Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id TAA17165; Thu, 22 Aug 1996 19:34:08 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 19:34:08 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199608222334.TAA17165@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V16 #430 TELECOM Digest Thu, 22 Aug 96 19:34:00 EDT Volume 16 : Issue 430 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Atlanta 911 and COCOTs: The Bomb Call Transcript (Howard Pierpont) Gee Whiz Stuff From Bellcore (Tad Cook) End to Phone Card Pacts (Tad Cook) AT&T Offers Check to Distintive Ring Number (Robert E. Haussmann) 800 Number Routing Question (John Perkins) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 22 Aug 96 12:54:49 EDT From: Howard Pierpont Subject: Atlanta 911 and COCOTs: The Bomb Call Transcript I noted a discussion about LOTS of COCOTs being placed in ATlanta before the Olympics. I haven't heard if the phone used was a COCOT, but I think [based] on the way the 911 call was handled] it was. Not sure if you have seen the transcript. interesting read. howard Pierpont Business Resumption MAnager, Digital Semiconductor hudson MA. ------ From RISKS DIGEST 18.35 ------ Date: 20 Aug 96 01:11:11 GMT From: risko@csl.sri.com (RISKS List Owner) Newsgroups: comp.risks Other items deleted---- Date: Fri, 16 Aug 96 10:45:34 PDT From: "Peter G. Neumann" Subject: The Atlanta 911 transcript [The following transcript of the Olympic 911 bomb call and the ensuing conversation suggests that many of our nontechnological risks are not being adequately addressed. PGN] http://www.cnn.com/US/9608/09/olympics.bomb.911/911.transcript.wir/transcript.html Excerpts from a transcript released Thursday by the Atlanta Police Department regarding the bomb threat telephoned to 911 on July 27. Times have been converted from military time to standard notation, and punctuation and spelling have been edited. Parenthetical notes are part of the police transcript except where labeled as an editor's note. The transcript refers to these police terms: Code 73, bomb threat; and Zone 5, a police precinct near Centennial Olympic Park. The transcript did not explain the Zone 5 dispatcher's references to Code 17 and Code 8, which apparently were unrelated to the bomb call. 12:58:28 a.m.: [Call to 911] 12:58:32 a.m.: Atlanta Police Department 911 Operator: "Atlanta 911." Caller: "There is a bomb in Centennial Park, you have 30 minutes." 12:58:45 a.m.: Caller hangs up. 1:01:20 a.m.: 911 operator calls APD Agency Command Center (all lines busy). .... 1:01:30 a.m.: 911 operator calls Zone 5 and notifies Zone 5 of Signal 73 and requests address of Centennial Park -- unable to get street address. Dispatcher: "Zone 5." 911 Operator: "You know the address to Centennial Olympic Park?" Dispatcher: "Girl, don't ask me to lie to you." 911 Operator: "I tried to call ACC but ain't nobody answering the phone ... but I just got this man called talking about there's a bomb set to go off in 30 minutes in Centennial Park." Dispatcher: "Oh Lord, child. One minute, one minute. I copy Code 17. OK, all DUI units are Code 8 and will not be able to assist on the freeway. Oh Lord, child. Uh, OK, wait a minute, Centennial Park, you put it in and it won't go in?" 911 Operator: "No, unless I'm spelling Centennial wrong. How are we spelling Centennial?" Dispatcher: "C-E-N-T-E-N-N-I -- how do you spell Centennial?" 911 Operator: "I'm spelling it right, it ain't taking." Dispatcher: "Yeah." 911 Operator: "Centennial Park is not going. Maybe if I take 'park' out, maybe that will take. Let me try that." Dispatcher: "Wait a minute, that's the regular Olympic Stadium right?" 911 Operator: "Olympic Stadium is like Zone 3, though. Centennial Park." Dispatcher: "That's the Centennial Park?" 911 Operator: "It's near the Coca Cola Plaza, I think." Dispatcher: "In 5?" 911 Operator: "Uh huh." Dispatcher: "Uh, hold on. Sonya, you don't know the address to the Centennial Park?" 2nd Dispatcher (in background): "Downtown." 911 Operator: "Male, about 30." Dispatcher: "1546, Code 17, 23." 911 Operator: "White." Dispatcher: "Uh, you know what? Ask one of the supervisors." 911 Operator: "No, Lord help me, you know they don't know." Dispatcher: "I know, but it gets it off you." 911 Operator: "Alrighty then, bye." Dispatcher: "Bye." 1:02:40 a.m.: 911 operator calls APD ACC for address (telephone line problem; operators cannot hear each other.) ... 1:02:50 a.m.: 911 operator calls APD ACC again and requests address for Centennial Park and is given the telephone number. ACC: "Atlanta Police, Agency Command Center." 911 Operator: "Hey, can you hear me now?" ACC: "Uh huh." 911 Operator: "OK, can you give me the address of the Centennial Park?" ACC: "I ain't got no address to Centennial Park, what y'all think I am?" 911 Operator: "Can you help me find the address to Centennial Park?" ACC: "I can give you the telephone number of Centennial Park." 911 Operator: "I need to get this bomb threat over there to y'all." ACC: "Well." 911 Operator: "But I need the address of Centennial Park. It's not taking, the system is not taking Centennial Park, that's not where it came from, but you know the system is not taking Centennial Park, that's where he said the bomb was." ACC: "No particular street or what?" 911 Operator: "He just said there's a bomb set to go off in 30 minutes in Centennial Park." ACC: "Ooh, it's going to be gone off by the time we find the address." 911 Operator: "Are you kiddin'? Give me that, give me that." ACC: "I mean I don't have an address, I just have phone numbers." 911 Operator: "Give me the phone number." ... 1:05:10 a.m.: 911 operator calls Centennial Park for street address and is placed on hold. Receives address at 1:07:10 a.m. Centennial Park: "Centennial Park, this is Operator Morgan." 911 Operator: "Hi, can you give me the address to Centennial Park?" Cen Park: "The address?" 911 Operator: "Uh huh." Cen Park: "Uh, hold on a second." 1:06:30 a.m.: 911 operator notifies Communications Supervisor, Sgt. Montgomery. 911 Operator: "Does anybody -- Sgt. Montgomery, do you know the address of Centennial Park? Do you know the address to Centennial Park. Well, I need to get the address of Centennial Park 'cause, I mean I don't mean to upset nobody, but we got a bomb threat over there." (Editor's note: The transcript does not further indicate whether this comment about a bomb threat was directed only to Sgt. Montgomery in the 911 center or to Centennial Park's Operator Morgan, who is shown to come back on the line just after the comment.) Cen Park: "Ma'am." 911 Operator: "Yes." Cen Park: "OK, it's 145 International Boulevard." 911 Operator: "145 International Boulevard." Cen Park: "Uh huh." 911 Operator: "OK." Cen Park: "All right, uh huh." 911 Operator: "Thank you. Bye bye." 1:08:35 a.m.: 911 operator sent call to dispatch. 1:11:10 a.m.: Dispatcher: "1591. Radio raising 1594." Unit 1594: "1594. You call?" 1:11:20 a.m.: Dispatcher: "1594, that's affirmative, got a Signal 73 at 145 International Boulevard. It came from the pay phone at the Days Inn. The caller is advising that he has one set to go off in 30 minutes at Centennial Park. Sounded like a white male." (Editor's note: The same information is then given to Unit 1593 and the dispatcher calls Unit 1546.) 1:12:30 a.m.: Dispatcher: "Did you copy?" 1:12:40 a.m.: Unit 1546: "1546. I copy. Advise the state police, they police that park. I'll go the Days Inn and see if I can locate the caller." Dispatcher: "OK, that's affirmative." (Editor's note: There are sporadic entries over the next seven minutes. Another officer, designated Unit 1593, also instructs the dispatcher at 1:18:50 a.m. to "contact the state police supervisor." The transcript contains no indication, however, that state police were notified.) 1:20:00 a.m.: Unit 2924: "2924 to Radio, be advised that something just blew up at Olympic Park." --------------------------- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That situation in Atlanta was certainly a tragedy which was no doubt compounded by the confusion expressed by police dispatchers shown above. One victim of the explosion is Mr. Jewell, the security officer who was involved. As everyone knows by now -- I trust -- he was completely innocent of any complicity in the affair, yet the FBI saw fit to put him through an incredible smear job -- a common FBI tactic -- in order to find him guilty in the eyes of the public. The Democratic convention starts here in Chicago this weekend with much inconvenience for the regular citizens who are finding a lot of streets blocked off; busses rerouted several blocks out of the way; and many public facilities such as Navy Pier closed to the public entirely. Those politicians really think they are something special. Some city officials believe privately there will be riots or at least more violence than usual during the week ahead; there have already been bomb threats called in, etc. I personally will be glad to see them all get out of town after a week so things can get back to some semblance of normality. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tad Cook Subject: Gee Whiz Stuff From Bellcore Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 10:10:20 PDT Some High-Tech Gadgets of the Future are Showing Up Now By Mimi Whitefield, The Miami Herald Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Aug. 22--In the not too distant future, a TV viewer settling in to watch a favorite program may be able to do a little shopping as a car commercial flashes on the screen. With technology under development at New Jersey-based BellCore Corp., a viewer watching a sleek sedan may be able to click on the image and electronically equip it to taste. A click of a mouse and the viewer can paint the car and select interior options. After selecting red with a leather interior, for example, the viewer may be able to get a price for that particular car, check its availability at local dealerships and perhaps even buy it with a credit card. "You complete your transaction and then you go back to your television show," said Dave Sincoskie, executive director of computer networking research at BellCore, a research and engineering firm for telecommunications companies. The technology: Real time video delivered over IP (Internet protocol) into a web browser. "It's a little fanciful but not out of the ballpark," said Sincoskie. Telecommunications is no longer a routine, black telephone type of industry. Technological advances are coming fast and furious -- changing the way people shop, get in touch and do business with each other. In some communities in California -- home of Silicon Valley and the microchip revolution -- people order their groceries by computer. The state is also experimenting with teleconferencing to hold town meetings. Though some people still derisively refer to the World Wide Web as the "World Wide Wait" because of overcrowding and bottlenecks, more and more people are delving into electronic communication. When Bob Lucky, BellCore's vice president for applied research, spoke at a gathering of telecom executives last year, more than 70 percent had not yet used the Internet. But at BellCore's annual technology forum this spring, the majority of those in the room raised their hands when Lucky asked how many had surfed the Net. An estimated 37 million Americans and Canadians now have access to the Internet. "What a difference a year makes. It's a sea change and this is going to happen every year from now on," said Lucky. Five years from now, predicts George H. Heilmeier, president and CEO of BellCore, the Internet will have more switching capacity than the telephone system has today. "In the next five years video and voice communication on the Internet will be a reality and of a quality equivalent to what you get on your television set today," he said. "It won't be this herky-jerky stuff you get in video-conferencing over ISDN (a technology that allows high-speed data transmission over copper-wire phone lines)." And instead of having to search the World Wide Web for things that are of interest, Heilmeier predicts there will be a concierge-type service that stores information on consumers' personal interests and then forwards specific data on their selections. A consumer, for example, might specify that he wants to see the largest selection of blue suits possible in a size 42 at stores within 15 minutes of his home and the information would be forwarded to his home computer. "Essentially the Internet will become vital to commerce in this country. It will be a very, very different world," said Heilmeier. "It will be a PC-centered world, rather than a TV-centric world, although both will co-exist." Telecom technology is already revolutionalizing the way Americans do business. Try this scenario on for size: It's a glorious day -- too glorious for the office but you really need to work. Not to worry. Head to the beach with a wireless laptop computer equipped with a tiny antenna. You can set up a virtual office under a beach umbrella. With Air Boss software developed by BellCore, you can send and receive faxes, e-mail and paging messages. You can even send a computerized document via fax to two different places at the same time: to an insurance company and a hospital archive, for example. This technology isn't someday. It's available right now. Although many large companies already use video-teleconferencing to link employees at distant sites, some people aren't comfortable talking to the small, boxed images of their colleagues that appear on their computer screens. Prototype software now under development at BellCore will go a long way toward personalizing video-conferencing. Picture this: Eight branch managers of a tire company are assembled in their individual offices for a video-conference with the chief financial officer at headquarters. With BellCore's Personal Presence system, all those images can be overlapped and blended together, and a "virtual environment" can be created for them. Instead of addressing eight employees in small computerized blocks, the CFO sees the eight managers as a group -- sitting behind a "virtual" conference table. And the system, which is expected to be available next year, has the capability to zero in on a photograph or document the CFO is holding, for example, and display it full size on the computer screens of the branch managers. Two employees also can "leave" the conference and conduct a private conversation, while still monitoring the main meeting on their computer screens. Closer to home, local and long-distance companies are getting into the techno act, too, with new products and services. BellSouth's latest telephone offering is the Nortel 350, a phone set that has a small display screen and a deluxe call-waiting feature. If a call comes in while the phone is in use, the identity of the caller comes up on the display. With a touch of the keypad, the call may be picked up, turned into a three-way call, or sent to voice mail. It also can be used as a speaker phone; is bilingual (English and Spanish); and stores a list of 85 numbers that can be dialed automatically. The pricetag: $224. Before the end of the year, BellSouth will be introducing a cordless- cellular phone, the Motorola PPS, in the Florida market. When the phone is used in the customer's home or office it works like a regular cordless telephone. But the handset becomes a cellular phone when the customer is on the go. For those interested in even more avant-garde communication, Japan's Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. has developed a tiny cell phone that fits into a wristwatch -- reminescent of Dick Tracy's two-way wrist radio of comic strip fame. There's no number pad on the prototype because the user "dials" by speaking. Slightly larger but still in the fly-weight category is Motorola's StarTac cellular phone. The flip-up model weighs just 3.1 ounces and provides up to 60 minutes of continuous talking without a recharge. But lightness doesn't equate with economy. The StarTac carries a hefty $1,000 to $2,000 price tag. Consumers' home phone systems also will become more versatile and take on new tasks in the future. This spring Ameritech, the Baby Bell that serves the Midwest, and Commonwealth Edison and Wisconsin Energy Corp. began a "smart home" test in the Chicago area and Wisconsin. In a "smart home," the air conditioning system, heater, or even the washing machine can be turned on and off over the phone. Some companies also have begun to test "smart" phones equipped with small display screens. They can do all the old phone chores plus read credit cards, carry out banking transactions, deliver e-mail and tap into local online services. Philips Electronics is putting the new technology to a test in Garden City, N.Y., where it distributed its P100 screen phones to 7,000 households. Someday it also may be routine to link television sets with appliances. A message on the television screen in the family room, for example, will alert a viewer that a pot of coffee has finished brewing in the kitchen. Also, wireless technology may become cheap enough that parents can afford to give any school kid their own cell phone to use in case they're in trouble, said Jim Lipsit, an AT&T operations employee who works in new technologies. Many Americans -- especially young people -- are embracing the innovations. But for others, high-tech can be terrifying. Some people just want peace and quiet. They don't want to be flooded with e-mail; they don't want to be accessible 24 hours a day; and they don't want to study a 25-page booklet to operate their cellular phone. "It's too much. It's all so confusing, and so technical sometimes. We don't need half of these gimmicks and gadgets," said Vivian Tuchman, who works with her husband at their downtown Miami men's shop. "You get Internet access and then the kids are up are until 3 in the morning e-mailing their friends. There are all these things you have to monitor now," she lamented. "Now you have all these zillions of TV channels, too, and we're paying through the nose for all this stuff." But Mike Zorovich, a 48-year-old Miami Shores resident who runs a wholesale sales business out of his home, says he's always been comfortable with the new technology. It's a good thing. At last count he had five phone lines (fax, business, home and two kid's lines), a fax machine, three notebook computers and two desktop computers at his home, as well as a beeper and cellular phone. And he's thinking about adding a sixth phone line that will be used exclusively for access to online services. "Could I imagine life without all this stuff? Probably," he says. "But the question is would I be as productive. I've seen a substantial increase in sales since I wired up. Service is the name of the game today, and you can't provide it unless you can communicate." But, he said, perspective is important: Just because evolving telecom technology is enabling people to stay in touch any time, virtually anywhere, doesn't mean they have to let it control their lives. "The reality is that people still want to have a certain quality of life. They aren't going to want to be wired up 24 hours a day, sitting in their beds online," said Zorovich. "Just because we have these capabilities doesn't mean we have to work 24 hours a day." ------------------------------ From: Tad Cook Subject: End to Phone Card Pacts Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 09:53:56 PDT End to Telephone Card Pacts Means More Dialing in Houston Area By Nelson Antosh, Houston Chronicle Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Aug. 22--Making a credit card call to area codes around Houston may mean dialing even more digits than before. A caller with AT&T service who lives inside the Loop and wants to bill the call to an AT&T credit card now must first dial 1-800-CALL-ATT. Behind this change is the gradual termination of agreements between AT&T Corp. and local telephone companies to honor each other's cards. In the case of Southwestern Bell, such an agreement between it and AT&T was canceled on Aug. 9, according to Southwestern Bell spokesman Chris Talley of Houston. Now, when someone tries to place a call on the Southwestern Bell network with an AT&T card, Southwestern Bell blocks the call. The recorded message says, "The card number you dialed is not valid; please enter your card number again." To avoid this dead end, a customer can either go to the Southwestern Bell operator or dial the lengthy 1-800-CALL-ATT sequence. This change guarantees that customers will get lower AT&T rates on all their calls, said Kelly Stratmore, a card specialist for AT&T in Basking Ridge, N.J. AT&T is canceling similar agreements with local telephone companies across the nation. This first occurred in April and the final termination is scheduled for the middle of next year, Stratmore said. Termination of the agreement for the Houston area was initiated by Southwestern Bell, which announced its intention to cancel in August 1994. The reasons cited in the company's announcement included "rising telecommunications fraud, rapidly diminishing the net value of the agreement." The companies were reimbursing each other for fraud, but Southwestern Bell was bearing a bigger burden, Talley said. Also, an aggressive advertising campaign by AT&T resulted in fewer calls being placed on the Southwestern Bell network, Talley said. ------------------------------ From: Robert E. Haussmann Subject: AT&T Offers Check to Distinctive Ring Number Date: 21 Aug 1996 22:17:05 -0700 Organization: Primenet (602)416-7000 I've just recently acquired three new telephone numbers with US West's "distinctive ring" feature. Of course, all three numbers are tied to a single physical line. Over the past few weeks, I've been getting calls from various long-distance companies asking me to switch the long distance carrier for one of the distinctive ring numbers. In fact, even though AT&T carries all long distance calls on that line, they've called two of the three distinctive ring numbers trying to get me to "switch". (I suppose the only information they have is that a particular number is *not* using AT&T for long distance, and have no way of checking whether that number corresponds to a physical line). The calls, of course, are getting annoying. But today I received an AT&T offer in the mail, with a $100 check (if I cash the check, they'll "switch" one of my distinctive ring numbers). The fine print reads "Endorsement and cashing of this check will switch your long distance service to AT&T." and "Your signature on and cashing of this check authorize AT&T to process your order and notify your local telephone company of your decision to switch to AT&T Dial-1 Long Distance Service." The obvious question is, can I cash this check? Bob Haussmann haussma@primenet.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Certainly you can cash it. And when AT&T gets it back they will notify your local telco to put that one distinctive ring number on their service. Your local telco will look at the order and decide there has been some mistake and just not process it. None the less you will have AT&T service on your line. It is not your fault they give their money away in a stupid fashion is it? Now I must caution people reading this however against tampering with the endorsement or scratching out any of the provisions in an effort to get the money without getting AT&T service at all. If you take the money, give them one of your lines. If you give them a line which has no outgoing service on it thus they will never see a nickle from it, that's their problem. PAT] ------------------------------ From: johnper@bigbird.rosemount.com (John Perkins) Subject: 800 Number Routing Question Organization: Rosemount, Inc. Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 22:50:06 GMT I have a single 800 number that is being routed to two different carriers at the same time. Recently I transferred the number from AT&T to PNG, but have found that of several (legitimate) calls made on the same day, some are being carried and billed by AT&T and some by PNG. To be a bit more specific, I had calls carried (correctly) by AT&T in early July. Then I switched to PNG and had calls carried (correctly) by PNG in late July. However, in early August I find I have a *some* calls carried by PNG and some by AT&T, even on the same days, while I did not expect to have any more calls carried by AT&T. Can someone please explain to me how this could possibly happen? I was under the impression that 800 numbers were routed according to a single national database. It appears that there is more than one database out there and they are not necessarily in sync. John Perkins (johnper@bigbird.frco.com) ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. 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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 #430 ******************************