Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id JAA02890; Wed, 26 Feb 1997 09:24:00 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 09:24:00 -0500 (EST) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199702261424.JAA02890@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #53 TELECOM Digest Wed, 26 Feb 97 09:23:00 EST Volume 17 : Issue 53 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Ready for Wireless Local Bypass in Colorado (Tad Cook) New Area Code Info from Bellcore (Tad Cook) More BellSouth Cellular Swaps (Stanley Cline) 311 For Police Non-Emergency Calls (Brian M Krupicka) This 800 Number is Really Out Of This World (Paul Robinson) 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 hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives (or use our mirror site: ftp ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@massis.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: AT&T Ready for Wireless Local Bypass in Colorado Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 23:22:14 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) AT&T Seeks Approval for Local Wireless Telephone Service in Colorado By Kerri S. Smith, The Denver Post Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Feb. 26--AT&T is testing a wireless telephone system that it says can bypass U S West's network while providing faster, clearer local service to customers' homes. If it works, AT&T may be able to lure away 30 percent or more of local service customers from U S West and other Baby Bells, analysts said. The former long-distance company is part-way through the regulatory process required to offer local service in Colorado. Patents are pending on the new system, which includes neighborhood antennas beaming radio frequencies to a 13-inch box mounted on each customer's home. Each antenna could service up to 2,000 homes. Called "fixed" wireless because of the box fixed on the home's exterior wall, the system initially would provide each household with two phone lines and a high-speed Internet access line. The Internet access line would have a capacity of 128 kilobits per second, four times as fast as today's fastest modem. "This is great news, a fabulous idea, and if the technology works, it's going to be very good for the company," said Douglas Christopher, an analyst with Crowell Weedon & Co. in Los Angeles. "But does it work? We don't know yet. It's still early to say what's going to happen, because we`re still in the speculative stages of testing," Christopher added. In a Tuesday-morning conference call with reporters and analysts, AT&T president John Walter said the system worked well when tested at an apartment complex in Washington, D.C. Chicago trials already are under way, and will be expanded through that area into a full-scale test later this year, he said. Shortly before the conference call, Walter introduced the new system while addressing the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in Washington, D.C. He told the audience, which included Colorado utility commissioners Vincent Majkowski and R. Brent Alderfer, that special safety features make it harder for others to eavesdrop on conversations of fixed wireless calls. AT&T's new system would allow customers to use their cordless telephones anywhere -- at home, work or on the road -- without depending on copper wire or cellular networks, said Mary Beth Vitale, AT&T regional vice president of local service in Denver. While similar wireless systems are under development by U S West, MCI and other telecommunications companies, Vitale insists AT&T's technology is ahead of the pack. "This is brand-new technology and nobody else has it," Vitale said. "The difference is that we are using 10-megahertz slices of bandwidth and multiplying its capacity." But because the testing process is just beginning, it likely will be at least two or three years before fixed wireless is available to Colorado customers. AT&T won't wait for the new system to be up and running before offering traditional local service here, Vitale added. Until the new system is operating, AT&T will share U S West's network -- buying service from the former monopoly at wholesale rates and reselling it for retail -- and whenever possible, routing calls on its own fiber optic network, Vitale said. AT&T's stock barely budged in response to the news, dropping from $41.25 when the New York Stock Exchange opened Tuesday to $41.13 at the close of trading. That's not surprising, said David Allman, a telecommunications analyst with Elliott Wave International. "Regarding stock price, this news is pretty much a yawner; people are yawning at the announcement because new technology always promises big things and over time, those announcements turn out to be overstated," Allman said. "Only time will tell how good this technology is." New York analyst Scott Wright was more positive about fixed wireless' potential, saying its best feature may be that customers have to ask for it before the company spends money installing it. "Unlike the cable industry, where you have to lay a lot of cable down the street, then go back and convince people to take cable service, this product is demand-driven," Wright said. "The customer wants service, you roll a truck out and install the box on their house. It's a cost-effective way to do business. Wright also liked the flexibility the new system will give AT&T as it attempts to penetrate the local telephone market. "This gives them another arrow in their quiver -- they can do land lines or ride their own wireless network when it makes sense. It gives them a strategic advantage," he said. In response to AT&T officials' claims that fixed wireless customers will bypass the U S West network, making it unnecessary to pay access charges, U S West spokesman David Beigie deplored its competitor's "lack of interest in investing in the network." "For AT&T to say they are going around the Bell system is true to their pattern, of going around the network," Beigie said. "We believe the issue of competition is to encourage investment in the network." Vitale said AT&T and other competitors are required to contribute money to a universal fund that pays for maintenance and expansion of the existing network. Meanwhile, officials of Englewood-based U S West downplayed the significance of AT&T's announcement. "We are not intimidated at all by this offering from AT&T, because we have a wide range of similar personal communications service products that we'll roll out in Colorado this year," said Peter Mannetti, vice president and general manager of wireless products for U S West. ------------------------------ Subject: New Area Code Info from Bellcore Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 23:34:38 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) New Area Code Info (Including Maps) Available On The Web MORRISTOWN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 1997--Bellcore, the communications software and engineering company that also administers area codes in the United States, Canada, Bermuda and the Caribbean has made an up-to-date list of area codes, a series of maps, and other information available on its web site, www.bellcore.com/NANP/. The site also includes answers to the most commonly asked questions about area codes. `We've been on-line for a year now,` said Jim Deak, Bellcore's Manager-North American Numbering Plan (NANP) Administration. `But the demand for maps has been very strong from reporters, telecommunications people and just plain citizens. They can be downloaded, and they can be read with Adobe Acrobat(TM) software.` The maps on the site include maps showing: -Canadian area codes -U.S. area codes -Caribbean area codes -Close-ups of area codes in southern California, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Bermuda, Guam and the Marshall Islands. `People want to see what the new area codes look like,` Deak said. `Of course, these maps are pretty high-level. They aren't going to show you the street-level boundary lines between area codes. But they will give you a general idea of where one area code ends and the neighboring one begins.` Bellcore's NANP web page also contains several lists of area codes. For example, there is a list of all the area codes in North America, arranged alphabetically and numerically. There is a list of all the area code changes that have taken place since January 1, 1995, and a shorter, continually updated list of area codes assigned since January 1, 1997. A person accessing these last two lists can click on a changed or changing area code and get more information about that particular change. `We hope that people will take advantage of this new resource and this new opportunity to help them understand how numbering works in North America,` Deak said. Bellcore, headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, is a leading provider of communications software, engineering and consulting services based on world-class research. Bellcore creates business solutions that make information technology work for telecommunications carriers, businesses and governments worldwide. Bellcore has sales offices throughout the United States, and in Europe, Central and South America, and the Asia-Pacific region. On November 21, 1996, SAIC (Scientific Applications International Corporation) announced that it had agreed to purchase Bellcore once requisite regulatory approvals have been obtained. More information about Bellcore is available at its web site, www.bellcore.com ------------------------------ From: roamer1@RemoveThis.pobox.com (Stanley Cline) Subject: More BellSouth Cellular Swaps Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 23:15:06 GMT Organization: Catoosa Computing Services Reply-To: roamer1@RemoveThis.pobox.com Seems BellSouth is doing yet more swapping of cellular markets! * BellSouth gains Dothan, AL and more share of GA-1 (Dalton) (they should own 100% of GA-1 soon) * 360 gains Richmond, VA (they already own most of the area *around* Richmond) and BellSouth's share in Tallahassee, FL system. This, along with the US Cellular swap and the PCS D/E/F licenses, leaves BellSouth with wireless coverage nearly everywhere in its landline region *except* south Georgia (Newnan, Columbus, Albany, etc.), Augusta GA, the Alabama Shoals area, and Polk County, TN (which BellSouth may gain when the FCC re-auctions off unserved areas.) I have *no* idea *what* BellSouth plans to do about South Georgia ... (Quite frankly, however, BellSouth is by no means dominant in south Georgia; ALLTEL and numerous independents are the main LECs. Maybe this is deliberate.) SC On Tue, 25 Feb 1997 15:37:47 -0500 (EST), BellSouth wrote: > BellSouth ...........................................February 24, 1997 > BellSouth, 360 Communications To Restructure Cellular Partnerships > In Florida, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama > ATLANTA/CHICAGO BellSouth Corporation (NYSE: BLS) and 360 > Communications Company (NYSE: XO) today announced that they have signed > definitive agreements to combine ownership interests in two cellular > partnerships and transfer interests in two markets. > Under terms of the agreements, which are subject to regulatory approval, > the two companies will combine ownership interests in two partnerships > that own and control cellular licenses and operations in Central Florida, > including Orlando, and in Richmond, Va. The resulting partnership will > be owned approximately 75 percent by BellSouth and 25 percent by 360. > NOTE: To obtain copies of 360's Form 10-K, 10-Qs, or copies of quarterly > earnings and other recent news releases issued by the company, please > call toll-free 1-888-360.INFO (1-888-360-4636), 24 hours a day, seven days a > week. 360 Communications' news releases are also available at no charge > by calling 1-800-578-7888, #111849. 360's Internet address is > http://www.360.com.=20 > Margaret Kirch Cohen > 360 Communications Company > 773-399-2385 Stanley Cline (Roamer1 on IRC) ** GO BRAVES! GO VOLS! dba Catoosa Computing Services, Chattanooga, TN mailto:roamer1@pobox.com ** http://www.pobox.com/~roamer1/ From: line changed so I get NO SPAM! See http://www.vix.com/spam/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Feb 97 09:41:38 CST From: Brian M Krupicka Subject: 311 For Police Non-Emergency Calls 311 Non-Emergency Dialing Application Programming Printed: February 21, 1997 The new 311 Non-Emergency number is starting to go into effect in several areas of the country. This new number was requested by President Clinton last year and was just approved for use in the North American Dialing Plan. The intention of this new number is to remove non-emergency telephone traffic from the 911 response number and still be easily remembered anywhere in the country, like 411, 611, and 911 are today. It will take several years of education to get people to dial the new non-emergency telephone number. It has already reduced traffic to the 911 operators in those locations where it is available. The Naperville Illinois Central Office by Ameritech does NOT provide for routing of 311 traffic at this time. In an effort to minimize confusion with our on-campus users, the following steps were taken to implement this feature in the North Central College telephone system. The North Central College telephone system is a Rolm 9751 9006. The telephone system was programmed to route both 9-311 and 311 dialed calls. Programming was done in two sections. The first being calls routed via LCR (ie: 9-311) and the second by callers dialing 311. The following is for LCR routing programming: The first requirement was to establish a LCR OUTDIAL RULE (ODR number 5). This was done so a call routed by dialing 9-311 would be directed to the seven digit non-emergency number for the Naperville Emergency Services responsible for the North Central College campus. The second step was to program the LCR ROUTE DEFINITION TABLE (LROUT 4). We elected to route the calls out the colleges PRI trunks and overflow to the Central Office trunks. This route was assigned the lowest AUTH (5) in our system plan. Since we had a unique ODR, we set up a different LROUT. The third step was to program the LCR DIALING PLAN (LDPLN 257). This also was programmed with the lowest AUTH in our telephone system plan and directed calls to LROUT 4. The following are programming examples of the call routing via LCR access. Each sites programming will differ. DIS-LODR RANGE = 5 DIS-LODR:5; H500: AMO LODR STARTED << DISPLAY LCR OUTDIAL RULE >> ODR NO COMMAND BRANCH VALUE ------ ------- ------------ 5 OUTPULSE 4206666 END -------- END OF DISPLAY -------- AMO-LODR -173 AMO LCR ODR FOR SWITCHING UNIT DISPLAY COMPLETED; DIS-LROUT ROUTE = 4 DIS-LROUT:4; H500: AMO LROUT STARTED LCR ROUTE DEFINITION TABLE -------------------------- ROUT EL TRK MGR ---SCHEDULES--- AO AU ON OFF ODR APL INFORMN TRK SCC SVC SVC NUM EM GRP IDX A B C D E F G H RT TH Q Q NUM TYP TRS CAP SIG ID VCE N-V ---- -- --- ---- - - - - - - - - -- -- -- --- ---- --- ------- --- --- --- --- 4 1 3 1 X 1 5 N N 5 V S PRI NON NON 2 2 2 X 1 5 N N 5 V S CO NON NON END OF LCR ROUTE DEFINITION TABLE DISPLAY AMO-LROUT-173 ROUTE DEFINITION DETERMINATION PACKAGE DISPLAY COMPLETED; DIS-LDPLN PLAN = 257 DIS-LDPLN:257; H500: AMO LDPLN STARTED OUTPUT DISPLAY FORMAT ----------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |DIGIT PATTERN : 9-311 |AREA CODE FIELD IDX : NONE PLAN NUMBER: 257 |OFFICE CODE FIELD IDX: NONE |TYPE OF NUMBER : NATIONAL |NUMBERING PLAN ID : ISDN_TELEPHONY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DIGIT ANALYSIS GROUP : 0 ROUTE : 4 ACCOUNT FLAG : USER AUTHORIZATION : 5 AMO-LDPLN-173 AMO LCR DIALING PLAN FOR THE SWITCHING UNIT DISPLAY COMPLETED; The following is for callers dialing 311: We tried several different approaches and all had mixed options. We selected the following, that defines an analog station number (Prime DN) as 311 and then manually established call forwarding to a predetermined off-site number. The first step was to create a Class-of-Service (COS 18) which had the Call Forward To The CO (CFWCO) feature assigned to it. The second step was to create an analog station with a directory number of 311 (SCSU 311). We also programmed the lowest AUTH (5) in our system plan and programmed the PUBSCR filed with our main campus telephone number (ie: 6306375100). The third step was to install an analog telephone on the PEN and use the variable call forwarding feature code (ie: #91) to program the destination number for Naperville Non-Emergency Services (VAR CFW 94206666). DIS-COS TYPE = 18 M33: VALUE TYPE DOES NOT CORRESPOND TO TYPE IN VALUE TABLE TYPE = COS COS = 18 DIS-COS:COS,18; H500: AMO COS STARTED +------+------------+------------+------------+ | COS | VOICE | DTE | FAX | +------+------------+------------+------------+ | 18 | | | | | | CFWCO | | | | | MDR | | | | | | | | +------+------------+------------+------------+ AMO-COS -173 CLASSES OF SERVICE, SWITCHING UNIT DISPLAY COMPLETED; DIS-SCSU STNO = 311 TYPE = ALL DIS-SCSU:311,ALL; H500: AMO SCSU STARTED STNO 311 NAME - ACT DEV COS1 18 COSX 0 DIAL DTMF DLIDX - DEVFUNC ANATE COS2 18 SPDC1 - DPLN 0 TA N PEN 1-3-109-9 LCRCOSV1 5 SPDC2 - HTLNIDX - TADLIDX - PUBSCR 6306375100 LCRCOSV2 5 SPDI N ITR 0 TAINS - ACTCDE 0000000000 LCRCOSD1 - HANDSFR - SPECL - ACCLASS - NTYPE - LCRCOSD2 - INS Y PUGRP - QPRIOR - RPTYPE DSSALERT - DTS N STD - FAXSERV N HDSTYPE NWBALNO - CDIDX - WINKOFF N SEIZE - DTE DL VER CFWDV Y CFWDD N DND N CALLWAIT N VCE DL VER 0 VCP - MSGWLMP - PHONMAIL N COMGRP - DNIDSP - FIXED CFW1 - FIXED CFW2 - VAR CFW 94206666 STATION-HUNT N UCD-HUNT N PILOT-HUNT N NIGHTVARIANT N AMO-SCSU -173 SUBSCRIBER CONFIGURATION IN THE SWU DISPLAY COMPLETED; Once the Ameritech Central Office is programed for 311 dialing capability, we can reprogram the LCR routing to use the normal LCR Route Definition Table for all local calls. However, we will still need to maintain the caller's ability to dial 311. This will prevent having any extension numbers in the range of 3110 through 3119. Brian Krupicka Telecommunication Manager North Central College 630-637-5451 ------------------------------ From: Paul Robinson Subject: This 800 Number is Really Out Of This World Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 17:51:46 -0500 Organization: Evergreen Software In the motion picture, "Super Mario Brothers", based loosely on the Nintendo video game, two plumbers cross over into an underworld in another dimension to help a princess who is being terrorized by an evil despot. As it turns out, the despot discovers the two plumbers have crossed over and encourages residents of the underworld to report if they have seen them, and offers a reward for calling in. As it turns out, the "wanted poster" in this movie actually lists a number for people in the underworld to call in and make reports: 1-800-776-9753 So it made me wonder, what happens if someone calls it from the "real" world (ours.) Nothing! The number does not even click after it is dialed! It simply goes to silence, as if it is attempting to connect to ... Nowhere. Even after a full minute on the line, it's still dead silent. Maybe it really IS going to another world... :) I thought this was cute, myself. Paul Robinson Evergreen Software Home Page coming soon ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #53 *****************************