Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id JAA11667; Sat, 17 Aug 1996 09:09:09 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 09:09:09 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199608171309.JAA11667@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #419 TELECOM Digest Sat, 17 Aug 96 09:09:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 419 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Timed Local Internet Calls (Stewart Fist) Latest ITU Bulletin Available (Zev Rubenstein) 415, 916 and Jeopardy in 510 (Tad Cook) EMail Bombs From the Mad Hacker (Tad Cook) Getting a Semi-Public Pay Phone? (Lisa Hancock) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 13:23:21 +1000 From: fist@ozemail.com.au (fist) Subject: Timed Local Internet Calls I write a weekly column on telecommunications in Australia's national newspaper "The Australian", and last week I wrote a piece attacking the claims being made by the CEO of Telstra (ex-Telecom Australia) that Internet users were costing the carrier money because they locked up the telephone exchanges through long-held calls. My information was based on my own knowledge plus confirmation from some telecommunications consultants. The CEO (ex-AT&T executive Frank Blount) is lobbying the Australian government to be able to impose timed-local calls on Internet users (God knows how!). Or perhaps he is just using the Internet users (again!) as a whipping boy, to gain some political sympathy. Telstra is required to maintain fixed-price local calls, but can offer timed local calls as an option (they do already with ISDN) - this may be a way to introduce timed-calls for all data transmissions. Here is the guts of the piece I wrote: > In an interview last week with Kirsty Simpson of the Melbourne > Herald Sun, Blount railed against the iniquities of the Internet > and called, once again, for the right to impose timed local calls on > domestic and residential users. "We have to do something," he > said. "We can't have people on the Internet ring up for 25c and > sit there for 24 hours; they tie up the whole exchange." > He said much the same a couple of weeks before to another > Melbourne journalist. > Frank's advice about exchange-blocking must be coming from > some real old-timer from the Telstra Sunset Retirement Home. > Anyone who thinks Internet users can "tie up the whole > exchange" was obviously weaned from Strowger switches to > Crossbars only in his declining years, in the early 1970s. > The old Crossbar exchanges were limited in the number of calls > they could handle, but, these days, digital exchange switches are > virtually unblockable. > At least, that's is true in all other countries and in switches not > owned and operated by Telstra. > Hopefully, in the budget, Senator Alston could find the > pennies to buy Telstra a pocket calculator. Then, if they train > someone to work this strange new technical device, they may be > able to calculate exchange loadings. > Can you imagine a network built to handle Xmas, Mother's Day, > stock-market panics and natural disasters which is unable to > cope because of the load imposed by the 5% of Australians who > seriously use the Internet - mostly at midnight? > The average digital switch and inter-exchange network can > handle about 75% of all connected lines simultaneously - except > for some of the older inter-exchange city connections which, > perhaps on Monday morning during the peak-load period, run > close to their limits. > But that's just a matter of dragging cables through existing > ducting - with each fibre-pair then able to carry another 40,000 > calls. A single length of the same cable used for Pay TV trunks > (by the thousands), would carry individual connections for every > Internet user in Australia, a couple of times over. > So if all Internet users sat on their service-provider connections > for 24 hours next Monday, they could perhaps increase Telstra's > capacity problems by 2-3 percent in a few inter-exchange > connections, for a few minutes around 10 am, in some > circumstances, at some old exchanges. > Mind you, all those companies that use long-held inter-office > voice and data links between PABXs and LANs at their various > sites, might also contribute somewhat to the same problem - if > such a problem ever exists. Frank will need to turn his eagle- > eye on corporate users next. --------------------------------------------- In reply to this article, I received a number of comments and criticisms from Telstra technicians. This is typical: > You make several remarks about the capacity of the digital > exchange to switch calls, but have not identified the bottleneck > that exists in switching customers. There are two stages in our > AXE digital switch, the customer stage, (where customers are > connected) and the group stage (where the switching occurs). > The bottleneck referred to by Frank Blount , occurs at the > connection between these two stages. > Typically for 2048 customers there are a maximum of 512 > connections available to the group switch, providing a maximum > capacity of 25 percent. Your figure of 75 percent refers to the > capacity of the processor to switch calls through the group > switch, which as I have just mentioned is not the bottleneck. > I hope this has clarified the situation and illustrated that there > are indeed technical limitations with the current day digital > switches. ------------------------ And another from an on-line discussion group: > It would be nice if the argument was so simple. Unfortunately > the underlying problem here is the basic model that telco's have > used (quite rightly) for sizing the switches at their exchanges. > This model uses an average call hold time of approximately 3 > minutes, which is entirely reasonable in a voice (and even fax) > world. The exchanges concentrate a large number of subscriber > tail circuits into a *much* smaller number of active crosspoints > in the switch. A subscriber line is only connected to the switch > when the phone is taken off hook, and released again when its > hung up. > Now enter the wildly different call hold patterns typical of > Internet usage. Calls are routinely held by dial up users for > hours at a time which causes resource depletion and potential > denial of service to other customers on that exchange. > And the same problem is considerably worse at the exchange > which services the ISP, where there are hundreds or thousands > of lines that are tied up virtually 24 hours a day. This is causing > terrible problems to telcos world wide with *all* of them facing > meltdown in key central office resources. The result of course > will be lack of dialtone to *all* telco customers which is good for > no one. ----------------------- Since I am getting different information from Telstra insiders and Telstra outsider/critics and telecommunications consultants, I'd like to hear the opinions of those of you who know about these switches, and who don't have any local vested interest. The switches are Ericsson AXEs and Alcatel System 12s. Is Telstra's CEO Frank Blount right when he claims that long-held Internet calls block Telstra's exchanges, and are therefore unfair to other normal customers - needing, as he says (when he is lobbying the politicians) to become "timed-local calls"? If so. Is there some mechanism that allows the carrier to do this - to identify which calls on a line are to an ISP (other than just looking for modemised data) - bearing in mind that Telstra also has a mandatory requirement to maintain the option of 25 cent, fixed price local calls? Would the carrier be able to read the CLI of each call going to an ISP, link back to the home exchange billing mechanism where the call originate, and implement timed-calls on that line for the duration? Or are the Telstra critic's right in claiming that a modern Ericsson AXE and Alcatel System 12 digital exchange doesn't block at any conceivable load-increase imposed by long-held Internet calls? And therefore, there is no technical justification for timed-local call-charging specifically aimed at Internet users. One writer claimed that System 12 exchanges don't block at all. Is that right? Thanks in anticipation for your input. I'll use this stuff in another column as follow-up. Stewart Fist Technical writer and journalist. Homepage: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/stewart_fist Archives of my columns: http://www.abc.net.au/http/pipe.htm [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The Telecom Archives web page has a link to Stewart Fist enabling users to read his columns on line. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 20:54:42 +0000 From: zev@attmail.com (Zev Rubenstein) Subject: Latest ITU Bulletin Available Readers of TELECOM Digest may find the Operational Bulletins issued by the ITU to be a valuable resource. The latest one (# 625) is now available. I have added below excerpts from the summaries generated by a colleague at AT&T of the contents of some of the earlier bulletins. This should give an idea of the variety of information available in them. To track when they become available, monitor the following URL: http://www4.itu.ch//itudoc/itu-t/op-bull.html Zev Rubenstein Nationwide Telecommunications Resources ---------------------------- Bulletin No. 625: MARITIME MOBILE SERVICE Spain announces that coast station HUELVA RADIO has closed. MOBILE COUNTRY OR GEOGRAPHICAL AREA CODES Mobile Country Code (Rec. E.212) 901 has been assigned as a shared code for Global Mobile Satellite System (GMSS). OPENING AND CLOSING OF CIRCUITS India - list of "closed" circuits is announced Malawi - list of new (opened) circuits is announced TELEPHONE SERVICE ANTIGUA & BARBUDA C&W (West Indies) announces that a new geographical area code NPA 268 has been assigned to Antigua and Barbuda by the NANPA. JAPAN International prefixes for KDD, International Telecom Japan and International Digital Communications are provided. MONTSERRAT C&W (West Indies) announces that a new geographical area code NPA 664 has been assigned to Montserrat by the NANPA. ROMANIA New numbering ranges for the city of Predeal, area code 68, are provided. TRINIDAD & TOBAGO TSTT anounces that on August 1, 1996, Trinidad and Tobago's international prefix will change from 01 to 011 for automatic dialled calls. The permissive dialing period is six months. DATA TRANSMISSION SERVICE Japan announces two new data network identification code assignments and one change. CHANGES IN ADMINISTRTIONS/ROAs ISRAEL Bezeq International has received the status of a recognized operating agency and is licensed to supply international services ONLY. SLOVENIA A new address and telephone number for the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Slovenia is provided. AMENDMENTS TO SERVICE DOCUMENTS LIST OF COAST STATIONS (LIST IV) Changes to the List of Coast Stations is provided for the following countries: Sweden Turkey LIST OF SHIP STATIONS (LIST V) Changes to Sub-Section 2A are provided. LIST OF DATA NETWORK IDENTIFICATION CODES (DNIC) (REC. X.121) Changes are provided for the following country: Japan LIST OF INTERNATIONAL SIGNALLING POINT CODES (ISPC) (REC. Q.708) ISPC changes are provided for the following countries: Cyprus Sweden United Arab Emirates LIST OF MOBILE COUNTRY OR GEORGAPHICAL AREAS CODES (REC. E.212) 901 has been assigned as a shared code for Global Mobile Satellite System DIALLING PROCEDURES (International prefix, national prefix and national significant number) (REC. E.164) Changes to the dialing procedures for the following countries has been announced. Japan Trinidad & Tobago ------------------------------- Bulletin No. 625: TELEPHONE SERVICE Andorra: Reminder to all administrations detailing the telephone numbering plan for Andorra. Japan: The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Japan announces the introduction in the public land mobile telephone service of the following new series of numbers. Companies, assigned numbers and implementation dates are provided. Peru: Telefoncia del Peru, Lima, announces the introduction of a new numbering format for the cellular telephone system. CHANGES IN ADMINISTRATION/ROAs United Kingdom: C&W PLC, London, has ceased to occupy the "90 Long Acre" address. C&W's new address is provided. SERVICE RESTRICTIONS: CALL BACK: Tanzania: The administration of Tanzania announces that Call-Back practices are not authorized in Tanzania AMENDMENTS TO SERVICE DOCUMENTS LIST OF SHIP STATIONS Various changes to sub-section 2A and 2C are provided. LIST OF INTERNATIONAL SIGNALLING POINT CODES (ISPC) The following countries have revisions to their respective information contained in the list. Brunei Spain France Macau Sweden LIST OF NAMES OF ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT DOMAINS The following countries have revisions to their respective information contained in the list. Austria Denmark Hongkong LIST OF ISSUER IDENTIFIER NUMBERS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION CHARGE CARD Denmark: New IIN Assignment: Telia A/S 89 45 03 Ukraine: New IIN Assignment: Ukrainian Mobile Comm. 89 380 01 New IIN Assignment: Ukrainian Radio Systems 89 380 02 ------------------------------- Bulletin No. 622: MARITIME MOBILE SERVICE List of Ship Stations (List V) (36th Edition-June 1996) (3 volumes) is available. ASSIGNMENT OF SIGNALLING AREA/NETWORK CODES (SANC) (ITU-T REC. Q.708) Assignment of SANC codes: United Kingdom, Northern Ireland TELEPHONE SERVICE Australia: Austel announces modifications to the numbering scheme for specific localities. Monaco: The country code 33 will change to the new country code 377 effective June 21. TELEX SERVICE Subscriber telex numbers in Uruguay are provided. DATA TRANSMISSION SERVICE (ITU-T REC. x.121) Austria: Additional data country code of 233 is assigned to Austria. CHANGES IN ADMINISTRATIONS/ROAs Change of name from ARENTO to EGYPT TELECOM OTHER COMMUNICATIONS Botswana: Request to respond to BTC if other administrations are operating "ELTEX V BETA" equipment. Tanzania: Tanzania Telecommunications Company Ltd. announces corporate appointments and contacts. Zaire: New address for correspondence and transactions regaring the settlement of accounts, debt collection or consolidation. SERVICE RESTRICTIONS Service restriction in force. CALL BACK Yemen: Call Back to obtain international telephone access from the Republic of Yemen is prohibited. AMENDMENTS TO SERVICE DOCUMENTS List of Coast Stations List of Ship Stations List of international carrier codes List of international signalling point codes List of signalling area/nework codes List of data country or geographical area codes List of names of administration management domains List of issuer identifier number for the international telecommunication charge card Barbados: Barbados Telephone Company IIN: 891 012 Change in corporate telephone and fax numbers at Barbados Tel. Co. TA Table - transferred account telegraph and telematic service International Telecommunication Union - universal postal union ------------------------------ Bulletin No. 619: Ship station selective call numbers Legal time changes Telegram destination indicators Telegram service Telephone service China: Announces the introduction of international inbound service for the mobile telephone network (GSM) Columbia: old numbers vs. new numbers ->Finland: Expansion of the Finnish telephone numbering plan beyond 12 digits United Kingdom: Areas Code 1734 replaced by 118 Changes in Administration/ROAs Ecuador Pakistan Other United Kingdom: Changes of address Kenya: Public holidays Service Restriction Call Back (positions on Call Back service) Ecuador Kazakstan Moroco Viet Nam Amendments to Service dcouments List of Coast Stations List of Ship Stations List of Internatinal Monitoring Stations International Signalling Point Codes (ISPC) for Signalling System 7 List of Signallig Area/Network Codes (SANC) List of International Carrier Codes List of Indicators for the Telegram Retransmission System (TRS) and Telex Network Identification codes List of Administration Management Domains (ADMD) List of Issuer Identifier Numbers for the International Telecommunications Charge Card Service (no reported changes this edition) Table of Rates for Telegrams ------------------------------ From: Tad Cook Subject: 415, 916 and Jeopardy in 510 Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 12:27:58 PDT California's San Francisco Bay Area to Get Another Area Code By George Avalos, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Aug. 16--In less than a year, Bay Area telephone customers will have a new area code -- 650 -- to memorize. The current 415 area code stretching from Marin County through San Francisco and taking in most of the Peninsula will be split into two phone regions. One area, primarily the Peninsula, will be served by the new 650 area code. San Francisco, Marin and a sliver of northern San Mateo County will retain the current 415 code, telecommunications officials said Thursday. The 916 region will be split to add a 530 area code; Sacramento and some surrounding cities will remain in 916. A huge area that includes the Interstate 5 corridor north of Sacramento, the Sierra foothills, northeastern California and the Lake Tahoe area will be in the new 530 service region, according to the California Area Code Administrator. Some parts of California are about to run out of phone numbers. The state's phone companies are struggling to serve not only a growing population and expanded business needs, but also an explosion of demand for second phone lines for homes, fax machines, beepers, wireless phones and online services. About 840,000 customers will be assigned to the 650 area code. Another one million people will keep their current 415 numbers, said John Lucas, Pacific Bell spokesman. Each area code that is split off from an old one costs about $7 million to $10 million to establish, Lucas said. The new area code for the Bay Area is scheduled to go into effect Aug. 1, 1997. But that might not be soon enough to mitigate the exhaustion of area codes. "It's very uncertain if there is enough time," Lucas said. "Numbers may not be available for everyone." "Not everyone may be able to get phone numbers immediately," said Joanne Collins, Area Code Administrator for Northern California. Pac Bell has proposed a plan to ration phone numbers. The state Public Utilities Commission is evaluating the company's suggestions. According to Collins, officials may deny or delay the orders of: -- People who need a second phone line in their home. -- Large business customers who need large blocks of phone numbers. -- Wireless phone customers What's more, some customers may be placed on a waiting list. Others might not be assigned initially to the local phone company of their choice. The East Bay's 510 area also is running out of phone numbers. That region could suffer some shortages of numbers as more prefixes are assigned. "The 510 is in jeopardy," Collins said. So far this year, officials have assigned 102 prefixes serving about 1 million phone numbers in the 510 area code. In all, 588 prefixes serving 5.9 million phone numbers have been assigned in the East Bay, said David Miller of Pac Bell. The 510 area code can accommodate no more than 204 more prefixes. The region will max out at 7.9 million phone numbers, Miller said. (c) 1996, Contra Costa Times, Calif. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. ------------------------------ From: Tad Cook Subject: EMail Bombs from the Mad Hacker Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 15:15:54 PDT Mad Hacker Burying His Enemies in E-Mail Via AP By JARED SANDBERG The Wall Street Journal Anyone trying to send electronic mail to Sandy Gookin, author of "Parenting for Dummies," won't get through to her. She was "mailbombed" -- Internet parlance for a hacker prank that sends scores of unsolicited e-mail messages. Ms. Gookin has some impressive company: Her fellow victims in this mailbombing attack, waged by a vitriolic hacker who calls himself "Johnny (Xchaotic)", include many of America's rich and famous -- or merely powerful. The hacker had the temerity to publicly claim responsibility for the stunt -- the on-line equivalent of short-sheeting every bed at summer camp -- and posted a manifesto explaining why, in each case, he did it. For the less-known Ms. Gookin, the missive mischief began last Friday night when the hacker (or hackers) was adding her name to subscriptions for thousands of Internet "mailing lists," or group discussions that take place via e-mail. Her mailbox was flooded with 20,000 pieces of e-mail daily -- some pages long -- crippling her account on CompuServe and making it impossible for her to log on. "My CompuServe account is ruined," says Ms. Gookin. While the hacker probably used an automated mailing program to sign her up for so many lists, she had to manually "unsubscribe" to each of the thousands of sources -- to no avail. "I'd send out 50 messages to unsubscribe and 70 more subscriptions would come back. I couldn't send them out fast enough. Then I started getting the mail," she says. And what mail it was! It came from groups of cat lovers, tuba lovers and Germans. Another mailing list gave her hourly updates on wind conditions around the country. Johnny Xchaotic, in his posted message, said Ms. Gookin was hit because, "Anyone who needs a book to be a good parent should not have kids. You are contributing to the overall stupidity our society possesses." Needless to say, Mr. Xchaotic couldn't be reached for comment. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@cpcn.com (Lisa) Subject: Getting a semi-public pay phone? Date: 17 Aug 1996 02:16:42 GMT Organization: Philadelphia City Paper's City Net My condominium has a swimming pool and clubhouse. There is an extension phone (from the office line) for emergency calls from the pool. We are finding more requests by people to use that phone to check their home machine for messages, call friends, etc. Also, guests at clubhouse events want to call home to check the babysitter, etc. The emergency phone is abused -- we get overseas calls on it. We called Bell about installing a pay phone, but they wanted a very high installation charge and a guaranteed minimum use which we do not expect to meet. We expect maybe average five to ten calls per week in summer, and two calls per week in winter, spring, and fall. Could anyone suggest perhaps a tariff on how we could get a Bell pay phone more inexpensively? I've seen Bell phones at other condo pools with a layout similar to ours that can't get that much usage. Or, could someone suggest how we'd find and _evaluate_ a vendor to provide privately owned pay phone service? We want it to be revenue neutral -- not costing us anything, but not getting any commission. We don't want users price gougaged either. Any general suggestions would be appreciated. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V16 #419 ******************************