TELECOM Digest     Fri, 19 Nov 93 02:53:00 CST    Volume 13 : Issue 770

Inside This Issue:                        Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

   Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS?  (David Boettger)
   Re: Crummy Service in NY (Bob Schwartz)
   Re: Finally Got REAL Phone Service (Tony Pelliccio)
   Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud (David Woolley)
   Re: Long Distance Company Offers 800 Internet Access ([email protected])
   Re: Call Waiting 14.4 Modems (David Devereaux-Weber)
   Re: Canada Goes 1 + 10D For All Long Distance, Sept '94 (John Little)
   Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications (Dick Rawson)
   Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications (Ron DeBlock)
   Instant Modem Banks (Martin McCormick)
   TAPS Software (John Little)
   Sprint Modem Offer/Impressions (Sean Slattery)
   Sprint Modem Offer :-( (Stan Hall)
   Automated FAX Delivery (Luis Delgado)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 12:18:00 +0000
From: David Boettger <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: TDMA vs. CDMA = Betamax vs. VHS?


In article <[email protected]>, Alex Cena  <acena@lehman.
com> writes:

> Attached are comments from Tom Crawford at Qualcomm after I forwarded
> him a copy of the TDMA vs CDMA debate on the Digest.

> Alex,

> I am sure you knew the TDMA vs. CDMA comments would get under my skin
> and I would have to respond.  How do I send this response to Ed Casas,
> or to the network?  My comments are in caps:

> CARRIERS ARE GOING TO INVEST HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, IF NOT
> MORE, IN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY.  I SUSPECT THEY WILL LOOK BEYOND THE
> "BEST MARKETING" PITCH TO THE UNDERLYING CAPABILITIES OF THE
> TECHNOLOGIES.

You would hope so, but that isn't always the case, as Mr. Crawford (a
marketing exec) knows.

> "GROSSLY UNFAIR COMPARISONS" ARE HARDLY AN ACCURATE WAY TO DESCRIBE
> CLEAR ADVANTAGES.  QUALCOMM'S CAPACITY IS 10X TO 20X AMPS CAPACITY

Get real! 20X has only been demonstrated on paper (e.g., W. C. Y. Lee)
or, perhaps (now I am guessing), in a Qualcomm laboratory.

> QUALITY COMMUNICATIONS LINK USING A HALF RATE VOCODER.  IF WE ARE
> WRONG AND A GOOD HALF RATE VOCODER IS AVAILABLE, QUALCOMM CAN ALSO USE
> IT IN A VARIABLE RATE IMPLEMENTATION (AGAIN THROTTLING DOWN DURING
> PAUSES) TO ACHIEVE AN ADDITIONAL FACTOR OF 2 IN CAPACITY GAIN, IE NOW
> 20X TO 40X AMPS.  ALSO, ETDMA'S USE OF DIGITAL SPEECH INTERPOLATION

> ABOUT 12X OR 15X, ASSUMING EVERYTHING WORKS WELL).  CDMA, WITH A HALF RATE
> VOCODER WILL THEN BE AT 20X TO 40X (EVEN WITHOUT BETTER USE OF
> SECTORIZATION).

Wrong again. The relationship between source coder rate and absolute
channel capacity (I am using "capacity" not in an information theory
sense, but in a "number of telephone conversations" sense) is not
linear. Using a half-rate coder in CDMA does not automatically double
the number of conversations that can occur, even under ideal
conditions.

> RECEIVER IF FILTER WOULD BE UNABLE TO DO.  THE WHOLE POINT OF CDMA IS THAT
> YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEPARATE THE SIGNALS OVER THE CHANNEL BY FREQUENCY OR
> TIME.  DIFFERENT CODES PERMIT YOU TO PICK OUT YOUR CONVERSATION.

True enough.

> "TRICKS" IMPLY DECEPTION.  CDMA'S TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE AND BENEFITS HAVE
> BEEN WELL TESTED AND PROVEN AGAIN AND AGAIN IN NUMEROUS TRIALS.  THESE

How many commercial cellular CDMA systems are deployed and stable?
Approximately zero. "Well tested and proven" is a bit of a stretch,
but then again, Mr. Crawford is in marketing.


David Boettger  [email protected]
I don't speak for my employer.

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

Subject: Re: Crummy Service in NY
From: [email protected] (Bob Schwartz)
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 16:51:35 PST
Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California


[email protected] (Carl Oppedahl) writes:

> I called the telephone company business office.  There's a reason that
> I can't use *69, namely that my telephone exchange is too old.

> Oh, and there is no scheduled date for upgrading my telephone exchange
> to more modern equipment, according to the business office.

Hearing about crummy lines and transmission in beautiful Manhatten
makes me wonder jusy why/how the Local Loop, and End User Common Line
charges are so darned high. Could it be that they have incentive for
patchwork and repair which is lacking for replacements and upgrades?


Bob Schwartz                                       [email protected]
Bill Correctors, Inc.   +1 415 488 9000   Marin County, California

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

From: [email protected] (Tony Pelliccio)
Subject: Re: Finally Got REAL Phone Service
Date: 18 Nov 1993 20:51:28 GMT
Organization: Brown University Alumni & Development Office


In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Jack
Decker) wrote:

> 1) My on-hook line voltage increased from ~15 volts to ~44 volts DC.
> Also, the tip/ring polarity reversed from what it had been when I was
> on the carrier.

{stuff deleted to save space}

Sounds to me like they've upgraded you to something equivalent to a
SLIC-96. They tend to work very well and keep the line quality up.


Tony Pelliccio, KD1NR
[email protected]
Brown University Alumni & Development Computing Services
Box 1908
Providence, RI 02912
(401) 863-1880

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

From: [email protected] (David Woolley)
Subject: Re: TRW Phone Print to Fight Cellular Fraud
Reply-To: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 15:36:41  GMT


In article <[email protected]> is written:

> Why not public key?  There are several companies with commercial
> applications using public key ... the government only gets antsy when
> it's used for general purpose encryption of data/messages and the
> register bits are long enough to eliminate any realistic crunch by a
> supercomputer (i.e. a day or two).  Use as an authentication device
> (i.e. digital signitures) is not a big deal.  In fact my Mac at home
> implements this capability in the operating system!

Why specifically public key?

Why not allow encryption of the message as well, as done by GSM?  The
government can still get the keys from the network operator, or tap
the signal in the fixed network.  (The network operator needs to know
both the session keys used for communication and the subscriber master
key used to encrypt the session key when sending it to the
subscriber.)  The only problem I can see is if the subscriber's home
network is outside the jurisdiction.  In this case there is no access
to the master key and there is no one place where the session keys can
always be found, although the number of Visitor Location Registers
which would have to be covered ought to be small.

(Visitor Location Registers are the entities in GSM which store
details about subcribers who are currently in the area that they
cover.  Amongst other things, they maintain a small cache of session
keys for that subscriber.)


David Woolley, London, England           [email protected]

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

From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Long Distance Company Offers 800 Internet Access
Organization: KAIWAN Internet Access
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 08:20:48 GMT


In article <[email protected]>, Klaus Dimmler <klaus@
cscns.com> wrote:

> Telephone Express, a regional long distance carrier in the Western
> States, is offering national 800 Internet access for less than the
> cost of a long distance phone call! For only 13 cents per minute,
> access to a T1-Internet connected host is available from anywhere in
> the United States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Alaka!
> The host is connected directly to the ANS backbone.

> For information on this, please call 800-748-1200 (voice), or write to
> [email protected].

Just called AT&T and they quoted me no installation fee, monthly fee
$10.00 ...

$0.25/minute daytime
$0.17/minute evening
$0.14/minute night

Volume calls with discount.


[email protected],Anonymous FTP,Telnet kaiwan.com(192.215.30.2)FAX#714-638-0455
DATA# 714-539-0829,830-6061,310-527-4279 818-579-6701 16.8k/14.4k 8-N-1

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

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 12:56:26 CDT
From: [email protected]
Reply-To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Call Waiting 14.4 Modems


In a previous message, Thomas Neudeker writes:

> I recently upgraded my modem to LineLink 14.4 modem. I now use a SLIP
> connection to connect to the network. On the other modems I have had
> Call Waiting would break the connection. I know about the *70 tone
> signal to deactivate call waiting. My problem is that the error
> correction on the modem doesn't accept the call waiting tones until
> after eight to twelve rings and people I need to talk to can't get
> through. Bell of PA said they hadn't seen this use of call waiting
> before and that the 5ESS switch at my CO is has a very short off hook
> time for the tone to be sent. Does anyone know of a modem init string
> to let call waiting and the modem work as I wish?

The meaning of your message isn't clear.  You said that on your other
modems, call waiting would break the connection.  You don't say
whether call waiting breaks the connection on the 14.4 modem.  The
message seems to imply that you are in fact hoping to be notified of a
call waiting while a modem call is in progress.  If this is what you
want, you would have to find a way to put your data connection "on
hold" (or simply abandon the data call in progress), switch your modem
into voice mode, and pick up your telephone handset.

Usually call waiting is not considered when data calls are in
progress.  There is no easy way to support call waiting while a data
call is in progress (another way of saying this is that there is no
easy way of keeping a data call going when call waiting occurs).  If
it is important to be able to reach you when data calls are in
progress, I recommend a second telephone line.



David Devereaux-Weber       (608) 262-3584 (voice)
MACC Communications; B263   (608) 262-4679 (FAX)
1210 W Dayton St.           [email protected] (Internet)
Madison, WI 53706

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

From: [email protected] (John Little)
Subject: Re: Canada Goes 1 + 10D For All Long Distance, Sept '94
Organization: UUNorth's AccessPoint Service
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 18:26:18 GMT


Alabama (area code 205) has been doing 1 + 10D LD calling within your
area code for over two years now.  Area code 407 (Central FL) has also
moved to 1 + 10D calling.  These are just to that I have had personal
experiences with, I'm sure there are many others.


John

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

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 12:55:35 PST
From: [email protected] (Dick Rawson)
Subject: Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications


> I've been told that after an earthquake, if you can't get a call
> through, try using a payphone.  Supposedly, the phone company will
> arbitrarily put some calls through and not others when the load is too
> high, but payphone calls will always go through.

Correct (except for two quibbles), according to Pacific Bell.  Here is
(my memory of) what they tell public emergency service agencies.

Lines can be categorized as "essential service lines".  These are not
deliberately denied service or delayed access while the switch is
configured to shed some of its load.  Also, the repair service gives
priority to restoring outages of essential service lines.  Emergency
services like fire and police, and quite a few others, are supposed to
have (at least some of) their lines categorized this way.

Public telephones always have essential service lines.  Note that not
all pay telephones are public telephones.  (That's quibble 1.)  We've
discussed that here before.  A pay phone in a bar probably isn't a
public telephone; one in a public area available 24 hours a day,
particularly at road-side, generally is a public telephone.

The other quibble is with "will always go through"; that would be hard
to guarantee.  But the call would not be blocked to shed load.


Dick Rawson [email protected]

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

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 11:13:50 EST
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Earthquakes and Telecommunications
Organization: AT&T


In article <[email protected]> [email protected].
tricon.com writes:

> From a possibly unreliable source, I heard that in
> downtown San Francisco, the phone exchanges actually have JET engines
> running turbines to provide power during emergencies.  (Locally, the
> phone company uses diesels, but I do not know the capacity).

I've heard from techs who work/worked in CO's that some do indeed have
"jet" engines for backup power.  I suspect that they are generators
powered by turbine engines of some sort.

I was in AT&T's Saint Louis 4ESS(tm) office when it was running on
backup power one day.  The equipment sure sounded like a jet engine,
but I did not actually see it.  The generators were running because
one of the power transformers had blown up.  The techs said that
molten copper flew all over the room -- YIKES!  I would expect the
transformer to be in a cabinet of some kind, but what do I know --
that's a hardware problem.

At the time, I wondered why the power equpment was on the top floor,
rather than in the basement.  After this year's floods, I can under-
stand why.

Back to earthquakes ...

I was in San Franscisco about two months after the 1989 quake.  I was
surprised at the LACK of destruction.  TV reports on the East Coast
made things sound worse than they really were.

The AT&T office was unscathed.  The equipment I was interested in (a
bunch of Conversants (tm) ) and the 4ESS in the next room continued to
operate on backup power following the quake.  One Conversant that was
used for administrivia and testing was just sitting on a table and had
crashed to the floor, it was the only casualty.  The other Conversants
were mounted in racks that were bolted down.

I don't know if a jet engine provides backup power in the SF office.
The only power equipment I saw was a very impressive array of
batteries.


Ron DeBlock  [email protected]  (that's a number 1 in rdb1, not letter l)
AT&T Bell Labs   Somerset, NJ  USA

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

Subject: Instant Modem Banks
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 06:53:47 -0600
From: Martin McCormick <[email protected]>


In recent postings, several people told of modem banks which can
be attached directly to a T1 and use DSP to simulate 24 dial-up modems.

Do any of these systems connect to an Ethernet and act as a
terminal server such that one would have the V.35 cable to the T1 as
one port and an Ethernet connector as the other port?

Three or four such systems would free an amazing amount of
rack realestate and would most likely prove to be more reliable in the
long run.

If anybody knows of such a system and whether or not it has a good
track record, please let me know.  Thank you.


Martin McCormick WB5AGZ   Stillwater, OK
O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group

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

From: [email protected] (John Little)
Subject: TAPS Software
Organization: UUNorth's AccessPoint Service
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 13:29:42 GMT


I am looking for a program to send alpha numeric data to my pager
using the TAPS protocol.  I use Bell Canada's pager (standard Bell
Mobility).  Looking for something that runs under Windows 3.1
(Microsoft).  Free would be great, but I may consider buying a
package.  I have one for UNIX (commercial), but that doesn't do me any
good from home.


John

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

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 08:50 EST
From: Sean Slattery <Slattery+acyberspace%[email protected]>
Subject: Sprint Modem Offer/Impressions


I switched to Sprint a month ago on the promise of a modem.  Posts in
the Digest lead me to believe that it was a 9600 baud modem but the
Sprint rep set me straight when I called.  I did not hear the original
offer on the radio.  Sprint made some mistakes; this is easy to do
when you have marketing people targeting a technically savvy
population that is intolerant of lack of knowledge on the part of the
general population (you know it's true !). It is my belief that
Sprint acted in good faith and did not intentionally misrepresent this
offer.

In the case of Mr. Ambler's conflict with Sprint I was originally on
Sprint's side.  That is until I read Mr. Ambler's last post.  If it is
at all representative of what actually occurred the I feel that I must
warn Sprint that they are spending good will here.

I, like many Digest readers, specify long distance carriers for my
organization as well as myself.  I want Sprint to maintain a high
level of professionalism here. The account of the phone call received
by Mr. Ambler did not make me fell good about Sprint, it left me cold.

I will continue to follow this dispute.  While I think Mr. Ambler
should find better things to do with his time, I believe that the
resolution of this dispute will tell us a lot about the corporate
character of Sprint.


Sean Slattery    Network Administrator    Airflow Research

This post does not necessarily represent the opinions of my employer.

PS: I switched from the modem to the Star Trek Screen saver, which I
have not yet received.

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

Subject: Sprint Modem Offer :-(
From: [email protected] (Stan Hall)
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 93 10:56:09 CST
Organization: The Eternal Apprentice BBS, Oklahoma City, Ok


Well it seems that every step of the way Sprint has screwing
everything up.

I switched two of my personal phone line to Sprint for this modem
offer.  When the word came down that the modem was only to be a
2400bps with 9600/4800 FAX internal I resigned myself to accept the
offer despite what the sales droids had said.  They sent me two
Foncards for one line instead of one for each line.  They billed
seperately instead of on my regular phone bill.  They attempted to
call my Data line by voice to contact me about the Windows/DOS
software and disk size.

So what is the latest bit of stupidity on Sprint's part you ask?  It
seems that since they couldn't reach me on my Data line that they sent
me a letter about two weeks ago asking me to please tell them via mail
or phone which software that I would like for my modem.  So last night
I finally found some time to sit down and call the number that Ms.
Worthy had given me and left a message telling her what software I
wanted for each of my two modems.  I get a call this morning from Ms.
Worthy telling me that I am only to receive one modem and asking what
software I would like for that modem. When I argued with her that I
wanted both of the modems I had been promised she told me that the
offer was limited one per household.  Everytime I tried to discuss
this with her she asked me what software I would like for my *modem*.
I gave in and told her, hoping that I will receive somthing from
Sprint (besides a bill).

Has anyone else actually received more than one modem at one residence?

Needless to say as soon as I get my modem (or confirmation that I am
not to get a thing) I am running from Sprint as far and as fast as
possible.  Not that they are concerned with my low long distance
usage.  Though I *will* cost them as much as possible via word of
mouth.

Is anyone interested in getting together to visit the Sprint office in
Kansas City, MO and Ms. Worthy?


Stan Hall   [Unhappy (soon to be former) Sprint Customer]
[email protected] (Stan Hall)
The Eternal Apprentice BBS, Oklahoma City, OK -- +1 405 942 8794


[Moderator's Note: *Who* told you that you would get two modems? Really,
I can't see what your beef is about. 'One per household' is one of the
most common phrases in business promotional offers I have ever heard.
Time and again you hear it, 'one per household, not good when combined
with other offers or special promotions, etc ...'  I got my modem
several days ago. It installed easily and is working fine for sending
faxes from my 386. If you honestly think you are going to get two
modems, you are quite mistaken.  Diane Worthy has done a great job of
getting this mess straightened out; I'm sure she is sorry Sprint even
decided to have such a generous promotion.   PAT]

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

From: [email protected] (Luis Delgado)
Subject: Automated FAX Delivery
Organization: INESC - Inst. Eng. Sistemas e Computadores, LISBOA. PORTUGAL.
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 14:48:17 GMT


I was wondering how implement an automatic system for fax delivery.
What I wanted is the following:

- to have in my personal business card a unique personal fax number,
like any other person in the same company. Everyone could have a
unique fax number.

For example:

FAX # 3100234 - to me
 Fax # 3100235 - to you
 FAX # 3100236 - to him, etc.

- All fax calls would be received by the local company PABX, that
would redirect all calls to the same FAX card installed in a PC, for
example. Then the FAX Software on the PC would decide based on the
last three digits of the # specified by the sender, to which person to
send the fax in an electronic mail message format.

I'm not saying this should be the best way to implement, and I even
don't know if there are automated systems like this.  I know however
that it its possible (correct me if I'm wrong) to specify, something
like a destination in the fax message it self, but I don't what this
solution, because it is'nt completely transparent to the sender.

Does anybody know any way to do this?  Is there any hard/soft solution
to implement this?

While waiting for your sugestions, my best regards,


Luis Delgado    INESC-CCAE   Lisbon, Portugal.
[email protected]    cis: 100024,3520

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

End of TELECOM Digest V13 #770
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