Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id CAA06256; Tue, 15 Apr 1997 02:56:20 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 02:56:20 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199704150656.CAA06256@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #92 TELECOM Digest Tue, 15 Apr 97 02:56:00 EDT Volume 17 : Issue 92 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Revieww: "Emerging Communications Technologies" by Black (Rob Slade) Are We to Believe This? (Bruce Martin) Inexpensive Collect Calls (Lee Choquette) Announcement: New Area Code Web Pages (Linc Madison) Call For Beta Testers - US Robotics (Mike Fine) N. Carolina Power Co. Offers Phone Service (Tad Cook) Heads Up - FCC Issues 800 Order (Judith Oppenheimer) Re: Florida PSC to Revisit 904 Split (Steve Hayes) Re: Florida PSC to Revisit 904 Split (Stephen Sprunk) Ameritech Buys Sprint Local Company in Chicago (TELECOM Digest Editor) 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: * subscriptions@telecom-digest.org * 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: 847-727-5427 Fax: 773-539-4630 ** Article submission address: editor@telecom-digest.org ** Our archives are available for your review/research. The URL is: http://telecom-digest.org (WWW/http only!) 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 archives@telecom-digest.org 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 14:31:48 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Emerging Communications Technologies" by Black BKEMCMTC.RVW 961209 "Emerging Communications Technologies", Uyless Black, 1994, 0-13-051500-0 %A Uyless Black %C One Lake St., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 %D 1994 %G 0-13-051500-0 %I Prentice Hall %O +1-201-236-7139 fax: +1-201-236-7131 beth_hespe@prenhall.com %P 428 %T "Emerging Communications Technologies" A book describing emerging technologies can be expected to date quickly, particularly in the rapidly advancing field of communications. Black has generally stuck with the standards side of the technology, so the rate of change is much less. The result is a decent enough overview of frame relay, fiber distributed data interface (FDDI), metropolitan area networks (MANs) and switched multi-megabit data service (SMDS), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM, synchronous optical network (SONET), and mobile communications technologies. Overall, however, these areas are quite adequately covered in any number of other works, and Black adds little to the literature. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996 BKEMCMTC.RVW 961209 roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 11:45:41 EDT From: Bruce Martin Reply-To: Bruce Martin Subject: Are We to Believe This? Dear Mr. Townson et al.: When I came across this news, I wasn't sure whether to submit it to risks-digest or alt.folklore.urban. So I'm sending it to you . If nothing else, you and your esteemed colleagues can render judgment on the likelihood of these events ... (From The Toronto Sun, Wednesday, April 9 1997) Electronic stalker is making their life hell By CIARAN GANLEY and SCOT MAGNISH Toronto Sun WINDSOR -- The Tamai family doesn't watch the X-Files, The Outer Limits or Psi-Factor. "We don't have to -- we're living a nightmare of our own," said Debbie Tamai-Smith, 36, of Emeryville, a small community 20 km east of Windsor. Debbie, her husband Dwayne, 34, and son Billy, 15, are the victims of a cyber-stalker who calls himself Sommy. Sommy cuts in on phone conversations. He controls their power. He turns lights on and off. He changes channels on their TV, and he listens in on the family's conversations. And after a week's reprieve, the high-tech bogeyman -- who said he was vacationing in Florida -- returned yesterday while the family spoke to The Toronto Sun. "It's been a living hell," said Debbie, her hands shaking as she hung up the phone on the stalker who called to say he was back. "No one calls us any more ... once he gets your number you're a target too." Police and Bell Canada officials are stymied by Sommy, who has terrorized the family since they moved into the home in November. "We don't know who he is or how he's doing it," said OPP Const. Rick Harold, who has spoken to Sommy on the phone a dozen times. Bell Canada has changed the family's number, changed the phone lines in their home and changed the telephone cable in the family's new subdivision. They even tried to fry the bandit's equipment with a 600-volt blast down the phone lines. Sommy just laughed. Hydro officials are equally stymied as to how Sommy -- as the intruder with the intentionally distorted voice calls himself -- controls the power. Sommy has claimed responsibility for two power disruptions at the Tamai home. Electronic sweeps of the home have found nothing. Harold said Sommy has intruded on calls between himself and the family and has called him at his OPP detachment. The Tamai's don't think they can deal with Sommy much longer. "If I could I'd move out tomorrow," said Dwayne. Both Dwayne and his wife said even if Sommy stopped, they wouldn't feel safe. "My biggest fear is that he'll vanish without a trace," Debbie said. "If he's caught, we know it's over, but if he disappears we'll never know how he did it or if one day he'll be back." Creep's dirty tricks stump pros Electronically barging on to someone's phone line is a technological piece of cake but avoiding capture is much stickier, say computer experts and hackers. "Hacking into a phone conversation isn't difficult if the intruder has gotten into Bell Canada's (computer) system," said Derek Atkins, a computer security worker. What has Atkins and other experts stymied about "Sommy's" cyber-haunting of a Windsor family is how he's evaded detection. A telephone security expert said someone can invisibly access another Bell Canada line from a nearby site on the same "local loop." But if the intruder goes through one of the computerized switches that link neighborhoods, Bell Canada will trap their number "instantaneously," said the expert, who asked not to be named. Dave Rider ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::Bruce & Sue Martin, Toronto Canada::::bt511@torfree.net::::::::::: ::"Nothing has really happened until it's been described." - Virginia Woolf:: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would suggest that independently some inquiries be made of Constable Rick Harold, and also of technicians at the Hydro. Ask them if they have ever *personally witnessed* any of these events or if they merely have taken reports from the family. It is unclear to me if all the authorities named have actually witnessed these events -- in which case I will assume it is a truthful account -- or if they merely have responded to calls from the family and been unable to detirmine what is going on (because nothing is going on). If authorities have first-hand knowledge of these events, and wish to share what they are at liberty to discuss, it may be possible that our readers can assist. Long-time readers here may recall an article of several years ago in the Digest about a family which received a constant stream of harassing and obscene phone calls despite all sorts of effort to stop them. The phone number was changed several times, traps were placed on the line which the caller never managed to fall into, and at one point the cable and pair was even swapped out in the event it was someone nearby tapping into a junction box close at hand. The calls continued and the caller defied them to stop him. He managed to evade every trap on the line, etc. Finally someone came to the conclusion that the only person able to have advance knowledge of the traps, access to the records regards the several changes of numbers from one non-pub number to another non-pub number, knowledge of the new pair being used, etc had to be a telephone company employee. With that theory in mind, a very quiet investigation got underway at the central office. When they were reasonably certain who it was, an elaborate scheme was devised to make him think he was working alone in the central office that weekend. Soon enough, they heard him whispering his foul and ugly comments into a buttset clipped on at the frames. Quietly they walked in and stood several feet away just looking at him. Presently he disconnected, turned around and saw two telco security guys standing there simply watching and listening. "You're a very sick son of a bitch," said the one security guy, "and with everything in this building at your disposal because the brass trusts you entirely. You've worked here fifteen years, but tomorrow morning you are going to be out, on your ass." And he did get fired the next morning. His keys, identification and all tools were taken away from him immediatly when he was caught and very early the next morning a letter was delivered to him at his home telling him he was discharged. Door locks were changed at the CO, passwords were changed and other employees who 'heard rumors' about why the fellow was no longer there were told that *nothing* more was to be said about the incident. Period, end of discussion. Telco told the family that 'the problem has been solved' without getting into very many specifics, for obvious reasons. The poor frightened family was so relieved to hear that news that I guess they did not care about pursuing it further. The folks in Canada might want to consider the possibility that if these things are in fact happening, it might be a telco or hydro insider who has a role in it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 10:26:15 -0600 From: Lee Choquette Subject: Inexpensive Collect Calls Back when MCI debuted its 800-COLLECT service, touting it as the cheapest way to call collect, I remember someone (was it our moderator?) mentioned in this forum that 800-TALK-4-25 was even cheaper at 25c/min. I stopped reading TELECOM Digest a while back when I started to build a family, so I recently decided to check if this number was still in operation. A machine answered "Orange Collect" and prompted for my name. I waited in silence and eventually got a human, who told me that the automated calls were indeed 25c/min (operator-assisted was something like $1.30 for the first minute). I made three one-minute calls to my own home (from a pay phone) with the automated operator. To my surprise my next US West bill had a page labeled OAN Services (with a subhead of Interlink Telecom) charging me $5.11 for each of these calls. So far I haven't gotten any results by calling customer service, but I'm still trying. OAN Services says $5.11 is the right price and claims to have never heard of Orange Collect. Interlink Telecom doesn't know why I was billed $5.11, promised to call me back a few days ago, but hasn't. Does anyone know anything about this (these) company(-ies)? Thanks, . . . Lee Choquette . . . . . . . .Swedish LDS mission home page. . . . . . . leec@xmission.com . . . . http://www.xmission.com/~leec/Sweden/ . . . [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've not promoted *anything* involving Orange for a few years now. You must have read or recalled some very old messages. I am sorry this happened to you. Believe me, a few years ago I did find Orange to be an honest, trustworthy outfit. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Telecom@Eureka.vip.best.NOSPAM (Linc Madison) Subject: Announcement: New Area Code Web Pages Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 18:13:21 -0700 Organization: No unsolicited commercial e-mail! After many months of "yeah, real soon now," I have at long last put up my first cut of telecom-related web pages. My primary focus is on NANP numbering, especially new area codes. My unique feature (as far as I know, anyway) is a table of new area codes sorted by mandatory date -- a useful item for giving PBX managers a kick in the pants to load new codes that are almost mandatory. Come in for a visit! ** Do not spam e-mail me! ** Linc Madison * San Francisco, Calif. * Telecom@Eureka.vip.best-com >> NOTE: if you autoreply, you must change "NOSPAM" to "com" << ------------------------------ From: mcctest@aol.com (Mike Fine) Subject: Call For Beta Testers - US Robotics Date: 14 Apr 1997 16:46:54 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com --------------------CALL FOR BETA SITES-------------------------- IMMEDIATE RESPONSE REQUIRED. NO LATER THAN 4/20/97. Are you interested in new technology? When something doesn't work on your computer, are you the kind of person who likes to dig into the problems? Do you get called a "computer geek," "propellor head," or "techie?" Do people come to you if they have computer problems? If you answered yes to these questions, you might be a perfect candidate to Beta Test for U.S. Robotics! U.S. Robotics, Mobile Communications Corp., is looking for 20 (twenty) people to test it's new Celllular/Voice PC Card Modem with x2. Applicants must have the following qualifications: *Laptop Computer with at least 1 (one) PCMCIA slot; *Laptop Computer with Sound Capability; *A Nokia or Motorola Cellular Phone; *Have complete access to the Internet including USENET, WWW, E-mail, and FTP; *A basic understanding of modems and technology; *Capability to test products and respond quickly and in detail; *Willing to dedicate time and effort to the test; *Live in North America. Being selected as a site provides the following benefits: *At the completion of testing, sites get to keep the product. *Have an opportunity to see new and "cutting edge" technology. *Participants are automatically eligible for future tests. If you are interested in participating in this test, complete a Beta Test Application: Go to the following Web Site: http://www.megahertz.com/beta/ Enter the application page and use the following username and password: Username: betatester Password: 97tempus This password is only available until 4/25/97. No more applications will be accepted after that time. You can direct any additional questions to: Mike Fine Beta Test Supervisor USRobotics- Mobile Communications Corp. (Megahertz) mfine@mhz.com Fax: 801-320-6009 -Test sites are expected to report results on a regular basis. -Test selection will be made immediately. ------------------------------ Subject: N. Carolina Power Co. Offers Phone Service Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 16:24:45 PDT From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) The Charlotte Observer, N.C., Technology Column By David Boraks, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Apr. 14--ELECTRIC COMPANIES HEAR GO-AHEAD SIGNAL TO ENTER PHONE BUSINESS: Electric companies in the telephone biz? That's one of the possible results of state and federal telecommunications reforms adopted in the past two years. The scenario moved a step closer to reality last week when subsidiaries of the state's two major electric utilities won local telephone certification from the N.C. Utilities Commission. DukeNet and CaroNet, the telephone units of Duke Power and Carolina Power & Light, both operate fiber-optic telecommunications networks across their electric power service territories. They are also partners in a regional network called Carolinas Fibernet. The companies, which built the networks to handle internal communications, already are generating new revenues by leasing space on the networks to other carriers. And they are part-owners of the digital wireless telephone network launched last summer in the Carolinas by BellSouth Mobility DCS. N.C. regulatory approval lets the companies now begin selling their services directly to corporations that want to connect computer and telephone networks in geographically distant offices. Although they probably won't be taking on BellSouth, GTE South or Sprint's local telephone subsidiaries anytime soon, the approval also sets the stage for that in the years ahead. "Our first motivation to do this has to do with being able to sell directly to end users, to specific customers," said Wayne Hamilton, general manager of CaroNet. "Beyond that, there's a broader opportunity that has been announced by some other utilities to consider broader involvement in the retail telephone business, (such as) local dial-tone, long-distance, cellular and internet access. "We're going through some analysis on that to see if that makes any sense for us," Hamilton said. Meanwhile, the list of certified local telephone competitors in North Carolina grew to 18 as of last week, with Colorado-based ICG Telecom Group Inc. also winning utilities commission approval. In South Carolina, seven local competitors have regulatory approval, including TTE Inc. of Charleston, which was certified April 2. Before they can offer local service, most of the companies still must sign agreements spelling out how and at what cost they will link their networks with those of existing local telephone carriers. Rapid growth in the number of local telephone exchanges -- the first three digits of every phone number -- sometimes boggles corporate phone systems. If you've dialed a number in one of the new exchanges from your office recently, you may have heard a beep or other signal identifying it as a long-distance call, even though it's not. That's a sign your office phone system (known as a private branch exchange, or PBX) didn't recognize the new exchange. Mike Simmons of U.S. LEC of North Carolina, whose company has been assigned some of the new numbers, provides this explanation: "There have been about 30 new exchanges added in (recent) weeks. Companies need to make sure they're updating their PBX (systems) more often now because there's so many new phone numbers coming." By the way, the boom in new local exchanges was behind the recent proposal by BellSouth and other carriers to add three new area codes in North Carolina by year's end. The only question right now is where the N.C. Utilities Commission will draw the new zone boundaries. The companies have asked the commission for a decision by June 15 so the new codes can take effect by Dec. 15. BITS & BYTES: Verbatim Corp., based in Charlotte's University Research Park, has introduced a line of computer disks in bright primary colors. The company plans to advertise the DataLife Colors floppy disks and 3.5-inch Colors rewritable optical disks as a way for users to organize their data. "But some people just buy them because they are colorful," said Michael Korizno, Verbatim's vice president of sales and marketing. Paging One Services GmbH said it will install equipment made by the Wireless Messaging Group of Charlotte-based Glenayre Technologies in its nationwide paging network in Austria. In a separate deal, Colorado-based ICG Telecom Inc. said it will purchase Glenayre voice messaging systems for the 60 markets nationwide where it plans to offer competitive local telephone service. Terms of the deals were not disclosed. Technology appears every other week. Send news items to David Boraks, The Charlotte Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308. Or send by e-mail to: borakscharlotte.com . (c) 1997, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 18:28:53 -0400 From: Judith Oppenheimer Reply-To: joppenheimer@icbtollfree.com Organization: ICB Toll Free News Subject: Heads Up - FCC Issues 800 Order FCC ISSUES ORDER RE TOLL FREE ACCESS CODES In the Matter of Toll Free Service Access Codes, CC Docket No. 95-155. See URL: http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Orders/1997/fcc97123.txt At first glance, reads like over-regulation, anti-competition, and government imposition. All together now -- can you say imminent auction? ICB TOLL FREE NEWS - 800/888/global800 news, analysis, advice. http://www.icbtollfree.com, mailto:news-editor@icbtollfree.com Judith Oppenheimer - 800 The Expert, ph 212 684-7210, fx 212 684-2714 mailto:j.oppenheimer@worldnet.att.net, mailto:icb@juno.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 13:33:50 -0400 From: Steve Hayes Subject: Re: Florida PSC to Revisit 904 Split Replying to a suggestion by (Richard D.G. Cox) richard@mandarin.com: >> It is time that the US decided to bite the bullet and accept that the >> present number format, which has served them well for many years, has >> now passed its sell-by date. The format demanded by today's network >> is 1-XY ZNNN xxxx (where Y#0/1). This can be handled by all switches >> out of area without structural changes (only the routes need to be set >> up as 1-XYZ, separately for all valid values of Z). Local switches >> would of course need to be programmed for the eight digit schemes. Bob Goudreau (goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com) wrote: > I can't see how this would work. What is your transition plan for > getting from the present NXX-NXX-XXXX to your proposed NN-NXXX-XXXX > format? It would take a one-time "splash-cut" for all of the NANP > (which, BTW, consists of more than the US), since you leave no > possibility for a permissive dialing (parallel running) phase -- > consider the ambiguity between 1-334-234-5678 and 1-33-4234-5678, for > instance. Remember, the NANP now has dozens of NPAs in which the > second digit is an "N" digit (2..9), so your "Y" proviso doesn't open > up any new untapped numbering space. Your new plan also limits the > number of NANP area codes to only 64, meaning that existing codes > would have to be grouped together into new supercodes, crossing state, > provincial, and (ironically, given the recent breakup of NPA 809) > Caribbean boundaries. This would be an administrative nightmare. I feel I have to spring to the defence of a fellow denizen of Wales. Richard's suggestion is (or at least would have been) entirely practicable. Here's how I would implement it: First step is to reserve sequential blocks of 8 NPAs each in the new numbering space that opened up when the restriction on the middle digit (0/1) was lifted. Each of these blocks would have the same two first digits with the last digit in the range 2-9. These blocks would be reserved for the large metropolitan areas where the proliferation of NPAs within local calling areas is worst. Other areas would not be affected and other unassigned new NPAs would be available for splits in those areas as now. Next step is to change the existing NPAs in those metropolitan areas to NPAs in the new blocks so that all NPAs in a given area would be in one block. Permissive dialing would be allowed and might continue indefinitely. You could still be dialing 1-212-PE6-5000 in 2020. The remaining NPAs in each sequential block would be available for overlay use in the corresponding metropolitan area. No more splits would be carried out in those areas. Now comes the key point. Instead of introducing mandatory 10 digit dialing as overlays are brought in in the metropolitan areas, you introduce mandatory 8 digit dialing where the last digit of the NPA plus the existing 7 digit number has to be dialed for local calls. This would have to be introduced in big bang fashion with no permissive period but the same is likely true of 10 digit dialing. Software in the local switches would have to be modified but switches outside the area would still view the numbers as 3 digit NPA and 7 digit local number and would not be affected. People would be encouraged to give their number as a two digit NPA and 8 digit local number but could view it as 3+7 if they preferred. As regards customer equipment, databases, etc. there is a simple solution. So long as the local switches permit 1+10 dialing for local calls (please let's not argue about this one again), equipment that cannot handle 8 digit dialing can use 1+10 dialing. If customers don't like that (e.g. with toll restrictors), they will have an incentive to update their equipment. The same 1+10 digit let-out would allow autodialers etc. to be reprogrammed ahead of the cutover date. The real shame about this is that I rather suspect that, with the seemingly random assignment of NPAs in the new range, there may be few if any blocks of 8 NPAs still available that could be reserved for this use. Reserving them wouldn't mean that they had to be used in this way but at least the option would be kept open. Steve Hayes, Swansea (Wales), UK ------------------------------ From: Stephen Sprunk Subject: Re: Florida PSC to Revisit 904 Split Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 10:33:54 -0500 Organization: Paranet, Inc. Joseph Singer wrote: > John Cropper quoted an article: >> BellSouth Telecommunications wanted a new area code selected for North >> Florida last year. But disputes over which region would receive the >> new code forced the issue before commissioners. While most phone >> companies favored keeping 904 for Jacksonville and switching the >> Panhandle, state officials predicted changing Tallahassee's area code >> would cost taxpayers $2.48 million. > This begs the question why so many places are absolutely opposed to > putting an overlay into an area rather than continuing to do a > geographical split to give numbering relief. Using an overlay there > is no expense (that I can see) to the people involved i.e. businesses, > cell phone customers, re-programming, stationery, etc. You have to of > course modify how you refer to your phone number rather than just > saying the phone number is XXX-XXXX you have to say the phone number > is XXX-XXX-XXXX. Eventually we're all going to have to have even more > numbers than we do even with the "relief" that we're getting and > eventually you're not going to be able to make any kind of rational > split of an area so why not just accept the inevitable and use > overlays? The main reason is that there are 250,000,000 (give or take) Americans out there that flat-out refuse to dial 10 digits to call their neighbors , their kids' schools, their grocery stores, _the other line in their house_, etc. It is FAR easier to make geographical distinctions to determine an area code that to try to guess an area code based on the "age" of a phone line. In Houston, we are on our second geographical split for 713 (the first was 409, the second 281), and STILL nobody advertises area codes because they're unnecessary in most cases. I know what someone's area code is if I have a rough idea where they are located; even if I'm wrong (maybe 1 in 20 calls), there's only one or two other numbers to try, which is no big deal. Overlays may become useful within a single megapolis (NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, SF, etc) in the future, after four or five geographical splits make guessing area codes pointless. However, that point will probably be reached at the same time the NANP completely runs out of space, so we'll get a new system anyways. Overlays make NO sense on a large rural or small-city area like "the Florida panhandle" or "western PA". There is no way you can convince me or the other 250,000,000 stubborn Americans that there is any net positive effect of an overlay for these areas. Businesses that complain about staionery, business cards, etc. are totally full of it ... an 18 month permissive-dialing period should be enough to exhaust anyone's supply of stationery and business cards, which means they really aren't losing a cent by changing area codes. Stephen ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Ameritech Buys Sprint Local Company in Chicago Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 01:00:00 EDT The news from Chicago this past week is that Ameritech bought out the old Centel local company recently. Over the years the company name changed from 'Central Telephone Company of Illinois' to 'Centel' and more recently to Sprint. The long distance carrier was trying to operate local service in the Park Ridge/Des Plaines, IL area. In addition, Centel/Sprint had a very tiny segment of the city of Chicago on the far northwest side near (but not including) O'Hare International Airport. Illinois Bell would have purchased Central Telephone years ago had it not been for the court order going back many years which prohibited AT&T from aquiring any more operating companies except under extraordinary circumtances. Centel/Sprint customers will begin getting billed by Ameritech starting in July and they will begin getting Ameritech service as such later this year. Sprint wanted out; I think they are not all that happy in the local service business. PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #92 *****************************