TELECOM Digest Thu, 10 Mar 94 01:27:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 122
Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson
Trouble in the Phone Industry (D. Shniad)
PR Summary: Undersea Fiber Cable US-Cuba (Russ McGuire)
National Caller ID (Lynne Gregg)
Caller ID and Mac/PC (James Snook)
Internet Conferencing (Ralph E. Todd)
Unzipping ISDN File in Archives (Jeff Shaver)
Information on Used Telecom Equipment Dealer Wanted (Kenneth Leung)
Changes in FROM Symbols on Orange Card Bill (Carl Moore)
Re: Telephone Companies and the Time (Gregory Youngblood)
Re: Telephone Companies and the Time (Clarence Dold)
Re: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment (Barry Mishkind)
Re: Question About Random Dialing (John Coe)
Re: Motorola Envoy Personal Wireless Communicator (Arthur Rubin)
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: D Shniad <
[email protected]>
Subject: Trouble in the Phone Industry
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 11:20:45 PST
The following article appeared in the March 1994 issue of {Labor Notes}:
Phone Companies Obliterate More Jobs Big Cuts At Nynex, Pacific
Telesis, GTE, as Re-engineering Proceeds
-- by Kim Moody
Three telephone giants launched the new year with a new round of job
cuts. GTE Corporation, which owns local telephone companies across the
country, said it would cut 17,000 jobs over three years. Baby Bells
NYNEX and Pacific Telesis announced cuts of 16,800 and 10,000 respectively.
The GTE workforce has already dropped from 160,000 employees in 1988
to 120,000 just before the latest cuts were announced.
Employment at NYNEX has also fallen from nearly 100,000 in 1988 to
about 76,000 last year. The latest NYNEX cuts are to be accomplished
by the end of 1996.
This latest wave of job slashing comes on top of earlier cuts of
nearly 27,000 workers at other local phone companies in the last year
and a half.
Job loss in telecommunications is not linked to a slumping industry,
troubled firms, or overseas competition. All the phone companies are
profitable and growing.
It results from deregulation, new technology, and the growth of
competition over an expanding array of electronic services that use
telecommunications technology for transmission.
One side of this change is the burst of buyouts and joint ventures
with cellular, cable, computer, and even publishing companies. In
1993, telephone companies spent over $50 billion on such growth in the
U.S, and billions more abroad.
PROCESS RE-ENGINEERING
The other side of this re-organization into bigger multi- service
operations, however, is the elimination of thousands of jobs through
process re-engineering.
Re-engineering is a term attributed to management guru Michael
Hammer, whose 1990 Harvard Business Review article advised firms not
to automate jobs, but to obliterate them. That is, find all the jobs
that don't directly add to profitability and abolish them, while
combining those that do.
This is best done, the theory goes, through a consensual process
conducted by employee-management teams.
The final consensus, however, is never in doubt -- jobs will
be obliterated.
Union involvement is key to re-engineering in the highly organized
telephone industry, and both the Communications Workers of America and
the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have signed on.
Process re-engineering teams are already at work at GTE, NYNEX, and US
West.
Not everyone shares the view that participation makes sense.
A CWA rank and file newsletter in southern California, called the
Hard Times Gazette, likened re-engineering at their GTE service center
to an invitation to Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan physician who
assists suicides.
FRONTAL ASSAULT AT NYNEX
No sooner had the CWA and IBEW agreed to set up re-engineering teams
at NYNEX than the company demanded that the union reopen the contract
18 months before it expires.
NYNEX presented a mass of job-busting demands, including such
flexibility favorites as the ten-hour day, four-day week, with six- or
seven-day operations.
A CWA statement announcing the opening of early negotiations on
January 3 cited NYNEX executive Robert Thrasher's plan to downsize the
workforce by 35%, consolidate work centers, merge New York and New
England Telephone into `one enterprise,' combine job titles, and
change the basis of regulation to encourage even more cost-cutting.
The CWA statement, jointly signed by president Morton Bahr and vice
president Jan Pierce, said the union would work with NYNEX during
re-engineering if the company would guarantee jobs.
The union submitted a long list of counter-demands aimed at
increased job security.
The actual substance of bargaining, however, appears to be over an
attrition plan. The union insists there be no layoffs, involuntary
downgrades, or forced transfers, or further outside contracting. Staff
cuts would have to come from pension enhancements or other voluntary
programs, the union said.
The sweetener in the NYNEX demands is a proposal to add six years to
both current age and service time, allowing for retirement as early as
age 50, with a social security supplement until age 62.
This will probably provide the basis for a settlement if the company
drops its more outrageous demands.
It seems re-engineering will proceed, and only the pace of job loss
is in question.
Sid Shniad
------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (Russ McGuire)
Subject: PR Summary: Undersea Fiber Cable US-Cuba
Date: 9 Mar 1994 22:48:37 GMT
Organization: WilTel
Reply-To:
[email protected] (Russ McGuire)
WilTel International, Inc. and EmtelCuba today (3/9/94) announced the
first undersea fiber-optic cable between Florida and Cuba. Here is a
brief summary taken from the press release:
WilTel International, Inc., has signed an historic agreement with the
Cuban national telephone company EmtelCuba (Empresa de Telecomunicaciones
Internacionales de Cuba) to provide the first fiber-optic telecommunica-
tions link between Cuba and the United States.
The project will allow WilTel and other telephone companies to establish
direct, high-quality telephone links between the U.S. and Cuba. Today,
only a few circuits are available to accommodate the millions of U.S.-to-
Cuba calls attempted annually.
The cooperative venture, signed as a "Memorandum of Understanding," clears
the way for WilTel and EmtelCuba to build the first modern broadband
connections to the island nation. The project complies with U.S. Depart-
ment of State guidelines which encourage cultural and communications ties
between the U.S. and Cuba.
The WilTel-EmtelCuba fiber-optic cable, called "CUBUS 1" is to be placed
across the Straits of Florida between the southern tip of Florida and a
point near Havana, Cuba, a distance of some 100 miles.
WilTel, a full-service telecommunications company with a reputation for
innovation, built a national fiber-optic network in the United States in
the late 1980's by pioneering a technique to pull fiber-optic cable through
decommissioned oil and gas pipelines. WilTel leases this capacity to
other carriers as well as to business and government customers.
Subject to government approvals, the undersea cable will begin carrying
traffic within one year.
"WilTel is pleased to play a pivotal role in strengthening communications
between the people of Cuba and the people of the United States," said Roy
Wilkens, WilTel president and chief executive officer. "This type of
agreement should provide opportunities for improving relationships between
our two countries, which already share so much in terms of geography and
history."
Salvador de la Torre, EmtelCuba's director, said the new submarine fiber-
optic cable will replace an older microwave system that was destroyed
by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
For more information about WilTel or this agreement, please send e-mail
to
[email protected].
------------------------------
From: Lynne Gregg <
[email protected]>
Subject: National Caller ID
Date: Wed, 09 Mar 94 17:45:00 PST
Paul Robinson -
[email protected] wrote:
> Some people in some cities have noted getting Caller-ID information
> from people in other states, who are long distance calls. It's a
> political, not a technical question. What it probably comes down to
> is that the local telcos believe that providing calling party
> information is a valuable service for which they think they shouldn't
> have to provide it without compensation on calls delivered to a
I think Paul hit the nail on the head. In my view, transmission of
Calling Party Number should be coupled with the standard SS7
interconnection. Apparently the FCC sees it this way, too.
Yesterday's ruling supports transmission of CPN at no added charge.
Here's the news release.
Regards,
Lynne
CALLER ID TO BE AVAILABLE NATIONWIDE; FCC ADOPTS FEDERAL POLICIES FOR
REGULATION
The Commission has adopted a federal model, effective April 12, 1995,
for interstate delivery of calling party number based services. These
services include caller ID, which is available today in many states,
as well as services that will permit businesses to service customers
more efficiently and will permit increased security of computer
networks.
The rules adopted today enable these services to become available to
consumers and businesses nationwide and require free, automatic, per
call blocking to protect privacy interests. They also require
carriers to educated consumers about these services.
The Commission also adopted rules to address privacy concerns raised
by the reuse and sale of information generated by Automatic Number
Identification (ANI). Specifically, the Commission found that a
federal model for interstate delivery of calling party number is in
the public interest, that calling party privacy must be protected, and
that certain state regulation of interstate caller ID must be
preempted.
The availability of calling party number based service, including
caller ID, requires end to end interconnection of SS7 networks between
carriers, so that the calling party's number can be transmitted from
the calling party to the called party. Interstate delivery of calling
party based services is thus not feasible until interstate SS7
interconnection and calling party number delivery between local
exchange carriers and interexchange carriers becomes widespread.
The Commission noted that a consistent, nationwide interstate policy
will contribute to the economic growth as businesses employ the new
technology for a number of uses. These may include pay-per-view
television, order entry verification, voice messaging storage,
customized customer services, business fraud reduction, call routing,
emergency dispatch, health care services, telephone banking, home
shopping, dealer locator, and selective call message forwarding.
While the technology for nationwide caller ID service is being
deployed and used on an interstate basis, several regulatory and legal
issues have delayed its introduction nationwide. Today's action
supports the efforts of carriers, standards-setting bodies, states,
equipment manufacturers, and others to provide caller ID in an
efficient manner. In the federal model, the Commission recognizes the
value and benefits to the public of this service and promotes the
transmission of the calling party number from the originating carrier
to the terminating carrier.
The Commission has balanced the reasonable privacy expectations of
both the calling and called parties and removed obstacles to the
development of calling party based services posed by uncertainty and
non-uniform state policies.
In today's action, the Commission found that:
*Common carriers using Common Channel SS7 and subscribing to or
offering any service based on SS7 functionality must transmit the
calling party number parameter (CPN) and its associated privacy
indicator on any interstate call to connecting carriers; (The CPN is
the subscriber line number parameter of the call set-up message
associated with an interstate call using SS7. The calling party
number parameter includes an associated privacy indicator.) In other
words, local exchange carriers must transmit both the calling party
number and its associated privacy indicator to IXC's and vice versa;
*Carriers offering CPN delivery services must provide, at no charge to
the caller, an automatic per call blocking mechanism for interstate
callers. Terminating carriers providing calling party number based
services, including caller ID, must honor the privacy indicator;
*The costs of interstate transmission of CPN are so small that the CPN
should be transmitted among carriers without additional charge; and
*Carriers participating in the offering of any service that delivers
CPN on interstate calls must inform telephone subscribers that the
subscribers number may be revealed to called parties and describe what
steps subscribers can take to avoid revealing their numbers. In the
Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in this proceeding, the
Commission is seeking comment on whether more detailed customer
education rules should be adopted and whether the policies adopted for
interstate calling party number based services like caller ID should
be extended to other services that might identify the calling party.
The Commission also adopted rules to limit the use of information
generated by ANI to call set-up, routing, screening, billing and
collection, and other services by end users, with exceptions for most
law enforcement and emergency uses and for marketing by the ANI
recipient only. The reuse or sale of ANI would be prohibited absent
affirmative subscriber consent, and carriers would be required to
educate callers regarding ANI services. (ANI based services were
developed in the pre-SS7 signaling environment as the billing
telephone number of the calling party. Because this technology
predates SS7 technology, ANI is not blockable in the same way as the
calling party number in an SS7 network.)
In considering whether to extend its existing rules governing
disclosure of customer proprietary network information (CPNI) to cover
residential and single line business customers as protection of their
privacy interests, the Commission said it would seek comments through
a separate public notice to be considered in the context of the
Computer III Remand Proceeding.
------------------------------
From:
[email protected]
Subject: Caller ID and Mac/PC
Date: Wed, 09 Mar 94 17:51:10 PDT
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc.
I am looking for an interface between USWest Caller ID and Macintosh
or PC platform.
If such an interface exists, where can we buy them and at approximatly
what cost?
James Snook
[email protected]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 09:50:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Ralph E. Todd <
[email protected]>
Subject: Internet Conferencing
Greetings. I am a graduate student in the Telecommunications program
at George Mason University; Fairfax, Virginia. In preparation for a
term project dealing with organizational learning, I am in search of
information regarding conferencing on the Internet.
Specifically, I envision a moderated forum supporting concurrent
access for at least 30 user sessions. Unix "talk" may be an option,
but I beleive it would be kludgy for the moderator since it is limited
to two-party conversations. My forum would essentially be an Internet
talk radio, complete with delays, (lending generic context to the name
"Talk Net").
Is anyone aware of the existence of such a forum? Any knowledge of
technology or building blocks which could support it?
By the way, my immediate application is electronically interactive
graduate instruction. The prototype course, "Taming the Electronic
Frontier," is taught by Dr. Brad Cox and televised on regional cable
television. Most of the students, including an entire section, are in
the TV audience. These tele-students need a way to participate in the
interactive dimension of the course. I am also investigating audio
and video conferencing via POTS as well.
Many thanks in advance.
Ralph Todd >
[email protected] (703) 658-9668
George Mason University Telecommunications Program
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you are suggesting has been done
many times in the past on Compuserve. The various forums have had special
guest 'speakers' who were announced ahead of time. Using programs quite
similar to the 'CB Simulator', these speakers and the program moderator
would accept questions and comments from the 'audience' of people who
were watching it all on their terminals/computers at home, etc. PAT]
------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (jeff shaver)
Subject: Unzipping ISDN File in Archives
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 94 13:12:02 CST
I recently ftp'ed the ISDN.deployment.data.zip file from the Telecom
Archives, but I can't unzip it. PKZip 2.04(g?) tells me it's not a
zip file. Any ideas? Thanks for your help!
Jeff Shaver
[email protected]
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think the person who contributed that
file needs to get in on this discussion. It is possible it was corrupt
when he sent it to me, and it is possible it got corrupted in the
process of moving it from here to the archives ... plus which, maybe
there is a different routine needed to 'unzip' it ... if it turns out
the archives copy is bad, maybe we can try it over. I've not personally
looked at it or tried to unpack it. PAT]
------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (Kenneth Leung)
Subject: Information on Used Telecom Equipment Dealer Wanted
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 03:48:54 GMT
I am looking for dealers of used telecom equipment such as AT&T Merlin
phone sets and used AT&T PBXs.
Any sources would be appreciated
Kenneth C.P. Leung 1303 Walnut Hill Ln. 2nd Floor, Irving, TX 75038
Marketing Specialist Voice : 214-550-8371 Fax : 214-550-9269
Innovax Concepts Corp. AURORA Supermarket Application
[email protected] Innovax Integration Partner Program
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 94 17:04:21 EST
From: Carl Moore <
[email protected]>
Subject: Changes in FROM Symbols on Orange Card Bill
My latest Orange Card bill came today (March 9). It has only three of
those 3-character symbols in the FROM (abbrev. FRM) column:
MAK apparently used for a call made from southern Delaware. ALl
others were WDC (Washington DC?) and 800, and the WDC is apparently
popping up for the calls I made from northern New Jersey??? (I don't
understand the apparent spread of this use of WDC.) The 800 appeared
for calls made in New York state, Vermont, plus one call from western
Massachusetts.
The billing is sent by LDS Telecommunications Corp. of McLean, VA.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Telephone Companies and the Time
From:
[email protected] (Gregory Youngblood)
Date: Wed, 09 Mar 94 16:06:11 PST
Organization: TCS Computer Systems
> Question 2: How do I find the person inside Cellular One Boston who is
> in charge of setting the clock on the billing computer?
I believe it is in the switch and not the billing computer. At least
in cellular. As to who sets it, ideally it is set by someone who
calls one of the atomic clocks and sets if off that.
Though, I reluctantly admit that I used to set one of my switches by
my watch ... :) Twice every year for day light savings etc. :)
BTW, I know of at least one occurance where when the clock was set
forward at the switch there was one caller that just would not hang
up. The clock was changed and the caller had a 60 minute longer
call.. :) Of course when this happened the tech notified customer
service. ;)
Greg
The Complete Solution BBS Allfiles List: Anonymous UUCP Calls Accepted
707-459-4547 (24hrs, v.32) ~/tcsbbs.lst Login: nuucp Password: nuucp
Telemate Distribution Site
[email protected] Cellular Telephony Groups
------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (Clarence Dold)
Subject: Re: Telephone Companies and the Time
Organization: a2i network
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 04:05:48 GMT
Kent Borg (
[email protected]) wrote:
> I am under the impression that phone companies need accurate frequency
> sources for synchronous communications, but do they have any real need
> for accurate time of day information?
The switch that we use has no real idea of accurate time. It does use
the clock on the span to keep an accurate clock, but if we "set" it
off by a given interval, a year later it should still be off by
_exactly_ that same interval. In practice, we drive a text script at
it from a UNIX box that is slaved to WWV, but prior to doing that, it
could easily have been off by a few seconds, although a minute is
unlikely.
Clarence A Dold -
[email protected]
- Milpitas (near San Jose) & Napa CA.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 94 10:14 MST
From:
[email protected] (barry mishkind)
Subject: Re: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment
Organization: Datalog Consulting, Tucson, AZ
>> A comment on the one-ring telephone harassment: A local Chicago talk
>> show personality (Brian McCann on WLUP's Sunday afternoon "comedy"
>> program) has encouraged listeners to "drive your friends crazy" with
>> one-ring phone calls. He thinks it's a "victory" if the harasser can
>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It sounds to me like it is time for
>> someone to circulate Brian McCann's home telephone number publicly.
>> Incidentally, the main switchboard for the business offices at WLUP is
>> 312-440-5270. That is public information, it appears in the phone book
>> By the way, if anyone thinks of something else callers to WLUP
>> should not do -- something I may have overlooked -- write and let us
> We certainly shouldn't suggest that messages be sent to the FCC, regarding
> Brian's behavior ... especially to the new FTP location and email address
> they have put on line.
> pay and keeps dragging it through court. Years ago, the FCC's response
> would have been to go out and padlock the transmitter after shutting it
> off; I guess these days the big money involved with major radio stations
> doesn't allow that to happen. PAT]
Heheheh. The young folk have no idea, do they? <g> When I was in
college, I wondered why a local station was silent. It turns out the
GM of the college station had been on the air when the feds dropped by
to padlock the station for non-payment or something. A young kid, he
hesitated, and the fed said something like "either get out of here, or
we'll lock you in, too" ... Ray told me he had never done a sign off
so fast ... and got out the door to see the padlocks go up. The
station never returned (sort of like the MTA traveller <g>) ...
Barry Mishkind
[email protected] Tucson, Arizona
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Only a few people probably remember when
the FCC ordered our very own WLS (890 AM) off the air one night over
thirty years ago -- about 1960 sometime -- when one of the DJ's of the
'new' managment (the team which dumped the Prairie Farmer, religion and
soap opera format for hard rock music) uttered the word 'damn' over the
air. Yep, that's all it took in those days. A telephone call from the
FCC enforcement representative in this area to the home of the General
Manager (it was late at night) followed by a call from the GM to the
engineer on duty caused the station to go off the air. They went off
so fast in fact they stopped the music they were playing in the middle
of the song and the DJ did a formal identification process of the station
(call letters, power, location of station, that they were licensed by the
FCC, etc) and concluded by saying that 'the Federal Communications Comm-
ission has ordered that this station remain silent until further notice
and accordingly we leave the air at this time.'. That was it, and within
five seconds or so of that they dropped the carrier and were gone. Maybe
ten minutes had passed between the 'damn' and WLS being ordered off the
air. That was a Saturday night, and they came back on the air about 10 AM
the next morning, probably after the station attornies and management
straightened it out with the FCC people. They were required by the FCC
to play a recorded message *once every hour* for two days and four times per
day for the rest of the week from the management of the station apologizing
for the indiscretion and informing the listeners how to contact the FCC
to file other complaints against the station if they wished to do so. PAT]
------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (John Coe)
Subject: Re: Question About Random Dialing
Date: 9 Mar 1994 18:52:35 GMT
Organization: Booz, Allen, and Hamilton
In article <
[email protected]>,
[email protected] wrote:
> Is there a shareware program or commercial program available that can
> dial randomly within a given area code and when it comes across a fax
> machine log that fax number into a database. If anyone has any
> pointers I would appreciate it.
Could you please explain one practical/ethical use for such a database
(other than the obvious, annoying use as a junk-mail fax list)?
John Coe (
[email protected])
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There isn't anything to explain. You
described the purpose of the compilation. To hell with the other 99
percent of the subscribers on the exchange who do not have a fax
machine but get awakened at night (or sent running from their bathroom
to the phone or whatever) when the phone rings only to have the caller
disconnect when 'hello' is heard instead of a fax tone. PAT]
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Motorola Envoy Personal Wireless Communicator
From: a_rubin%dsg4.dse.beckman.com (Arthur Rubin)
Date: 9 Mar 94 22:00:12 GMT
Reply-To:
[email protected]
In <
[email protected]> Ben Burch <
[email protected].
com> writes:
> NOTE TO EDITORS: Motorola and Envoy are registered trademarks of
> Motorola Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the
> property of their respective owners.
For what it's worth, Envoy-100 is also the name of an Email network
run by Telecom Canada.
Arthur L. Rubin:
[email protected] (work) Beckman Instruments/Brea
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] (personal)
------------------------------
End of TELECOM Digest V14 #122
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