Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id XAA13181; Mon, 23 Mar 1998 23:28:18 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 23:28:18 -0500 (EST) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199803240428.XAA13181@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #43 TELECOM Digest Mon, 23 Mar 98 21:32:00 EST Volume 18 : Issue 43 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Area Code 831 on Way (Tad Cook) Book Review: "Web Databases with Cold Fusion 3", John Burke (Rob Slade) Telecom Update (Canada) #125, March 23, 1998 (Angus TeleManagement) How Many Incoming Lines? (John Osmon) Mobile Phones Cause Over 2,200 Accidents in Japan (Monty Solomon) 3-Line and 4-Line Telephones (David A. Burton) New ROLM Remailer (Christopher W. Boone) 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: * telecom-request@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 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, a gift from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert has enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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: Area Code 831 on Way Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 07:50:29 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Split from overloaded 408 will affect most central coast residents By John Woolfolk Mercury News Staff Writer The countdown is on for central coast residents to start memorizing their new phone number, which will now begin "8-3-1." That's right, 831. This summer, the new area code replaces the 408 that has been in use since Eisenhower was president. Proposed a year ago and approved by the California Public Utilities Commission last month, the 831 area code will officially go into place July 11 for most of Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties. Code changes do not affect local and long distance phone rates. "Whatever the rates were then, they'll be the same now," said Chris Kniestedt, spokesman for the California-Nevada Code Administration in San Ramon. However, phone customers will have to have their stationery, business cards and address books changed to reflect the new number. Forgetful callers will be allowed a three-month grace period in which they can still get through by dialing the old 408 code. For another three months, a phone company robot will politely remind them of the new code. Those who live near the jagged area code boundary need not worry about what number to use. If they are affected by the change, they will be notified through phone bill inserts, Kniestedt said. As has been the case with the recent splits of the 510 to 925 codes in the East Bay and 415 to 650 on the Peninsula, the new 831 code was made necessary by the explosion of new numbers for faxes, modems and cellular phones. Each area code can handle 7.9 million phone numbers. Area code 408 was created in 1959, when it was split from 415, one of the state's three original codes introduced in 1947. Today, 408 has 5.7 million numbers, and added nearly one million new ones in 1996. Without the 831 split, 408 would fill up by early 1999. For now, Santa Clara County callers are off the hook. San Jose, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, Saratoga, Cupertino, Campbell, Santa Clara, Los Gatos and Gilroy will keep their 408 code. But another 408 split is already in the works and expected to go into effect in less than two years. A number hasn't been determined for that yet. "The 408 area is already exhausted," Kniestedt said. "We're already planning relief." ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 08:25:45 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Web Databases with Cold Fusion 3", John Burke Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKWDWCF3.RVW 980111 "Web Databases with Cold Fusion 3", John Burke, 1998, 0-07-913092-5, U$49.95 %A John Burke %C 300 Water Street, Whitby, Ontario L1N 9B6 %D 1998 %G 0-07-913092-5 %I McGraw-Hill Ryerson/Osborne %O U$49.95 800-565-5758 fax: 905-430-5020 louisea@McGrawHill.ca %P 453p. CD-ROM %T "Web Databases with Cold Fusion 3" Often a book with this kind of title is a sales brochure, or documentation replacement, for the eponymous product. I'm not sure that this book can fall into either of those two slots, since, even having read it, I still don't know what Cold Fusion really is. Cold Fusion appears to be a kind of low level middleware, taking CGI (Common Gateway Interface) forms data, submitting it, along with SQL (Structured Query Language) commands, to various database programs, and formatting the results in HTML (HyperText Markup Language) for display on Web pages. But in providing short overviews of a whole host (you should pardon the expression) of other programs, they seem to have missed out on providing a description of what Cold Fusion is and does, and, frankly, nothing in the rest of the book interests me severely enough to make me want to install the 30 day eval version provided and try to figure out for myself what it is. Do we find a description in Chapter one? No, we have a quick and dirty short course in HTML. Chapter two starts off with a brief and somewhat misleading "history" of DOS and Windows. A number of statements in the piece are flatly wrong. We may be able to blame the limitation of the Digital Alpha processor to 32 bits on a typo: certainly the sentence makes more sense if you substitute the correct architecture size. It then goes on to explain how to install Windows NT. Chapter three tells you how to install the Microsoft Internet Information Server, Netscape's Enterprise Server, O'Reilly's Website Professional, MS SQL Server, and Cold Fusion. You can generate an automated email with what you learn in chapter four, although it's not much more sophisticated than what you can do with Pegasus Mail. Chapters five through nine give brief descriptions of MS Access, Visual dBASE, Personal Oracle 7, Paradox, and Visual FoxPro. Most of these databases, and most others, can generate HTML content rather simply by using the proper report generation commands. Chapter ten moves up a level in the database world and mentions Cold Fusion specifically, but still doesn't give much more than some isolated examples of Cold Fusion commands in HTML. Chapter eleven tells us of new features in Cold Fusion 3, but *still* doesn't tell us what Cold Fusion is! In chapter twelve we learn what SQL is (in case we had forgotten since chapter ten), and even get a few Cold Fusion "templates" that use it. These appear to be simply SQL commands with some Cold Fusion commands prepended. Chapter thirteen does the same thing at a higher level, as does fourteen. Fifteen introduces Crystal Reports and sixteen adds graphics from Crystal Reports. Finally, in chapter seventeen, we start to look at programming in Cold Fusion. (It still doesn't tell us what Cold Fusion is, although it says that Cold Fusion isn't a programming language as such.) Along with chapters eighteen and nineteen there is a lot of looking at conditionals and loops. Chapter twenty looks at Javascript. Chapter twenty-one looks at frames. As is usual with many technical works, each chapter starts with a listing of contents. Unfortunately, the listing bears no relation to the list of sub-topics given in the table of contents, no relation to any level of header to be found within the chapter, and, as far as I can tell, very little relation to reality. Magic seems to play a large role in all of this. Client/server is magic. TCP/IP is magic. Perhaps they figure that the reader will magically figure out what they are talking about. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKWDWCF3.RVW 980111 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 12:03:12 -0500 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #125, March 23, 1998 ************************************************************ * * * TELECOM UPDATE * * Angus TeleManagement's Weekly Telecom Newsbulletin * * http://www.angustel.ca * * Number 125: March 23, 1998 * * * * Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by * * generous financial support from: * * * * Bell Canada ................. http://www.bell.ca/ * * City Dial Network Services .. http://www.citydial.com/ * * Computer Talk Technology .... http://icescape.com/ * * fONOROLA .................... http://www.fonorola.com/ * * Lucent Technologies ......... http://www.lucent.com/ * * * ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Payphone Swipe Card Charges Approved ** BC Tel Free to Apply for Broadcasting License ** Stentor Wants Affiliate Rule Revoked ** Court Rejects Pay Equity Complaints ** MTS Launches ADSL Service ** QuebecTel Cuts ADSL Trial Rates ** Cantel Decentralizes, Closes Call Center ** Stentor Offers Network ACD ** BC Tel Tests Internet-Based Dispatching ** Canadian Tire Joins LD Wars ** Nortel Buys Internet Equipment Maker ** Prima Buys Call Center Integrator ** ITU Approves Standards for Disabled ** Equipping Call Centers for Web Communications ============================================================ PAYPHONE SWIPE CARD CHARGES APPROVED: CRTC Telecom Order 98- 281 sets prices for access by phone card providers to Stentor payphone swipe card readers. The initial charge is $700,000; usage charges total 30 cents per swipe. The Commission also tells Stentor to file a tariff for "enhanced swipe card access," which would provide the functions available to Stentor calling card users. (See Telecom Update #71, 85) http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telecom/order/1998/o98281_0.txt BC TEL FREE TO APPLY FOR BROADCASTING LICENSE: The Federal Court has rejected a bid by Rogers Communications for a judicial review of the 1997 Federal order-in-council permitting BC Tel, which is majority owned by U.S.-based GTE, to apply for a broadcasting license. (See Telecom Update #106) STENTOR WANTS AFFILIATE RULE REVOKED: Since 1990, the Stentor telcos have been prohibited from providing long distance voice services for resale through affiliated companies. On March 16, Stentor asked the CRTC to scrap the rule, on the grounds that the problems which this rule was intended to prevent no longer exist. COURT REJECTS PAY EQUITY COMPLAINTS: On March 17, the Federal Court overruled a 1996 decision of the Canadian Human Rights Commission referring pay equity complaints against Bell Canada to a Human Rights Tribunal. (See Telecom Update #69, 71) MTS LAUNCHES ADSL SERVICE: Manitoba Telecom Services now provides high-speed Internet access via ADSL to customers in two-thirds of Winnipeg for $44.95/month (residential) or $99.95/month (business). Rates decline to $27.95 and $82.95 in the fourth year of service. (See Telecom Update #104) QUEBECTEL CUTS ADSL TRIAL RATES: CRTC Telecom Order 98-280 approves an extension of Quebec-Telephones ADSL market trial to September 1, 1998. This stage of the trial will test lower prices: single line residential and business access, respectively, will be $15 and $40 a month; a multiline connection will be $100/month. http://www.crtc.gc.ca:80/eng/proc_rep/telecom/1998/8740/q1-205.html CANTEL DECENTRALIZES, CLOSES CALL CENTER: Rogers Cantel is shifting responsibility for sales, advertising, and public relations to its three regions: Eastern Canada (Regional President -- Francis Fox), Ontario (Regional President -- Dekkers Davidson), and Western Canada (Executive Vice- President -- Lynda Cranston). (See Telecom Update #97) ** Cantel has also closed the 100-employee customer service call center it opened in Ottawa last year. (See Telecom Update #119) STENTOR OFFERS NETWORK ACD: Stentor companies now offer Network CTI, a network-based call center system with computer telephone integration. Network CTI was developed by Connectivity, a Bell Canada-NBTel joint venture based in Saint John NB. ** Manitoba Telecom System also offers Network Based Call Centre, which it developed together with IBM Canada. BC TEL TESTS INTERNET-BASED DISPATCHING: BC Tel is testing a wireless data dispatch system that uses the Internet to send data to a specially equipped cellphone. Wireless Internet Dispatching was developed by Vancouver-based InStep Mobile Communications. CANADIAN TIRE JOINS LD WARS: Canadian Tire now offers its customers off-peak calling for 10 cents/minute (Canada) or 20 cents (U.S.), as well as a "twelfth month free," based on average billing of the previous 11 months. NORTEL BUYS INTERNET EQUIPMENT MAKER: Nortel has paid US$290 Million to acquire Aptis Communications, a Massachusetts- based developer of Internet access equipment for telecom carriers. PRIMA BUYS CALL CENTER INTEGRATOR: Montreal-based Prima has acquired InterLogic Systems of Mississauga, Ontario. Both companies are call center and computer telephony integrators. ITU APPROVES STANDARDS FOR DISABLED: The International Telecommunication Union has adopted Recommendations to improve the communications ability of the deaf or speech- impaired. The new standards apply to text phones, use of different alphabets, and integration of text communication into multimedia systems. EQUIPPING CALL CENTERS FOR WEB COMMUNICATIONS: In the April issue of Telemanagement, available this week, Martin Prunty explains how call centers can be equipped to field inquiries from the Internet. Also in the April Telemanagement: ** Hey Kids! Make Big Money as a Cellphone Auditor! by Ian Angus ** Is There a LAN-Based PBX in Your Company's Future? by John Riddell For the contents of the April issue of Telemanagement, go to http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm98c-04.html To subscribe to Telemanagement, call 1-800-263-4415 ext 225. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week. Point your browser to http://www.angustel.ca/update/up.html 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should contain only the two words: subscribe update To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The text of the message should say only: unsubscribe update [Your e-mail address] =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER: All contents copyright 1998 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 225. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ From: josmon@rufus.highfiber.com (John Osmon) Subject: How Many Incoming Lines? Date: 23 Mar 1998 18:52:31 GMT Organization: HighFiber Networks, Inc. Does anyone have any good pointers on books/web-sites/programs that can help me determine an "optimum" number of phone lines to use for incoming calls? I'm pretty sure that this has been discussed here before, but can't seem to find the right keywords to find it in the archives, and nothing in the FAQ seems to jump out at me either. I believe someone has posted information similar to this in the past (an excel spreadsheet for DID lines comes to mind), but am not certain. Any pointers to relevant information would be appreciated. I don't mind doing the work, I just can't find any information regarding models, etc. that would be useful. :-) A little more info for those that have read this far: I work with and ISP occasionally, and I believe that they have over-subscribed for incoming lines. I have a good deal of information concerning call frequency, duration, etc. I'd like to be able to analyze this information to determine if we can drop one of the channelized T1 circuits or if it really is required. I suspect that it isn't, but would like to have some type of model that I can use to confirm my suspicions. Beyond all of that, I've realized that I don't have *any* idea how to model the situation, and would like to add this skill to my abilities. You never know when this might be useful! John Osmon Between the Velvet Lies, josmon@rigozsaurus.com There's a truth that's hard as Steel. - Holy Diver, Ronnie James Dio ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 12:20:25 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Mobile Phones Cause Over 2,200 Accidents in Japan TOKYO (Reuters) - As if narrow streets and too many cars weren't enough of a headache for Japanese drivers, a new menace has appeared in the form of the mobile phone. Drivers using mobile phones caused 2,297 traffic accidents in 1997, killing 25 and injuring more than 3,000, the National Police Agency said Thursday in the first survey of its kind. The total number of accidents was 780,399. Nearly half the phone-related accidents took place while drivers were trying to answer the phone, followed by 27.6 percent as they were trying to make a call, and finally 16.4 percent while they were speaking on the phone, a police spokesman said. In most cases, drivers using phones smashed into the car ahead of them. A spokesman at NTT Docomo, one of Japan's largest mobile phone companies, said that people should think carefully about the manners of using mobile phones. "We definitely recommend that people not make calls from their cars and suggest they pull over to answer," he said. A large majority, or 78.5 percent, of the phone-related accidents were caused by male drivers, police said. Japan, with an estimated 36 million mobile phones in use, is the second in the world after the United States. ------------------------------ From: David A. Burton Subject: 3-Line and 4-Line Telephones Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 20:22:42 -0500 Organization: Pagesz.net (not "key system" phones) Over the past decade or so, I've bought about a half-dozen Radio Shack 4-line telephones (model 411, with intercom but no speakerphone). They were quite expensive, yet some have failed completely, one still works for lines 3 and 4 (only), one sometimes requires switching to another line and then back to pick up, and the very last fully-working phone has just recently started "cutting out" when jostled. [IMO, the model number shouldn't be 411, it should be 911!] Radio Shack doesn't make the model 411 anymore, but they still make the very similar model 412, which adds a built-in speakerphone. However, the model 412 costs a whopping $200 each, and I have no reason to suppose that it will be more reliable than the 411. I need new phones. GE (really Thompson), AT&T, and Panasonic all apparently make fancy 3-line and/or 4-line phones. However, they are kind of hard to find, and they are very expensive: typically $160-$190 each, except that the 3-line GE phone (model 2-9439) is about $100. There may be other brands, too. Would anyone care to recommend (or warn against!) a 3-line or 4-line phone, or a good source to buy such phones at a good price? Features that I'd like to find: o Rugged and reliable! o Reasonable price! o Per-line "in use" LEDs o Low REN (ringer equivalence number) o Mute and hold buttons o "Flash" button o Redial or busy-dial button o Speakerphone would be nice but not essential o Intercom and/or page feature would be nice but not essential o Fancy display showing caller ID, call length, etc. isn't essential o Prefer that it *not* be made in Peoples Republic of China o *NOT* Radio Shack! -Dave Burton or H. Tel: 1-919-481-0098 W. Tel: 1-919-481-6658 or 1-919-233-8128 Burton Systems Software: http://www.burtonsys.com/ "TLIB: Professional Version Control at a Personal Price" P.S. - My news feed is currently kaput. I'll do an occasional dejanews search for replies, but I'll nevertheless be grateful if you Cc me on your reply, via email. Thanks. -DB ------------------------------ From: Christopher W. Boone Subject: New ROLM Remailer Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 18:29:10 -0600 Organization: The Walt Disney Company/ABC Radio Networks Engineering A new ROLM remailer is now up and flying for those with ROLM legacy and Siemens systems. It is not sponsored by NRUG nor is it closed to NRUG members only. Contact me via email if you want the address ... and how to subscribe ... (NO I don't subscribe users to it) Chris ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #43 *****************************