tnixon@uunet.uu.net> (06/13/91)
There have been a few messages posted here about government restrictions on automatic redialing equipment. Since I've been active in standards work in this area recently, I thought I'd pass along what I know. For several years, US and Canadian regulations in this area have differed. Recently, the FCC and DOC decided to get together and harmonize FCC Part 68 and CS-03 (Canadian equivalent) so there would be one consistent standard for North America (making life much easier for manufacturers). Telecommunications Industry Association technical subcommittee TR-41.9 studied the issue of automatic redialing, and recently submitted a recommendation to the FCC on what the harmonized regulation should be, which is basically this (but I'm doing this off the top of my head ...): Automatic redialing equipment may dial a single number TWICE during any ONE HOUR period. However, if the equipment is capable of detecting a busy signal, it may dial up to an additional 13 times during the one hour period so long as it detects busy on each attempt. Manual intervention is permitted to restart the cycle -- meaning that if you hit the "redial" button again, you can basically automatically redial forever. What the agencies and committees don't want is a completely unattended system dialing again and again all night and keeping some poor old lady awake. An important note: the proposal specifically exempts emergency alarm systems (such as burglar alarms calling a central monitoring center), and equipment that is under external computer control (such as modems). Yes, I did have a hand in that last part! The reason is that we did NOT want to get the FCC into the business of regulating computer SOFTWARE, and these days it is primarily the SOFTWARE that does the redialing, not the FCC Part 68-registered equipment. Toby Nixon, Principal Engineer | Voice +1-404-840-9200 Telex 151243420 Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. | Fax +1-404-447-0178 CIS 70271,404 P.O. Box 105203 | UUCP uunet!hayes!tnixon AT&T !tnixon Atlanta, Georgia 30348 USA | Internet hayes!tnixon@uunet.uu.net