Received: by bu-cs.BU.EDU (5.58/4.7) id AA22315; Sat, 28 Jan 89 01:46:18 EST Message-Id: <8901280646.AA22315@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: Sat, 28 Jan 89 1:31:49 EST From: The Moderator Reply-To: TELECOM@bu-cs.BU.EDU Subject: TELECOM Digest V9 #34 To: TELECOM@bu-cs.bu.edu TELECOM Digest Sat, 28 Jan 89 1:31:49 EST Volume 9 : Issue 34 Today's Topics: Re: Cellular Setup Re: Cellular Setup Cellular Fraud Two parties calling each other simultaneously My cordless remote stopped working Charging for international phone calls UK and USA Telephone Calling Cards old pay telephones Age of area codes/NAP Re: Victims of Wrong Numbers Re: Victims of Wrong Numbers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To: comp-dcom-telecom@uunet.UU.NET From: boottrax@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Perry Victor Lea) Subject: Re: Cellular Setup Date: 26 Jan 89 19:45:48 GMT You mentioned that there are set guidlines to the frequenciest that cellular phone services are allowed to use, however; when I had been futzing with my police scanner I had been able to hear cellular phone conversations. I am familiar with the laws that allow anyone to be able to listen to radio waves via radio sets. But why would they allow phone conversations to be set in these bands where anyone with a police scanner can eavesdrop? boottrax@csd4.milw.wisc.edu ------------------------------ To: munnari!comp-dcom-telecom@uunet.UU.NET From: munnari!stcns3.stc.oz.au!dave@uunet.UU.NET (Dave Horsfall) Subject: Re: Cellular Setup Date: 27 Jan 89 01:20:56 GMT In article , boottrax@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Perry Victor Lea) writes: | | Question: Is it possible to access cellular setup channels and place fraudulent call with a ham radio? Unlikely - amateur radio equipment doesn't cover the 800MHz cellular band without heavy modification. Then you'd have to spoof the ESN's etc. -- Dave Horsfall (VK2KFU), Alcatel-STC Australia, dave@stcns3.stc.oz dave%stcns3.stc.oz.AU@uunet.UU.NET, ...munnari!stcns3.stc.oz.AU!dave PCs haven't changed computing history - merely repeated it ------------------------------ From: smb@research.att.com Date: Fri, 27 Jan 89 20:52:51 EST To: TELECOM@bu-cs.bu.edu Cc: att!killer!mcsd!Athena!tim Subject: Cellular Fraud It is not impossible to change ESN in a phone, but is extremely difficult since it is manufactured physically into the unit, and is not generally documented by the manufacturer is public domain documnets for security reasons. Well -- maybe it's harder today, but a couple of years ago the N.Y. Times reported a fairly wide-spread business doctoring the id chips in phones. They said that the oddest thing was not that it was happening, but that it was decentralized -- lots of small-scale stuff, by lots of different folks who knew how to operate PROM burners. They didn't find what they expected: a few centralized shops with sophisticated crooks. --Steve Bellovin ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Jan 89 14:12:07 EST From: kevin@calvin.ee.cornell.edu (Kevin Tubbs) To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: Two parties calling each other simultaneously My Dad swears that about 10 years ago, he was calling a salesman somewhere. At the same time, the salesman decided to call my Dad. Both had apparently completed dialing, when their call "met in the middle" somehow! Is this really possible? Or do you suppose one of them picked up and dialed without listening for dial tone, when in reality he was dialing into the other guy's ear? My Dad seemed to think that each of them had gotten dial tone and dialed normally. BTW, this was a long distance (cross country) call. Any ideas? Kevin Tubbs, 5152 Upson, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, 14853 (607) 255-8703 kevin@calvin.ee.cornell.edu {uunet,rochester}!cornell!calvin!kevin ------------------------------ To: reed!tektronix!comp-dcom-telecom From: apple.i.intel.com!marko (Mark O'Shea) Subject: My cordless remote stopped working Date: 24 Jan 89 16:10:25 GMT I have a cordless remote phone from Sears (Too bad, I know). A while back it quit working. I called Sears and they told me it would cost the same amount to fix it as purchasing a new one-natch, the warranty was expired. So I put it away in the closet that holds all the handy home gadgets which need repair and I'll get around to someday... Well, about three or four months ago I heard something about how the batteries sometimes go bad and that could be the problem. So, I stopped off at my local Radio Shack and picked up a replacement set of batteries. I removed the old batteries and soldered in the new ones and put the phone on charge for 24-hours. At the end of the 24-hour period I got a dial tone, before the battery replacement there was no dial tone. After a few tries to dial out-with no luck-the dial tone went away. I had my sister-in-law call me and I tried to answer using this phone-no luck. No sister-in-law jokes please, I like mine. Is there possibly a simple fix for this beast? Is there a place that will fix it for a reasonable fee(<$50)? Shall I put it back in the handy gadget closet, shall I use it for 6mm, 87 grain impact testing? Thanks, Mark O'Shea SDA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Jan 89 14:39:18 PST From: dias@iris.ucdavis.edu (Gihan Dias) To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: Charging for international phone calls I have a question regarding how charges for international calls spanning multiple rate periods are computed. Are the number of minutes in each period charged at the appropriate rate, as domestic calls are, or is the whole call chared at the rate corresponding to the beginning of the call? for example, if the economy period extends upto 6.00 pm, followed by the standard rate period, How would I be charged for a 10 minute call starting at 5.56? Does anybody know if the charge computation is performed in different ways by different L.D. carriers, in particular, AT&T and MCI, or for different destination countries? Thanks, Gihan Dias ------------------------------ From: covert%covert.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (John R. Covert) Date: 27 Jan 89 18:07 To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: UK and USA Telephone Calling Cards >There are two ways of using a BT card to call england from the US. [Horror stories] >Solution is to get calling card number for US office, now all I have >to do is sort out the internal accounting . . . . It was recently announced on the AT&T news line that U.S., U.K., and Japan calling cards were about to become interchangeable, by some time in March. This would theoretically mean that you will soon be able to dial 01-44+ and just enter your U.K. card number at the tone, and away the call would go. The number to be used is just the domestic number (no 1M or 44M) with PIN. It may (I'm not sure) also mean that you will be able to use your U.K. card for domestic (0+) and possibly other international calls while in the U.S., and not just for calls back home as it is now. Is there an automated system being introduced within the U.K. for making calling card calls? DTMF pay phones seem to be being rapidly introduced. /john ------------------------------ From: xrtll!stephan@citi.umich.edu To: yunexus!telecom Date: Fri, 27 Jan 89 18:00:35 EST Subject: old pay telephones I'm interested in buying an older style pay telephone. I'm talking about the all metal black ones with the three chrome coin slots protruding from the top. The only ones I have seen were from this antique dealer and were very expensive ($300 cdn). These had been repaired and looked like new and were obviously targetted at people with no knowledge of phones. I am willing to fix one myself as long as the basic unit is in good condition Unfortunately, I can't figure out where all of these units went to. Thank you in avance for you help. Stephan Deschenes WCOM Toronto ------------------------------ Subject: Age of area codes/NAP To: uunet!bu-cs.bu.edu!telecom@uunet.UU.NET Date: Fri, 27 Jan 89 20:46:12 EST From: David Lesher I remember seeing (on a 'personal' directory given away by Ohio Bell) that area codes would take effect on 1 January 1955. Can anybody else remember this date? Cleveland had 6 digit (or really two letter CO+4 digit) number asssignments just prior to then. ------------------------------ To: comp-dcom-telecom@rutgers.edu From: ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) Subject: Re: Victims of Wrong Numbers Date: 27 Jan 89 18:59:32 GMT My favorite is that we had a close number to the pre-equal-access Sprint access number. It was one of our modem lines and we used to hear people dialing up and pushing touch tones trying to make long distance calls on our modem. -Ron ------------------------------ To: att!comp-dcom-telecom From: larryc@mtuxo.att.com (XMRH6-L.CHESAL) Subject: Re: Victims of Wrong Numbers Date: 27 Jan 89 18:18:06 GMT I recall reading a story (in the Miami Herald Sunday magazine, I think) about a sportswriter who moved to a new town and as soon as he arrived, he got a call from a bar where someone asked him to settle a bet about the winner of the 19xx World Series or something. He was flattered, gave the right answer, hung up, and then couldn't figure out how they knew he was the new sportswriter in town. He then began getting calls asking for stuff like the average winter temperature in Brazil, the distance to the moon, and the genus and species of endangered animals. Turns out his new phone number was the same as the (recently changed) Reference section of the Public Library. Larry Chesal (201) 576-6179 att!mtuxo!larryc ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest *********************