�    Subject: TELECOM Digest V13 #168

TELECOM Digest     Thu, 11 Mar 93 11:43:00 CST    Volume 13 : Issue 168

Index To This Issue:                      Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

   Telecom Archives and the World-Wide Web (Frederick Roeber)
   Rural Network Setup (Steven Shulman)
   CT2 Digital Mobile Phones in Brisbane (Tom Worthington)
   IS-41 Roaming Question (John McHarry)
   AT&T Billing Practices --> Followup (Christopher Wolf)
   What is Telecom Gold? (Ted Koppel)
   Call Forward Don't Answer/Busy Line and Call Waiting (Mark Baker)
   Number Replacement (Vance Shipley)
   Public Service Usage for 900 Numbers (Joe Wiesenfeld)
   ATM and SS7 (Martin B. Weiss)
   Australia Privacy Document (Dave Leibold)
   Bell Canada Further Restricts Payphone Card Calling (Dave Leibold)
   Another Quiet Evening at Home (John Higdon)
   Bomb Scare (1970s) Forgot Area Code (Carl Moore)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [email protected]
Subject: Telecom Archives and the World-Wide Web
Reply-To: [email protected]
Organization: CERN -- European Organization for Nuclear Research
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 11:40:05 GMT


I'd like to mention to everybody that the Telecom Archives are
available on the World-Wide Web, a global hypertext network.

From the standard "Information by Subject" page, go to "Computing"
and then "telecom archive."  Currently, the archive structure seen is
merely the directory structure.  However, if people submit documents
in html (hypertext markup language), the document structure will be
visible.  This might be useful for a country code/city code list, for
example, or for files that contain references to other information,
either in the archive or elsewhere on the net.

If you are not familiar with the WWW, but would like to explore, I
would recommend the "xmosaic" X-windows web browser available by anon
ftp from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu under Web/xmosaic.  If you use the web much
at all you'll probably want to set up your own home page, but to
start, try the CERN home page (under the "Documents" menubar item).
Its "other subjects" entry is the "information by subject" mentioned
above.

If you have image viewing software (like xv), you might be interested
in "Information by Subject" --> "Literature & Art" --> "Renaissance
Culture / Vatican exhibit."  This set of text files and jpeg images is
an "electronic exhibition" from the Library of Congress.  Xmosaic will
happily plug into other viewing software, and this makes walking
through the exhibition very easy.


Frederick G. M. Roeber | CERN -- European Center for Nuclear Research
e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] | work: +41 22 767 31 80
r-mail: CERN/PPE, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland | home: +33 50 20 82 99


[Moderator's Note: My thanks to Mr. Roeber for bringing this to our
attention. The Archives (available using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu)
includes all the back issues (12 years worth!) of TELECOM Digest and
it is gradually becoming more and more accessible and easier to use
thanks to the various programs like Web, Gopher and others now avail-
able. And of course, our dialup sites have helped a lot also.  PAT]

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

From: [email protected] (Steven Shulman)
Subject: Rural Network Setup
Organization: Wits Electrical Engineering (Undergrads).
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 10:16:50 GMT


I'm required to evaluate the feasibility of setting up a rural network
using cellular telephony as an honours project. The rural location is
not financially over-endowed and I was wondering if anyone had design
ideas on how to minimise the cost (and if so what the cost could be)
of setting up a rural network like this using GSM and cellular
telephony.

Please mail me or reply to the NET with any ideas.


Thanks,

Steve

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

From: [email protected] (Tom Worthington)
Subject: CT2 Digital Mobile Phones in Brisbane
Organization: Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 15:17:55 GMT


Telecom Australia   News Release

MEDIA INFORMATION   Tuesday 2 March 1993

TALKABOUT - WORLD'S BEST ANNOUNCED FOR BRISBANE

Telecom Talkabout, one of the world's most advanced personal
communication services, will make it's Australian debut in Brisbane
later this month, announced Telecom Australia today (Tuesday 2 March).


Mr Albert Sommer,  National Manager for Talkabout Services
Dyranda Hortle  or  Chadd McLisky   Telecom Australia
Tel: 07 3691055 Tel: 03 2521500

* Talkabout is a registered trademark of Telecom Australia

ATTACHMENT A:

HOW TALKABOUT WORKS:

TALKABOUT is a personal communications service which works with
battery-powered, compact and lightweight high-quality personal
telephones.

To operate it in and around the office and home, a small private base
station is connected to the existing telephone installation on the
premises and typically would be placed discreetly on a desk or table.

Users are freed from their work station or the fixed telephone at
home, able to move around as they continue their conversations.

For public calls, there is a network of about 600 highly-visible base
stations found throughout the Brisbane metropolitan area. Host
businesses include major shopping centres, restaurants, hotels,
railway stations, fast food outlets, supermarkets, service stations
and post offices. They are also located on main shopping streets and
major roads.

The personal telephones can bc used up to a range of 100 metes away
from the base station on which particular calls are registered.

The three pencil-torch-sized batteries which power the personal
telephones provide up to 10 hours of continuous communications,
rechargeable battery packs are also available . Experience overseas
suggests the average duration of calls on this type of service is
about two minutes.

Telecom Australia, with it's network partner, GEC Plessey
Telecommunictions (GPI), enhanced overseas technology to develop a
world first with Talkabout's ability to enable the user to make and
receive calls when out and about. It achieved this by working closely
with the service's major equipment manufacturers.

Telecom's industry partners are GEC Plessey Telecommunications (GPT),
a world leder in public and business communication systems; and the
giant US specialist supplier of radio equipment, systems, components
and services, Motorola.

Talkabout is a personal communications service that meets owing
consumer demand for portable and flexible services that can be
affordably used in all the places that people want to use the phones
most often. That is the office, the home, and out and about at places
of entertainment and work.

Talkabout compliments Telecom's existing cellular mobile services
which provides for high out and about mobility needs which justifies
the associated costs.


ATrACHMENT B:

TALKABOUT PACKAGES AND PRICES:

TELECOM Australia will make Talkabout available in a range of
packages, with options to suit businesses and individuals, such as
managers and supervisors, sales and service representatives, the
self-employed and others working from their homes, for example, and
domestic users.

The personal telephone costs $499 while options include a private base
station, battery re-charger, voice-mail facility for taking messages
and communications to and from the user.

Talkabout's basic package of the personal telephone is especially
suited to people who are consistently out and about. They can respond
to a message immediately wherever they see a Talkabout sign.

Talkabout Priority teams the personal telephone with a pager for $699,
while Talkabout Plus, at $999, includes the personal telephone, a
private base stations and a battery re-charger.

A special introductory offer, available until June 30 1993, includes
free connection to the Telecom Talkabout network, as well as 60

minutes of regional peak hour calls free in the first month of use.

Around the office and home, the personal telephones are an extension
of existing telephone installations rather than an additional service,
so calls through private base stations cost the same as those made on
a conventional telephone and are included on the usual Telecom account
number for that telephone.

A $10 monthly subscription is paid for the use of the public network.
Regional calls made while out and about cost 29 cents a minute and all
out and about calls are recorded on a separate account. On this
network, 50 minutes of regional peak-hour calls everY month will cost
less than $15.

The subscription fee varies according to the communications needs of
the user.

Talkabout Access, for example, enables the user to receiYe calls or
messages when they are out and about. When the personal telephone is
registered on a base station, calls to the user's personal number will
be directed to them. At other times this option automatically stores
messages to which access can be gained whenever it suits the user.
Access costs $8 a month.


*Telecom Talkabout, Talkabout Access, Talkabout Priority, Talkabout Plus
are registered trademarks of Telecom Australia

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

Posted as a community service by Tom Worthington, Director of the
Community Affairs Board, Australian Computer Society Incorporated.

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

From: [email protected] (McHarry)
Subject: IS-41 Roaming Question
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 8:52:05 EST
Reply-To: [email protected]


The IS-41 recommendation is emerging as a major way cellular
radiotelephone systems interconnect to handle roamers.  This allows
user profiles to be sent from the home system to the visited system
over an SS7 network.  I have a small question: Is the subscriber's
primary interexchange carrier (PIC) information sent to the visited
system, and does it honor that selection?  Related to that, does
anyone know which cellular systems lack Equal Access?  I believe any
system in which an RBOC holds an interest must implement Equal Access,
but that leaves many others, including (I think) McCaw systems that
have the option of making other arrangements.


John McHarry  ([email protected])

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

From: [email protected] (CHRISTOPHER WOLF)
Subject: AT&T Billing Practices --> Followup
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 09:58:41 -0500 (EST)


This is a follow-up to a post I made several weeks ago about AT&T's
Acus service, and billing problems with the system.

Seems that after I made the post here, it someone got back to the AT&T
Public Relations Department, and they spent my entire vacation trying
to reach me to make sure all my questions had been satisfactorily
answered.  Seems that while the bill may say that I will be charged
more than 10%, the computer will actually only charge 10% when it
actually adds it on.  In other words, it works out "in the end".

Queries as to why the printed warning amount is incorrect were
completely misunderstood ("...But sir, it does add the right amount!"
"Why does it print the wrong amount, then?"  "...But sir, it does add
the right amount!"  "But, why doesn't it print the right amount?"
"..But sir..."  etc etc ).  So i gave up.  Which is probably what they
wanted.

AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, they asked me several times during the
conversation if I would publish a "correction" to my previous post.  I
assume I am supposed to correct the fact that it will all work out "in
the end", as they have not fixed one of the original problems I
complained about, namely, the computer printing wrong amounts on the
warning.

Oh!  The power of E-Mail.


Christopher Wolf ([email protected])

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

From: [email protected] (Ted Koppel)
Subject: What is Telecom Gold?
Organization: CARL Systems Inc, Denver, Colo.
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 15:28:17 GMT


I have in front of me a business card from a gentleman in Great
Britain.  It has all of the normal stuff:

 Name
 Title, Department
 Address
 City

 Telephone #
 Telex #
 Fax #

and then a line that says:

Telecom Gold   followed by an alphanumeric string in the format:
 NN:aaannn   (where a=alpha and n=numeric)

What is it?


Ted Koppel  --  [email protected]  or   [email protected]

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

From: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 09:53 CST
Subject: Call Forward Don't Answer/Busy Line and Call Waiting


There have been a couple of mentions lately about the interactions (or
lack thereof) between the Call Forward Don't Answer (CFDA) and Call
Forward Busy Line (CFBL) features and the Call Waiting (CWT) feature.
I thought I'd try to clear things up.

Keep in mind this discussion applies to 1A ESS(tm) and 5ESS(r)
Switching Systems.  I can't speak for other vendors.  Actually, I'm
not sure I can speak for AT&T either, but here goes ...

Until just recently (within the last year or so), if you had the CFDA
and/or CFBL features and CWT on the same line, CFDA would only forward
if you did not answer and were not being call waited.  In other words,
if you did not answer a second call which call waited you, the second
call would not forward.  CFBL would not do anything as CWT had
precedence.

Within the last year, some but not all RBOCs have purchased a feature
called Call Forward after Call Wait.  With this capability active in
your central office the features now interact differently.  If you do
not answer a second call which call waited you, the second call will
be forwarded to your CFDA number.  If you are already being call
waited by a second call or can not be call waited (e.g. your phone is
ringing), new calls will be forwarded to your CFBL number.  This is
much more useful for forwarding to a voice mail service.

I hope this helps.


Mark Baker - AT&T Network Systems

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

From: Vance Shipley <[email protected]>
Subject: Number Replacement
Organization: Xenitec Consulting, Kitchener, Ontario, CANADA
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 08:22:07 GMT


I spoke to someone at Bell Canada today about "Number Replacement".
This is apparently a new service they can apply to your line which
will allow outgoing CLID from your lines to show a more appropriate
number.  For example I have two lines with equiavalency at home;
555-1234 hunts to 555-1235.  I would have Number Replacement on the
second line set to 555-1234.  Thus when someone used automatic call
back, etc on a call placed from my second line they would ring in on
my first and consequently take advantage of the fact that I have two
lines.

Good News:  No monthly charge.
Bad News:   An $18.75 service charge applies. :(


Vance Shipley, [email protected]

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

Date: Thu 11 Mar 1993 13:15:33 -0500
From: [email protected] (Joe Wiesenfeld)
Subject: Public Service Usage for 900 Numbers


In a recent reply, the Moderator noted:


> the City of Chicago is considering a 900 number with no charge
> attached to calling it to be used for announcements to the citizens on
> a mass-calling basis. That night be a very good idea for the public
> transit system also.  PAT]

I would propose that the use of 900 numbers for this type of public
service is a poor choice.  Those of us who block 900 service would not
be able to access the public service messages.  Perhaps a new category
of phone service should be created.

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

From: [email protected] (Martin B Weiss)
Subject: ATM and SS7
Date: 11 Mar 93 13:27:36 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh


Many of the IXC's and LEC's are making significant investments in SS7
to provide new services and improved call setup time, etc.  As I
understand it, ATM defines a Virtual Circuit setup procedure as well.
How are SS7 and ATM services supposed to interact?  If the SS7 network
has to be scrapped, how will IN services be offered?


Martin Weiss   Telecommunications Program, University of Pittsburgh
@DATAPHONE@Internet: [email protected]   BITNET: mbw@pittvms

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 01:46:36 -0500
From: [email protected] (Dave Leibold)
Subject: Australia Privacy Document


I received a document regarding telecom privacy issues in Australia,
namely the one mentioned by Arthur Marsh a while ago in the Digest.

At present, it is available through the Fidonet under the file name
AUSTPRIV.ARJ which Fido nodes can file request here at 1:250/730. Size
of package is 94.5k.

The same contents are also available in the LHA compression by
requesting AUSTPRIV.LZH instead of .ARJ when making the file request.
The size came out larger at approximately 110k, however.

Thanx to Arthur Marsh for sending this file my way. I don't know when
I'll be able to submit it for the TELECOM Archives, but this is a
start.


Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98
INTERNET: [email protected]

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 22:15:26 -0500
From: [email protected] (Dave Leibold)
Subject: Bell Canada Further Restricts Payphone Card Calling


[from Bell News (Bell Canada, Bell Ontario division) 22 Feb 93]

Payphone fraud prompts more restrictions on overseas calling.

A continuing problem with payphone fraud to some overseas countries,
has prompted Bell to restrict calling card, credit card, or cash calls
from Millennium payphones in Bell Canada territory to China, Pakistan,
or Bangladesh.

The restriction became effective the weekend of February 13, and
applies to all Canadian, American and international calling cards.

Also affected are Visa, Mastercard, American Express and enRoute
credit cards.

Investigators continue to indicate that Bell is losing money from
calling card and recently credit card fraud.

Current figures show that a significant and growing amount of the
payphone fraud in Ontario and Quebec to China, Pakistan and Bangladesh
was with the use of stolen or counterfeit credit cards.

Over the past year, Bell has introduced a number of measures to deal
with the growing payphone fraud problem, including restricting the use
of calling cards from payphones to overseas destinations, and blocking
calling card calls from payphones or cellular phones to all 809-area
(Caribbean) countries.

Those customers, including consulates, who are frequent callers to
these three countries, are being notified by letter explaining the
situation and offering dialing options.

[end of article; content is that of Bell News]


Dave Leibold - via FidoNet node 1:250/98
INTERNET: [email protected]

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 03:07 PST
From: [email protected] (John Higdon)
Subject: Another Quiet Evening at Home
Organization: Green Hills and Cows


Once again, the lack of Caller-ID has enabled me to spend a quiet,
productive evening at home. Since I could not screen out the one call
I was avoiding (from a client for whom I had no answer yet), I just
answered no calls.

I have, in essence, two numbers for talking: a published, public line
and a more private line for good clients, friends, and associates. The
first line is always answered by a machine; the second is never
answered except by me.

One evening last week, I just turned the bell off. Selective call
block (which features a recording that says, in essence, "the party
you are calling does not want to talk to you...",) is not horribly
subtle. Screening with a machine on a line that is not intended to be
machine-answered does not do the trick. No, folks, Caller-ID would
have returned the use of my phone to me this evening as nothing else
would have.

Oh, well, the work needed to be done anyway and I did not waste my
time talking on the phone.


John Higdon  |   P. O. Box 7648   |   +1 408 264 4115     |       FAX:
[email protected] | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 10:32:27 EST
From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <[email protected]>
Subject: Bomb Scare (1970s) Forgot Area Code


In the 1970s (middle to late?) there was a case I saw in a newspaper
(Wilmington, Del.) where an attempted bomb-scare call to a building in
New York City was received at a Cedar Grove, NJ service station.  Its
attendant replied "You've reached a service station in New Jersey.
What am I supposed to do?" and the line went dead.  Police theorized
that the caller was in New Jersey and forgot to dial the NYC area
code.  (Notice the use of "forgot to dial"; I am warning you NOT to
say "should have dialed", because out of context it could be inter-
preted to mean that the call should have been placed!)  I think a good
guess for the phone prefix for the intended and actual reception of
the call is 239.

At that time, there would be no N0X/N1X prefixes (except in 213 in
California), and no area codes 908,718,917.  Whether the call was
direct-dial, cash from a pay phone, or 0+ (and assuming the call did
indeed start in 201), you would only have to insert area code 212 to
distinguish between a call within 201 and a call to NYC.


[Moderator's Note: Ah yes, bomb threats and the early seventies Vietnam
era. It got to the point we were getting 'em once a month at the
credit card billing office in those days. The callers always claimed
to be Weathermen or some other radical group. The background Muzak
would stop and a voice on the speaker in each office would say "It is
necessary for all employees to leave the building at this time. Please
leave immediatly and wait outside until instructed to return." All the
chickens which had been roosting at their desk-nests would flutter and
cackle and carry-on as they flooded down the stairwells and out onto
Canal Street along with their fellow nesters from the Social Security
Administration's back-office on the 11th floor, for whom I think the
bomb threats were intended most of the time. A half-dozen of us (our
lives were not as valuable, perhaps?) would always be called and told
to report to the phone room and work the switchboard for the duration.
Kids in school call in bomb threats on warm spring days; so do office
workers, believe me. A couple of ours were inside jobs.   PAT]

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

End of TELECOM Digest V13 #168
******************************


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