HGSCHULZ@cs.umass.edu (Henning Schulzrinne) (12/08/89)
The following are excerpts translated from the November 18 edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt, West Germany (translated without permission): "Calling the GDR is almost hopeless" ==================================== The situation in the German-German telephone communication is by now a catastrophe. It takes many hours to get a connection. Often that doesn't happen at all. It has become basically impossible to make important phone calls. Even attempts to use telegrams are almost hopeless. All regional postal administrations report that telegram traffic is totally overloaded. The telephone system of the GDR has not made the switch to digital technology. The existing system is based on analog switching, just as it was the case in West Germany not too long ago, and is outdated. There are bottlenecks in switching and the cable plant. Microwave links would have to be set up between the Federal Republic (W.-Germany) and the GDR. How tight capacities are can be seen by the fact that a total of 1313 conversations can be accomodated concurrently from the Federal Republic while from the GDR only 215. East Berlin and 221 other localities can be reached without operator assistance. According to figures provided by the postal administration in East Berlin, more than one million residents of the GDR have applied for a telephone line. 45000 additional lines had been planned for 1990. In the Federal Republic, 97 of 100 household have a telephone, in the GDR only 16. There are 27.5 mio. phone lines in West Germany, 1.6 mio in East Germany [population is 61 vs. 17 mio, roughly]. The postal administration in Munich points out that in early November, 250 calls were registered per day. Today, the number is 950. Only every tenth attempt for connection is successful when direct-dialing. According to the postal administration in Lower Saxony, only every fifth caller has a chance of getting through. ===== Henning Schulzrinne (HGSCHULZ@CS.UMASS.EDU) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Massachusetts at Amherst Amherst, MA 01003 - USA === phone: (413) 545-3179 (EST); FAX: (413) 545-1249
piet@cs.ruu.nl (Piet van Oostrum) (12/15/89)
In article <1979@accuvax.nwu.edu>, HGSCHULZ@cs (Henning Schulzrinne) writes:
`The following are excerpts translated from the November 18 edition of
`the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt, West Germany (translated
`without permission):
`
`"Calling the GDR is almost hopeless"
`====================================
`
A few days ago the PTT-ministers of the FRG and GDR governments met.
The FRG is offering upgrades to the GDR telephone system (especially
Berlin) and to the connections between the two.
Piet* van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University,
Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Telephone: +31-30-531806 Uucp: uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!ruuinf!piet
Telefax: +31-30-513791 Internet: piet@cs.ruu.nl (*`Pete')