Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id UAA29353; Tue, 13 Jan 1998 20:07:04 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 20:07:04 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199801140107.UAA29353@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V18 #6 TELECOM Digest Tue, 13 Jan 98 20:07:00 EST Volume 18 : Issue 6 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Wireless Companies Hide Towers (Greg Monti) South Korean Telecom Engineer Needs Advice (Jongwoo Park) AT&T and MLM Together at Last! (Wayne Dolesman) UCLA Short Course: Communication Systems Using Digital Signal (B Goodin) Colorado PUC Wavering on 720 Overlay of Denver 303 (Donald M. Heiberg) Teleport ATT Merger (Richard Barnaby) Passing FCC PIC Fee to Customers (Eli Mantel) FAQ for comp.dcom.telecom? (Steve Krauster) Map Wanted Showing RBOC Territories (Bill McMullin) Re: Help Connecting a Modem to a PBX (dlover@dave-world.net) Any Other Newsgroups For Telephone Technology? (Steve Krauster) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 22:45:29 From: Greg Monti Subject: Wireless Companies Hide Towers In the January 11, 1998, edition of _The New York Times_ (on page 17 in the national edition), therer's a story entitled "Phone Companies Seeking to be Heard and Not Seen; Wireless Antennas Hide in 'Stealth Towers'" by Andrew C. Revkin. A summary: With the explosion of PCS companies, some areas now have eight wireless phone companies competing. All eight need to have towers to communicate with mobile phones. Beautification efforts and cranky neighbors have caused some cell site applications to be denied. Town councils and zoning boards don't want to outlaw cellular phones entirely, they just want to minimize the number and unsightliness of transmission towers. This requires either sharing towers among rival carriers or camouflaging them. Two sites are described, with photographs. One is a strangely mechanical-looking 100-foot pine tree located in the side yard of a nursery in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. Wireless antennas are hidden among the imitation branches and pine needles well above ground level. The tree serves AT&T, Bell Atlantic Mobile and Omnipoint. The other photo shows a fiberglass extension of a church steeple with cellular antennas hidden inside, in Derby, Connecticut. Other tales: in Mendham, NJ, a 14-story mock bell tower was built entirely as a cellular communications tower. In Phoenix one telco has applied to construct a 30-foot-tall artificial Saguaro cactus plant. More common places to hide antennas: on commercial signs a truck stops, on water towers, on the Green Monster left-field scoreboard at Fenway Park. Typical rent is $1,500 per site per month. The number of sites is being driven by wireless industry growth, along with new applications: some outdoor vending machines now use cellular to call home when they run low on stock. Federal law pre-empts communities from banning wireless towers outright, so they are resigned to getting all the parties, phone companies and complaining neighbors, into one room and hammering out negiotiated settlements everyone can live with. Greg Monti Jersey City, New Jersey, USA gmonti@mindspring.com http://www.mindspring.com/~gmonti ------------------------------ From: Jongwoo Park Subject: South Korean Telecom Engineer Needs Advice Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 14:29:37 +0900 Organization: HANARO corp. Reply-To: xcode@chollian.net I am in South Korea. I'm working for a telephony company called, "HANARO". HANARO WEB site = http://www.hanarotel.co.kr/ DACOM WEB site = http://www.dacom.net/ HANARO is a Local Telephony and Multimedia Service Carrier in S. Korea. My company was newly founded last year, and is preparing services which will be provoded by the end of this year. These days, my company is also considering on the installation of Integrated Network Test-Bed, for various testing activities to be made. I was engaged to this project and soon I found some materials from advanced telephony carrier's experience in maintaining Network Test-Bed. If is there anyone who are working in telephony operating company which has test-bed network, or who knows the people who have experiences on this, let me know it. Materials, or E-mail address of the engineers will be very helpful to me. MAIL? : mailto=xcode@chollian.net NAME? : Park, JongWoo. Manager System Development Team 1 Engineering Planning Uint HANARO corp. Informations I need to get is concerning like follows ... 1. How many years has the TEST-BED been maintained? 2. For what the TEST-BED is being used? (%) Testing / Developing / Diagnosis / Fixing Problems in Network 3. How many personnels are engaged to operation of the TEST-BED? 4. Do you think TEST-BED is very helpful to your company? HAVE A GOOD LUCK, 13/JAN/1998 Park, JW. Seoul, Korea. ------------------------------ From: Babu Mengelepouti Subject: AT&T and MLM Together at Last! Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 13:52:05 PST AT&T: Do you really want a reseller of your products marketing this way? This is about the seventh spam I've received from this idiot. Whoever runs "boulevards.com" - Please deal with this spamming moron or I will notify your upstream provider. > From 46167440@juno.com Sat Jan 10 18:03:04 1998 > Received: from boulevards.boulevards.com (boulevards.boulevards.com [204.162.28.70]) > by vcn.bc.ca (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id SAA06832 > for ; Sat, 10 Jan 1998 18:02:53 -0800 (PST) > From: 46167440@juno.com > Received: from 204.162.28.70 by boulevards.boulevards.com via SMTP ( 950215.SGI.8.6.10/940406.SGI) > id RAA02833; Sat, 10 Jan 1998 17:36:46 -0800 > Date: Sat, 10 Jan 98 18:32:51 EST > To: Friend@aol.com > Subject: AT&T and MLM Together @ Last!!! > Message-ID: <> > AT&T and MLM, > N-COM > This will amount for the biggest explosion in the history of MLM > MISS THIS ONE IT'S YOUR OWN FAULT!! > GET IN NOW!!! DON'T MISS THE OPPORTUNITY > OF A LIFTIME ON THE GROUNDFLOOR!!! > Ok so you think you're dreaming right? WRONG. AT&T has signed a deal > with N-COM. This MLM is going to be a billion dollar giant in its first > year and NOW has stormed into pre-launch and will explode the > advertising medium as it becomes official March 1st with celebrity > promotion. > DO NOT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY!! > OK so what is it? > Pre-Launch JUST STARTED 1/1/98 !!! > AT&T AND MLM > Don't wait! > We have just signed a contract utilizing the AT&T Network. > AT&T is the largest name in the telecommunication industry. We currently > have around distributors nationwide. This opportunity is so new and > so unique that the first 20,000 to 30,000 distributors will earn enormous > amounts of money in 1998. > We offer : > - 9.9 cents flat rate long distance service > exclusively utilizing the AT&T Network > - 9.9 cents flat rate inbound 800/888 service > - 16.9 cents flate rate calling card > - Prepaid rechargeable calling cards > - Collectable prepaid calling cards > - Multi-function prepaid calling cards > - Hottest technology - Virtual office > - Prepaid cellular phones > - Billed cellular phones > - Pager services > - Internet services > - Local telephone service > - Cable services > - Digital satellite services > - WEB TV > - and more!!! > MULTIPLE CONCURRENT COMPENSATION PROGRAM > > - Earn up to more than $4300.00 per day > - Substantial residual income potential > - Earn profits on your FIRST DAY > - Commissions calculated daily, 7 days a week > - Commissions paid weekly > - Multiple ways to earn commissions > SPONSORING HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER! > With our Virtual Sponsor (TM) you can now have prospects automatically > signed up for you! > - Explains the program FOR you in 7 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES!!! > - Automatically signs AND places prospects for you > - Notifies you of your new downline > - Advertise and it signs up your prospects > - Patentable technology applied to MLM for FIRST TIME! > - 800 number works for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week > OK so stop drooling. I know you want in because you are going to get > rich sitting on the ground floor and only $110 locks in your position. > The best part? You don't even have to personally sponsor anyone to get > paid!! > IF YOU MISS THIS ONE IT'S YOUR FAULT!! > Call the fax on demand @ 205-922-1155 doc. #8049 > or 716-720-2721 doc. #1 > Then email me today with your fax number, phone number or email number > and I'll get you started immediately. Our new Virtual Sponsor will do > all the rest of the work for you! > This is not TPN, EXCEL, or TEL 3, We are going to Blow away ALL > competition! > Email me. Put in the subject box ATT and I will get back with you i mmediately > Kim Bailey > GrtBiz4U@hotmail.com > Thank You Very Much For Your Time !! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, I got a few mailings from Kim also, each one saying the same as above. You'd think AT&T would not do business with marketing firms who use these techniques, but maybe they are not aware of exactly how the company is operating. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Bill Goodin Subject: UCLA Short Course: Communication Systems Using Digital Signal Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 18:23:05 -0800 On April 6-10, 1998, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Communication Systems Using Digital Signal Processing", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructors are Bernard Sklar, PhD, Communications Engineering Services, and frederick harris, MS, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, San Diego State University. As part of the course materials, each participant receives a copy of the text, "Digital Communications: Fundamentals and Applications", by Bernard Sklar. This course provides comprehensive coverage of digital communications. It differs from other communications courses in its emphasis on applying modern digital signal processing techniques to the implementation of communication systems. This makes the course essential for practitioners in the rapidly changing field. Error-correction coding, spread spectrum techniques, and bandwidth-efficient signaling are all discussed in detail. Basic digital signaling methods and the newest modulation-with-memory techniques are presented, along with trellis-coded modulation. Many traditional communication applications such as modulation/ demodulation, channelization, channel equalization, synchronization, and frequency synthesis are being implemented with new digital signal processing techniques to achieve high performance. The course analyzes these techniques, including multirate filters, I-Q sampling, and conversion between I-Q and real signals. UCLA Extension has presented this highly successful short course since 1990. The course fee is $1595, which includes the text and extensive course notes. These course materials are for participants only, and are not for sale. For additional information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucla.edu http://www.unex.ucla.edu/shortcourses/ This course may also be presented on-site at company locations. ------------------------------ From: Donald M. Heiberg Subject: Colorado PUC Wavering on 720 Overlay of Denver 303 Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 11:21:25 -0700 On January 2, the Colorado PUC released final information on 10 Digit Dialing and Area Code Overlay in Colorado, see http://www.puc.state.co.us/10dig.html Now the PUC is wavering, see http://insidedenver.com/yourmoney/0110code1.html Rocky Mountain News, Denver, January 10: Denver customers should gird for 1st shot at 10-digit dialing Education campaign will begin Monday. By Rebecca Cantwell Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Comparing it with getting a flu shot, the chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission said it's time for metro Denver residents to prepare to dial 10 digits to make a local call. The telecommunications industry and the commission have worked for months to prepare a $1 million public education campaign beginning Monday that will let metro Denver residents know they can start dialing 303 in front of each local number, beginning Feb. 1. A requirement to use 10 digits for local calls is scheduled to start June 1 in preparation for the new 720 overlay area code, beginning as early as Aug. 1. But PUC commissioners made it clear Friday they don't like the idea of imposing the new area code and still want to pursue alternatives. They expressed frustration at foot-dragging by the telecommunications industry. At the end of the morning's discussions, the commission said the education plan should proceed and businesses should continue preparing for 10-digit dialing. "This is the vaccination,'' Chairman Robert Hix said. But commissioners also said they want to continue exploring alternatives since an estimated 3 million of the 8 million numbers in the 303 area code are not being used -- although most of them have been assigned to companies. The commission has been seeking conservation of numbers in the last several months, but so far there's been little action. Commissioner Brent Alderfer was the most outspoken, saying the commission had been clear in ordering exploration of ways to avoid imposition of the 720 code. Among the options they want to look at: . Requiring wireless users to switch to 720 and giving the new area code only to future wireless users. The explosion in pagers and mobile phones is a big reason the 303 numbers are running out. Requiring those devices to use the new code might give 303 another six or seven years of life. State regulators rejected a wireless-only new area code last year because the Federal Communications Commission had ruled against such codes, saying they were unfair to the wireless industry. But states, faced with proliferating area codes, want to revisit the issue. . Consolidating rate centers. The big supply of unused 303 numbers stems from traditional telephone technology, which assigns prefixes to specific rate centers, the geographic point of measuring and billing long-distance calls. Blocks of 10,000 numbers at a time are allotted, which means that each new telephone company wanting to serve all of 303 has a block in each of 42 rate centers, or 420,000 numbers. The commission is starting public meetings with one Monday in Longmont to review whether to shrink the number of rate centers, which could free lots of 303 numbers. As a side benefit, that could lead to a bigger local calling area. That would mean higher monthly bills for all customers. . Waiting for local number portability to free more 303 numbers through pooling of numbers. Metro Denver residents this year are scheduled to start being able to take their numbers with them when they move. That might delay the need for a new area code, but the timing is uncertain. The issue involves regional centers and centralized software, said PUC telecommunications engineer Bruce Armstrong. Armstrong said a software deadline of mid-December will not be met until July. "We don't have a clue what that will mean for Denver,'' he told the commission. That's just one of the very unclear timing issues facing the commission. And that left the commission emphasizing that the movement toward 10-digit dialing in preparation for the new area code must proceed, even if a delay turns out to be possible. The current plan is to give only users of new numbers the new 720 code. But duplication of numbers between the codes will require everyone to dial 10 numbers. January 10, 1998 Submitted by Don Heiberg, Denver 303-589-1539 ------------------------------ From: barnaby@barnaby.net (Richard Barnaby) Subject: Teleport ATT Merger Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 14:10:24 GMT Organization: Business Support Services Just wondering ... The Teleport/ATT merger is being heralded as a "great thing" by (it seems) everyone. Teleport has built its business (so it seems to me) by being IXC neutral. Since Teleport (AFAIK) was not competing in the LD area (to any great extent if at all), any IXC would feel comfortable placing their business with them rather than the ILEC in that city, all other things being equal. Now how will the *other* IXC's feel with ATT knowing all their business connections. If I were an IXC I'd be just a tad nervous. Does this portend well for other CLEC's to have business migrated to them? Does it *even* matter anymore :-) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think it is interesting that last week AT&T claims massive losses attempting to get into the local business and said they are out of it for good; then this week they buy up Teleport and approach the local business from a different angle. Maybe this method will work for them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Eli Mantel Subject: Passing FCC PIC Fee to Customers Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 22:52:27 PST If there has been any media coverage of the new charge that long distance companies are now required to pay for each subscriber who has that company selected as their PIC, I have missed it. By chance, I did come across a legal notice about a $0.53 monthly charge for such a fee, but I don't recall the details. I do remember that the fee was to be charged to the customer if there was no long distance company selected as the primary interexchange company. My latest long distance bill from MCI contains the following notice: The FCC is now requiring MCI and all other long distance companies to pay a fee to the local phone companies based on the number of lines subscribed to each carrier for originating and terminating your long distance calls. As a result, MCI will pass along a subscriber fee to each usage customer. I suppose we should not be surprised that this fee is being passed along to customers, just as the per-call charge for toll-free calls made from pay phones is passed along to the telephone customer who is ultimately paying the bill. But MCI is charging this fee even when MCI is not being charged, because not everyone who uses MCI has selected MCI as their PIC. In fact, MCI is charging $1.07 for each "usage customer"... perhaps there's one charge for interlata access and another for intralata access? By the way, I also called AT&T, and was told they filed a tariff update on 12/18/97 to allow for charging $1.50 per line after the first. I thought I had heard something about this, but am surprised it's being billed by the long distance company. I thought this charge was to be billed by the LEC. ------------------------------ From: antispam@bigmoney.idiom.com (Steve Krauster) Subject: FAQ for comp.dcom.telecom? Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 17:09:30 GMT Organization: Slip.Net (http://www.slip.net) Is there an FAQ for comp.dcom.telecom? Steve krauster@slip.net (the "from" field of this posting is bogus) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes there is. You will find it in the Telecom Archives. Go to http://telecom-digest.org PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 22:28:56 -0400 From: Bill McMullin Reply-To: bill@interactive.ca Organization: InfoInterActive Inc. Subject: Map Wanted Showing RBOC Territories Hey Pat, would you happen to have or know where to find a map of the U.S. showing the RBOC territories? Or, if there is one with more detail that would be fine too. Thanks, Bill McMullin InfoInterActive Inc. ------------------------------ From: dlover Subject: Re: Help Connecting a Modem to a PBX Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 12:57:13 -0600 Fraser Orr wrote in message ... > I remember when modems were still operating at 1200 baud, that you > could buy a device called an acoustic coupler, that you strapped onto > the phone, and it seems to me that this would surely work. It seems > rather an unsophisiticated solution though. Is it possible to simply > unplug the handset of the phone, and, using a suitably modified jack, > plug the modem in there? Even if it can't necessarily dial the number, > I would be happy to dial it myself. Depends ... Is it an analog phone or a digital phone? If it is an analog phone like on a Lucent Definity G3, you can run the modem right into the wall jack. If it is digital, then you'll ruin the port or the modem or both. If it is digital (and a Lucent Definity G3) ask to get an 8411D phone. It is a digital (DCP) phone that has an analog port on the back of it that is perfect for modems/fax/etc. You can NOT plug the modem into the handset cord of either type because of voltage mismatches. ------------------------------ From: antispam@bigmoney.idiom.com (Steve Krauster) Subject: Any Other Newsgroups For Telephone Technology? Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 00:20:55 GMT Organization: Slip.Net (http://www.slip.net) Are there any other newsgroups besides this one, comp.dcom.telecom, for discussing consumer noncomputer telephone issues? Like types of cordless phones, telephone wiring, answering machines, etc? Steve krauster@slip.net (the from field of this posting is bogus) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Two that come to mind are these: alt.dcom.telecom and comp.dcom.telecom.tech. Both of those newsgroups had their origin from this one several years ago. In addition, if you look at the telecom web page (http://telecom-digest.org) you will find a selection of other resources worthwhile to visit. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V18 #6 ****************************