PMW1@psuvm.psu.edu (Peter M. Weiss) (07/16/90)
Well, I just got my first cellular phone and service, and of course have been trying it out. I have come across a couple of anomalies that are driving me batty: (1) When I call from a Bell of PA COT, as soon as I finished DTMFing the local exchange number of the cell phone, it immediately spits back my quarter (this does not happen from a COCOT (more on this later)) without even ringing or any other hint that the call was processed. This occurs regardless of the power on state of the cell phone. The call goes through correctly when calling from Bell of PA single line home/business phones. (2) I placed a call from within my home system to a local number: it rang once, and then seemed to hangup. This occured twice in succession. I verified this later when I actually got through to the called party. (3) When I call from a COCOT to the cell phone, and it is powered off, I get an intercept message from the cell service provider and then the COCOT _eats_ my quarter. It's the latter which concerns me. BTW, this is all local exchange / home system on wireline B. Hints and tips gratefully appreciated. Pete Penn State U, Management Services PMW1@psuvm.bitnet or psu.vm.edu
john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (07/16/90)
"Peter M. Weiss" <PMW1@psuvm.psu.edu> writes: > (3) When I call from a COCOT to the cell phone, and it is powered off, > I get an intercept message from the cell service provider and then the > COCOT _eats_ my quarter. It's the latter which concerns me. Simple, and the subject of a personal campaign. The COCOT has no way of detecting answer supervision, so the internal microprocessor "listens" for voice from the other end. They are pretty good at this, but they can't tell the difference between a "hello" and an "I'm sorry...". There are two ways around it. Give COCOTs answer supervision indication or coin COS lines is one. Not bloody likely to happen soon. The other would be for the cellular provider to preface the recording (indicating that the cell phone is unavailable) with SIT. Most COCOTs are smart enough to know that anything following SIT is advisory and not supervised. And they won't collect the money. I have been trying to get the cellular providers in this area to do that for some time, but I have yet to find anyone who knows what I am talking about. Does this give anyone any ideas about saving money when checking your messages on your machine or voice mail? Oops, did I say that? John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
oberman@rogue.llnl.gov (07/18/90)
In article <9798@accuvax.nwu.edu>, john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: > There are two ways around it. Give COCOTs answer supervision > indication or coin COS lines is one. Not bloody likely to happen soon. I understand thet the CPUC has ordered all phone companies in CA to provide COCOTs with "identical service" to that provided to their own COTs. I assume this would mean coin COS lines are now available to COCOTs. R. Kevin Oberman Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Internet: oberman@icdc.llnl.gov (415) 422-6955 Disclaimer: Don't take this too seriously. I just like to improve my typing and probably don't really know anything useful about anything.
kcrudup@uunet.uu.net (Kenny Crudup LID-A0794) (07/19/90)
In article <9798@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com> writes: >Does this give anyone any ideas about saving money when checking your >messages on your machine or voice mail? Oops, did I say that? Don't worry. Beat you to it. What *I* need are frequencies.... ($10 bucks says the mod ices this note....) Kenneth R. Crudup, Lotus Development Corp. Contractor, NASD/QA system V 1 Rogers Street 6381D, Cambridge, MA 02142. (617) 693 4111. Work: kcrudup@roxbury.lotus.com, Home: nubian!kenny@ima.ima.isc.com [Moderator's Note: You lose. I don't know what kind of 'frequencies' you are seeking, but they all are of public record at the FCC. Could you be more specific in your request, please? PT]
john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (07/19/90)
Kenny Crudup LID-A0794 <lotus!kcrudup@uunet.uu.net> writes: > Don't worry. Beat you to it. What *I* need are frequencies.... The complete description of SIT (Special Information Tones) including frequencies, cadence, and tone duration, with listings concerning the different "call failure" categories, is available from: * Bellcore * The Public Library * Your local LEC (DID customers are required to have them for vacant lines) * Your state PUC * Half the readers of the Digest In short, possession of this information is not a Federal crime. I'd post is all here, but someone borrowed my big yellow Bellcore book and didn't return it. (Or did the person I was borrowing it from take it back? I can't remember.) Call Pac*Bell and ask for their IXC information package. I did. It is highly informative. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! [Moderator's Note: But one thing puzzles me: What's to prevent anyone or everyone from answering *all* their phone calls that way? In other words, when you go off hook to answer a call, 'da da dee', then begin your conversation. What prevents anyone from playing games like this to provide the essence of a 'toll-free' number to callers? PT]
john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (07/20/90)
On Jul 19 at 20:26, TELECOM Moderator writes: > [Moderator's Note: But one thing puzzles me: What's to prevent anyone > or everyone from answering *all* their phone calls that way? In other > words, when you go off hook to answer a call, 'da da dee', then begin > your conversation. What prevents anyone from playing games like this > to provide the essence of a 'toll-free' number to callers? PT] There is nothing to prevent you from doing this, but why bother? Except for COCOTs, I'm unaware of any equipment or carriers that use the SIT for billing determination. Remember, SIT is for telco and carrier trouble auditing purposes. COCOTs use of it for detection of "non-answer supervision" is a hack. If you want to put SIT on your answering machine (as a friend of mine has), the only people who might save money would be COCOT users. Real answer supervision is either DC reversal or out-of-band signaling. You can't mess with that. Also, all this talk about frequencies, etc., is so unnecessary. If you want to generate SIT, just record some off the phone. The frequencies aren't critical and it doesn't even matter if there is a little flutter thrown in for good measure. Enjoy! John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
levin@bbn.com (Joel B Levin) (07/25/90)
In article <9946@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon <john@bovine.ati.com> writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 500, Message 10 of 12 |Also, all this talk about frequencies, etc., is so unnecessary. If you |want to generate SIT, just record some off the phone. The frequencies |aren't critical and it doesn't even matter if there is a little flutter |thrown in for good measure. Enjoy! In fact, this will make it sound more like the real thing than freshly generated pure tones. Better yet: turn the gain up high enough to induce distortion as well. /JBL Nets: levin@bbn.com or {...}!bbn!levin pots: (617)873-3463