Play and Learn 2/19941.ZIP/19941/PUBE/TD10469.TXT

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TELECOM Digest     Sun, 8 Jul 90 19:15:02 CDT    Volume 10 : Issue 469

Inside This Issue:                         Moderator: Patrick A. Townson

    Re: Touchtone Fee Abolished in CA [Wes Plouff]
    Re: PacBell to Eliminate Touch-Tone Charges [John A. Hammond]
    Re: Number of NXX in Each NPA [Jim Ray]
    Re: Buying Telecom Tools [Bob Vaughan]
    Re: Sprint Users Now Get Immediate Credit [Shailesh Shukla]
    Re: PacBell Coinphone False Info [Edward Greenberg]
    Re: Manhole Covers [Clive Feather]
    Re: Mitch Kapor and "Sun Devil" [Peter da Silva]
    Re: International Calls Using Credit Card and Equal Access [PCI]
    Re: Finland Direct (Some Problems) [Kauto Huopio]
    Re: Who is John Galt? [John David Galt]
    Plantronics Jackset [David Brightbill]
    Reference Book Wanted on Telephones [Adnan Yaqub]
    My Trip to Kansas  [TELECOM Moderator]
    Good For a Laugh: Polish Payphones [Donald E. Kimberlin]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Touchtone Fee Abolished in CA
Date: 4 Jul 90 16:58:11 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (John Higdon)
writes...

>Isaac Rabinovitch <claris!netcom![e-mail]> writes:
>> It is true that if they just passed the extra cost of call waiting,

>But what IS this extra cost? You can't get a generic for any switch
>today that doesn't have the usual custom calling features built in.

 ...and...

>Heath Roberts <[e-mail]> writes:

>> This isn't quite true. Telephone companies have to pay quite a bit for
>> the software (and sometimes hardware) to provide these advanced
>> features.

>Call waiting, call forwarding, and three-way calling are not, repeat
>not advanced features. They have been part and parcel of stock
>generics for over twenty years. Try to buy a switch without them.

Historical questions: when was the last date that AT&T sold switching
equipment _without_ 100 percent tone dialing coverage?  Competitors?
When was the last date AT&T sold switches without at least some
"custom calling" features as standard?  Competitors?  References such
as magazine articles would be most appreciated.

This is a relevant question for those of us who live with backwater
telephone service from NYNEX, as well as arteriosclerotic regulation
by the Mass. PUC.


Wes Plouff, Digital Equipment Corp, Maynard, Mass.
[e-mail]

Networking bibliography:  _Islands in the Net_, by Bruce Sterling
              _The Matrix_, by John S. Quarterman

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

From: "John A. Hammond" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: PacBell to Eliminate Touch-Tone Charges
Date: 6 Jul 90 18:11:02 GMT
Reply-To: "John A. Hammond" <[e-mail]>
Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego


Several years ago, my daughter informed me that the pulse/dial
telephones that I purchased would work in the tone mode.  Since that
time, particularly since we gave all of the rotary units back to
PacBell rather than pay exhorbitant monthly rental, I have been using
touch-tone dialing exclusively.  There has never been an additional
charge for that usage or an installation charge.  I have had the same
telephone service for roughly 25 years with the only change being the
result of the divestiture.  I suspect that the switch was replaced
with a new one and touch-tone was available for use.  I just didn't
make the mistake of signing up for it!

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

From: Jim Ray <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Number of NXX in Each NPA
Organization: Harris Semiconductor, Melbourne FL
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 90 21:34:45 GMT


Does anyone have a list of the NXX's in each NPA?  This list gave the
number of NXX's in each NPA but not each one and area location.

Is this information generally available?


Jim Ray                                Harris Semiconductor
Internet:  [e-mail]     PO Box 883   MS 62B-022
Phone:     [phone]              Melbourne, FL  32901


[Moderator's Note: You are asking for very large, extensive files, but
yes, they are available. If David Leibold (woody), our Canadian
correspondent is reading this, please write Mr. Ray and send your
files to him if he *really* wants all of them as he thinks.   PT]

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

Date: Sun, 8 July 90 01:44:26 pdt
From: Bob Vaughan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Buying Telecom Tools
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA


In article <[e-mail]> you write:
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 327, Message 11 of 11

>I wanted to get a tracing beeper, an inductive pickup, and a modular
>adapter (to bring the modular pins out in order to attach a test set.)

>I found that Graybar in San Jose won't sell to anybody who doesn't
>have a California resale certificate.  I thought that the days of
>phone-paranoia were over.

>Does anybody know of a source that publishes a catalog from which I
>can mail order items such as these?  Hello Direct just won't cut it.


Try this place:
     Time Motion Tools
     410 South Douglas St
     El Segundo , Ca  90245
     213-772-8170


Bob Vaughan - [e-mail] - {apple,pacbell,hplabs,ucbvax}!well!techie

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

Date: Sun, 8 Jul 90 12:16 CDT
From: Shailesh Shukla <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Sprint Users Now Get Immediate Credit
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Jason
Chen) writes:

> You can get immediate credit ... if and only if you can get through
> their always-busy customer service. Yup, they have not changed a bit
> since I dropped them three years ago.

Not true!

That's partly the idea behind the instant-credit service. You don't
have to dial customer service (1-800-877-4646). The 00 operator can
give you all the credit you want.


Shailesh Shukla

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

Date: Sun, 8 Jul 90 08:21 PDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: PacBell Coinphone False Info


Ron Schnell writes:

>..I never thought I would see a BOC payphone which displays
>misinformation like this one did.

>She then told me that in the future I should call Pac Bell, and
>that they are the ones who should know about it.

Ron goes on to suggest that AT&T should have done something about it,
and, indeed, they might have taken a report, but then, they'd have to
do the same thing that they suggested ... Call Pacific Bell.

I found a payphone in a restaurant recently, that was labelled AT&T,
and gave some sleezy LD service instead.  I called Pacific Bell Repair
Service and reported it, and it was fixed the next day!  Since they
control the programming, I wouldn't think of calling AT&T for the
problem.


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

Date: Fri, 6 Jul 90 07:13:21 bst
From: Clive Feather <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Manhole Covers


People have been talking about constant width curves (such as a triangle with
curved sides, each centred on the opposite vertex). The UK 20p and 50p coins
are seven-sided constant width curves in shape. The constant width property
means that the coin will still roll !


Clive D.W. Feather              | IXI Limited
[e-mail] [x, not ixi]      | 62-74 Burleigh St.
 ...!uunet!ixi!clive            | Cambridge   CB1 1OJ
Phone: [phone]          | United Kingdom

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

From: peter da silva <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Mitch Kapor and "Sun Devil"
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Peter da Silva)
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 90 16:37:38 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> it is written:
System) writes:

> You wouldn't threaten somebody
> with 30 years in jail for taking something from a house.

AT&T and DEC aren't houses.


Peter da Silva.   `-_-'
[phone].
<[e-mail]>

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: International Calls Using Credit Card and Equal Access
Date: Fri,  6 Jul 90 18:50:43 PDT


Greg Monti states:

>There are no "different" vendors for overseas calls and for domestic
>calls.  US regulations (the Modified Final Judgment) state that, from
>any US phone, the whole world is divided into just two areas:
>intra-LATA and inter-LATA.  Overseas calls are obviously in the second
                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>category and therefore the long distance companies carry them.
^^^^^^^^^

This is not quite accurate.  LEC's are not allowed to provide
inter-LATA service.  They are allowed to provide intra-LATA and
International service.

This situation in very familiar to the carriers that serve the Hawaii
market.  One of the largest IRC's (International Record Carriers) in
the region is GTE Hawaiian Telephone (HawTel) the local LEC.  When
competing for service between Hawaii and other Pacific points
(including U.S. points of Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas
and American Samoa) we find our LEC (which has a monopoly for local
service ... both dialup access and leased line local loops) is also the
IRC competing with us.  In order to prepare a bid, we must notify our ...


[Moderator's Note: This is the way I received the above message. It
appears the last sentence or two have been truncated.   PT]

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

From: Kauto Huopio <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Finland Direct (Some Problems)
Date: 7 Jul 90 21:43:44 GMT
Organization: Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland


My brother is as an exchange student in Lawton, Michigan. He has tried
to call our family here at Finland via the Finland Direct service
(quite equal to Svergie Direct) Our PTT has advertised these two
numbers:

1-800-232-0358 via ATT
1-800-283-4652 via MCI

My brother hasn't got through, at least when he did try the ATT
number.  He got a recorded message: "Your international call couldn't
be completed" or something like that.

Now I have several questions:

1) Is it true that there can bee 1-800 numbers NOT ACCESSIBLE via
either ATT/MCI

2) If 1) is true, can my brother access another carrier to make the
1-800 call and does he get any additional charges on that?

3) Do these numbers work at all? (PLEASE, I don't want to get such
news that 4000 telecom readers blocked the Finland Direct service just
to test if it works..)


Kauto, OH5LFM

****************** Kauto Huopio ([e-mail]) **********************
*US Mail: Kauto Huopio, Punkkerikatu 1 A 10, SF-53850 Lappeenranta, Finland *
*WARNING! We have holiday season here, so be patient with my answers..      *
*****************************************************************************

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

From: ames!ames!claris!portal!cup.portal.com![e-mail]
Subject: Re: Who is John Galt?
Date: Sat,  7 Jul 90 15:19:05 PDT


You guessed right about where I got the name, but I am a real person
and am not quite the same as either Rand's character or da Silva's
description.  I invite philosophical discussions under
alt.individualism -- this is not the place for them.

For the record, John David Galt is my real name, which I took in 1981.

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

Date: Sun, 8 Jul 90 02:55:46 -0400
From: David Brightbill <[e-mail]>
Subject: Plantronics Jackset


Does anyone know how to connect a Plantronics js-0180-1 jackset to a
plain old 500 style instrument?  I sort of got it working by guess and
by golly but ...  I suspect that there are different pinouts depending
on the type of instrument it gets connected to.


Dave Brightbill
Rt. 7, MLC-9
Tallahassee, FL  32308-9802
904.878.3746
[e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 26 Apr 90 11:13:41 EDT
From: Adnan Yaqub <sgtech![e-mail]>
Subject: Reference Book Wanted on Telephones


Could some kind body please point me to a suitable reference which
describes the signaling between the main office and my home phone.  I
would like to know such things as how much power is provided, what the
ring signal is like, how the click for call waiting is done, etc.


Adnan Yaqub
Star Gate Technologies, 29300 Aurora Rd, Solon, OH, 44139, USA, [phone]
[...cwjcc!ncoast ...uunet!abvax ...ism780c ...sco ...mstar]!sgtech!adnan

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

Date: Sun, 8 Jul 90 18:38:10 CDT
From: TELECOM Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: My Trip to Kansas


My trip earlier this week to the land of Ah's went off mostly without
a hitch, although my cellular phone from Radio Shack (CT-301) with
service from Ameritech gave me some hassles.

From Chicago going down I-55 we have Ameritech here at home and again
in the Springfield, IL area. Some other small cell carrier comes in
further downstate, which I belive is Contel Cellular, which is a
division of some other cell carrier.  Shortly before St. Louis.
Southestern Bell came in, then Missouri was served in a sketchy way by
United States Cellular over much of Route 54.

The trouble is, I could make no outgoing calls (or receive incoming
calls via Ameritech's 'follow me' roaming feature) on the way down. It
seems even tough I told Ameritech earlier in the week to turn on the
'Fast Track Follow Me Roaming' feature (which they did), since this
was my first trip out of town with the cell phone, for some reason
Ameritech got paranoid when they picked up my signal from central
Illinois instead of Chicago ... so ... they cut me off immediatly.

Being the Fourth of July, there was no one in their office to complain
to, but Thursday morning, July 5 I was on their 800 numbber at 9 AM
sharp to raise cain. I got a call back an hour or so later from a man
who apologized and said I had inadvertently been placed on the
'abandoned listing'. On the way back everything worked fine, except
that on a few occasions when between carrier areas, the roaming light
(as opposed to 'no service' light) would come on, leading me to
believe there was service at that point when there was not.


Patrick Townson

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

Date: Sat, 7 Jul 90 22:03 EST
From: "Donald E. Kimberlin" <[e-mail]>
To: Telecom Moderator <[e-mail]>
Subject: Good For a Laugh: Polish Payphones


 ..Here's a mini-laugh just arrived here as republished in TE&M
magazine for July 1, 1990:

       "A recent article from Knight-Ridder newspapers describes the
payphone situation in Poland:

        "`Want in on the best little bargain in a changing Eastern
Europe?  Step right up: A local call at a Polish payphone is still
only 20 zlotys -- about one-fifth of a penny in U.S. terms.

        "`Don't have a 20-zloty coin?  Not to worry.  With some
shrewd dealing you can buy one for as low as 200 zlotys.'"
(I make that out to be about 2 cents U.S. !)

        "`Since Polish payphone mechanisms were increased to
20 zlotys several months ago, 20-zloty coins have gone into hiding.

        "`Not all 20-zloty coins, mind you.  Just the ones that fit
payphones.  There are three sizes of 20-zloty coins in Poland,along
with a 20-zloty bill. (Don't ask; explaining all of this is going to
be complicated enough.)

        "`The payphone-sized 20-zlotycoins are selling on the streets
for 200 to 1,000 zlotys apiece.'" (I still say cheap at a thousand
zlotys -- about a dime U.S., isn't it?)

        "`The whole thing might strike you as it strikes Miroslawa
Firlej, 35, a Polish waitress who recently coughed up 1,000 zlotys for
a coin to call her son's school to report he was sick.  Of the
payphone situation, she remarked, "It's crazy."

        "`A great many Poles, like Firlej, have no phone in their
homes, so they rely on payphones.  And with the breathtaking inflation
that has resulted from the country's sudden change to a free-market
economy, 20-zloty coins don't circulate much because they aren't worth
much, except in a pay phone.  And there, incidentally, they are a good
deal, considering that a local call from a private phone is now 150
zlotys.'"

Seems I recall a similar situation in Greece, where the local payphone
rate was a few drachmae, a price so cheap that coins of such a small
denomination were hard to come by.

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

End of TELECOM Digest V10 #469
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