenomenon could happen in the US if some concert
ticket sales outlet used 234-5911 and the switch got overloaded to the
point that dial tone only arrived after the customer dialed the 5.  Or
has TPC managed to convince customers that dialing is pointless if
there's no dial tone?


Hans Mulder  hansm@cs.kun.nl
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 11:58:19 EDT
From: Tom Coradeschi <tcora@pica.army.mil>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Question About Air Phones
Organization: Electric Armts Div, US Army ARDEC, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 752, Message 13 of 15

Tdarcos@f120.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Tdarcos) writes:

> In a movie I saw last night on TV, a woman wanted to call someone and
> saw an airplane telephone.  She "swiped" her credit card through the
> mag card reader, removed the card, then took the handset away.

> Is this correct?  She ended up with both the handset and the credit
> card (she did put the handset back).  I thought that the base unit
> required that it retain the credit card to prevent someone from
> (accidentally or intentionally) walking off with the handset.

It sounds weird. The cordless AirFones (typically two to four per
plane) capture your credit card. The permanently wired ones (you'll
find it in the back of the seat in front of you, typically one fone
per three seats) allow a swipe of the credit card, but are, as I said,
permanently wired.
 

tom coradeschi    <+>    tcora@pica.army.mil
From: henry@ads.com (Henry Mensch)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: N0N/N1N Exchanges and 1+ Dialing
Date: 30 Sep 92 16:42:14 GMT
Reply-To: henry@ads.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 750, Message 3 of 13

johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) wrote:

> and in fact you dial 1 + 718 + number to make a local call from
> Manhattan to Queens, or 1 + 917 + number to call a beeper or fax
> machine within Manhattan.

I'm interested to see how they're going to enforce this last bit ...
how can the phone company control where fax machines appear on the
network?


# henry mensch / booz, allen & hamilton, inc.  / <henry@ads.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 12:44:00 -0500
From: Tdarcos@f120.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Tdarcos)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Question About Air Phones
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 749, Message 9 of 13

In a movie I saw last night on TV, a woman wanted to call someone and
saw an airplane telephone.  She "swiped" her credit card through the
mag card reader, removed the card, then took the handset away.
 
Is this correct?  She ended up with both the handset and the credit
card (she did put the handset back).  I thought that the base unit
required that it retain the credit card to prevent someone from
(accidentally or intentionally) walking off with the handset.

These opinions ARE those of the owner of this account.  


Paul Robinson
From: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: 1+ Dialing and Data Calls
Date: 26 Sep 92 18:04:38 GMT
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 738, Message 7 of 14

One group of people that *needs* something like "1-" means long
distance are members of any Fidonet technology network.

Nodelist updates get processed automatically on most systems, so
unless they configure their system to not dial "unknown" prefixes,
their systems will cheerfully dial long distance calls instead of
waiting until late night, or routing the message some other way.

I suspect other computer systems may have similar behavior. It would
be *much* better to require a 1 before toll calls.

BTW, note that here in Oregon, not even *businesses* can be forced to
get measured service. So the measured service argument doesn't hold.

John Higdon's comment about routing data call via AT&T reminded me
that *all* the "sample setup" files for Fido mailers that I've seen
have "1-" aliased to "10288-1-" if they've been written in the US!


uucp: uunet!m2xenix!puddle!51!Leonard.Erickson
Internet: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org
Date: Thu,  1 Oct 92 16:10:05 PDT
From: andrew@frip.wv.tek.com (Andrew Klossner)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: DC Taxi Licenses
Reply-To: andrew@frip.wv.tek.com
Organization: Tektronix Color Printers, Wilsonville, Oregon
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 753, Message 10 of 18

> "... the "H" series plates always have five digits after them.
> They have to.  They're for taxicabs."

> "Your implication is there are at least 10,000 taxi cabs ..."

Not any more so than an implication that 10^16 VISA cards exist.
There's no reason to assume that a numeric tag space will be densely
filled, and in fact it's a good idea *not* to fill the space.  If
taxicab licenses were unique in their first four digits and the fifth
digit acted as a check digit, single-digit errors in reading the
plates could be detected.

I wish the North American telephone numbering plan used redundant
digits.  This would cut way down on completed calls to wrong numbers.


Andrew Klossner  (andrew@frip.wv.tek.com)
     (uunet!tektronix!frip.WV.TEK!andrew)