ggw@duke.cs.duke.edu (Gregory G. Woodbury) (12/13/89)
Just a quick report to the Telecom Digest concerning CLASS services in the Central NC area. Southern Bell (part of BellSouth) in central NC (specifically Raleigh area LATA) is offering CLASS services without CNID. The NC PUC has the CNID service held up in red tape while ACLU and other "intervenors" complain about privacy etc. Last # redial, last caller autodial and "wardialer" services (as well as call trace) are being heavily advertised on local TV. The GTE satrapy in Durham is finally advertising that they have the disable call waiting service in place, but it is not generally enabled in the switches - you have to specifically order it. Both phone companies are still charging for DMTF services. GTE disables DMTF by reversing polarity on the line at the switch frame. (i.e. you can remove "Touch Tone" from your line charges, and in about a week your modem and DMTF phones will generally stop working - but a check with a polarity reader (the led on a stick) will indicate that the polarity is "reversed" -- I know I wired it right when I redid my parent's place a couple of years ago ;-) GTE spokespersons said that CLASS services will become available in Durham in about 6 months or whenever the PUC finally decides the issue of CNID. An inquiry about the difficulty of re-programming the CO switches was met with a snide remark and a statment that the phone switch software is the most recent available from the manufacturer. Private information is that Durham is all NT DMS-10's and that the NT/BNR complex in RTP is working on it as fast as possible. Gregory G. Woodbury Sysop/owner Wolves Den UNIX BBS, Durham NC UUCP: ...dukcds!wolves!ggw ...dukeac!wolves!ggw [use the maps!] Domain: ggw@cds.duke.edu ggw@ac.duke.edu ggw%wolves@ac.duke.edu Phone: +1 919 493 1998 (Home) +1 919 684 6126 (Work) [The line eater is a boojum snark! ] <standard disclaimers apply>
john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (12/16/89)
In article <2103@accuvax.nwu.edu> "Gregory G. Woodbury" <wolves.UUCP!ggw@ duke.cs.duke.edu> writes: >X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 569, message 8 of 10 >The GTE satrapy in Durham is finally advertising that they have the >disable call waiting service in place, but it is not generally enabled >in the switches - you have to specifically order it. Maybe that's because, as in California, they charge extra for it! It's a $1.50/month option that they will include free if you buy the entire package of custom calling. >GTE spokespersons said that CLASS services will become available in >Durham in about 6 months or whenever the PUC finally decides the issue >of CNID. This is their usual crock. This gives them no end of reprieve in providing services to the customer. A notable example: 976. Their excuse for not providing it in the area code for which they were responsible (805, 714) was that there were too many unresolved issues. In other words, let everyone else battle it out and do the pioneering, we'll sit back and just collect the money when it's cool. BTW, I'm not interested in discussing the pros and cons of 976 and furthermore it's not up to a regulated monopoly to make those judgements, either. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !