TJMartin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (Tom Martin) (10/23/85)
I have been traveling a lot to Rochester, NY lately, and the most aggravating part of it (or even, the only aggravating part) is the terrible service provided by Rochester Telephone. They have yet to automate credit card service; it takes 5-6-7 attempts to get a long-distance line; random information tones (sort of like busy signals) are the result of a call in over half the attempts for a local (intra-city) call. How can the folks in Rochester take it? Whenever I complain about the service, people will counter with the ONE time they got a circuit busy message in Boston. Is the New York State PUC powerless?
Carter@RED.RUTGERS.EDU (_Bob) (10/25/85)
From: Tom Martin <TJMartin at MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>
I have been traveling a lot to Rochester, NY lately, and the most
aggravating part of it (or even, the only aggravating part) is the
terrible service provided by Rochester Telephone.
I make fairly frequent calls from northern N.J. (201) to Hamilton, N.Y.
(315)824-XXXX, and vice versa. I very often get the tones and the "All lines
are busy, try again" msg. Is Hamilton in the Rochester LATA?
One thing *I think* I've noticed. It seems that if I punch in the
numbers slowly and very evenly (about 2 or 3/sec.) the success ratio
tends to be much higher.
Would that be a crossbar trying to deal with the output from a DTMF
decoder or something of the like?
_BJSOL@MIT-XX.ARPA (Jon Solomon) (10/26/85)
Bob, Dialing your dial slowly has nothing to do with how fast the incoming trunks at Hamilton, NY. receives their tones. I would say that if you are experiencing that symptom, that your local switch is where the difficulty lies... I have crossbar in Somerville, MA. now (I just moved in), while I'm on a nostalgia kick (Oh boy! Mechanical Switching!!!), after having been an ESS freak for 15 years or so, I also notice that you have to dial carefully or it will get confused. Fortunately, I don't speed-dial like I speed-type. Cheers, --JSol -------
Carter@RED.RUTGERS.EDU (_Bob) (10/26/85)
From: Jon Solomon <JSOL at MIT-XX.ARPA>
Dialing your dial slowly has nothing to do with how fast
the incoming trunks at Hamilton, NY. receives their tones. I would
say that if you are experiencing that symptom, that your local
switch is where the difficulty lies...
I guess I was assuming the tones for 315 connected me to a line
(virtual or actual) which carried the rest of the tones to the
Hamilton CO where the 824-XXXX did what ever necessary to connect to
the called instrument.
I suppose that is a pretty dumb assumption. Just how does it work (if
you can explain in terms for the very simpleminded)? Does my CO
actually do route-planning to the one particular phone being called?
_BJSOL%BUCS20%bostonu.CSNET@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA (Jon Solomon) (10/28/85)
Well, basically it is a 3-fold process: 1) your local exchange gobbles up as much of the number as can be processed locally: In Step exchanges this is usually a "1", Crossbar and Electronic exchanges usually gobble the whole number and do their own translation/verification of the prefix (at least for calls within the area code), then it is passed to (2). 2) The local exchange sends the call to a toll switch. Step in this case passes the call as soon as the "1" is dialed. An interface to the toll switch gobbles the rest of the number up and passes it to the toll center using MF tones. The toll center dials a call to the area code chosen, using both LOC and Common Carrier lines (i.e. AT&T, Sprint, MCI, etc), connecting it to (3). 3) The local switch in Rochester then finally gets the call and dials the local number. When the call is answered, supervision gets back to the originating CO to begin billing. "Route Planning" happens usually at the Common Carrier level. At this point, at least, there is no mechanism to do route-planning at the local switch (plans were made at one point to implement that on a local switch, but I think divestiture put a monkeywrench in the plans). Therefore using this model, it is safe to say that your tones don't do much in the process of completing the call. Special tones (not dialable from a touch tone phone -- security in obscurity!) are used to complete calls (except for step by step which dial pulses into the exchange). Hope that helps. --JSol
larry@kitty.UUCP (11/10/85)
> I make fairly frequent calls from northern N.J. (201) to Hamilton, N.Y. > (315)824-XXXX, and vice versa. I very often get the tones and the "All lines > are busy, try again" msg. Is Hamilton in the Rochester LATA? > > One thing *I think* I've noticed. It seems that if I punch in the > numbers slowly and very evenly (about 2 or 3/sec.) the success ratio > tends to be much higher. > > Would that be a crossbar trying to deal with the output from a DTMF > decoder or something of the like? Dialing speed (rotary (DP) or DTMF, no matter which) has absolutely NO effect on call completion success, the only exception being if your dialed digits are too slow or too fast for detection (i.e., < 6 || > 15 pps DP or > 10 digits/sec DTMF). If you are in a crossbar office, you are effectively "offline" when dialing; your dialed digits are being decoded and stored in an `originating register' (OR). Only when the OR detects the completion of a dialing sequence (or abort of same through a timeout) is the call routed to the `marker' for route section and transmission through the DDD network. Also, the method of station dialing - DP or DTMF - has absolutely NO bearing on the signalling (i.e., digit transmission) to the destination office. === Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York === === UUCP {decvax,dual,rocksanne,rocksvax,watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry === === VOICE 716/741-9185 {rice,shell}!baylor!/ === === FAX 716/741-9635 {AT&T 3510D} ihnp4!/ === === === === "Have you hugged your cat today?" ===