Telecom-REQUEST@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU (JSol) (06/17/88)
TELECOM Digest Thursday, June 16, 1988 7:04PM
Volume 8, Issue 101
Today's Topics:
Re: TT charges dropped.
PBX systems aren't retarded, Central Offices are!
Any references for papers on ATM?
Reminder: area code 508
Country code for Caribbean locations
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From: flatline!erict@uunet.UU.NET (eric townsend)
Subject: Re: TT charges dropped.
Date: 6 Jun 88 02:19:34 GMT
Someone wrote:
] In my latest bill from Pacific Northwest Bell (PNB), there was a note
] explaining a change in the tariffs covering Touch Tone service for
] all customers in Washington State. That being the removal of the 50
] cent charge for Tone service. ......
]
] The notice also inferred that it was the BOC that instigated the
] change, but I wonder if it wasn't really the state Utilities
] Commission that forced the new tariff?
I did some digging a while back, as the local Bell Co. decided to levy
really outrageous charges on modem users here in Houston. Things like
"All modem usage will fall under full business data rates, even for bbs's,
because all bbs's are businesses." (!)
As I understand it, the TT charges were originally authorized in the
early 60's, so that the phone co. could regain its losses for "inventing
and installing" TT services. According to the authorizations I read,
the Bell Co., if it so wished, could charge each TT user around $80
a month extra, just for using TT service. The wording allowed not
only allowed the extra charge for TT service, but for "any means of
communication using electronically generated tones, and combinations
thereof" or something like that.
Locally, SWB has read this to mean that all data lines could be charged
an extra amount, up to $80/month/line, if SWB so wished.
Needless to say, there are some lawsuits going. One local cb simulator
operator (RoundTable, *not* a Diversi-Dial system) is suing SWB
for unfair competition: He told the truth to SWB, and paid roughly
$60/line/mo for rollover data service. Other cb sim operators
told ma bell that they were not in any way a business or data service
but that they wanted 14 rollover voice lines. The SWB people shrugged,
said "ok", and let them have the lines for $14-20/mo/line. That's for
rollover data service, folks. Needless to say, RoundTable soon went
under from the unfair pricing. SWB said "big deal". Now they're
in court.
My suggestion is check out the PUC regs in your local area. The
RoundTable owner did this several times, found out that SWB was wrong,
told them, and they said "so what?". He then took SWB to court, showed
the judge where SWB was wrong, and won some nice settlements.
--
Know Future
"Upgrade to 3.5+, you bozo." is not a valid reply to my 3b1 questions. :-)
J. Eric Townsend ->uunet!nuchat!flatline!erict smail:511Parker#2,Hstn,Tx,77007
..!bellcore!tness1!/
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From: goldstein%delni.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein dtn226-7388)
Date: 14 Jun 88 09:21
Subject: PBX systems aren't retarded, Central Offices are!
In V8I99, Kevin Tubbs flamed about Cornell's new AT&T System 85.
Now I'm not known to be one of AT&T's major defenders, and I certainly
wouldn't have advised Cornell to buy the S/85 (though they could have
done a lot worse), but Kevin's flames are way, way off the mark.
The S/85 doesn't know when an outgoing call is completed, but neither
would any other PBX! The reason is simple; outgoing calls go through
local telephone company Central Offices, and _they_ don't report, to
the PBX, if the call was answered or not. Unless the PBX has some
pretty fancy tone detectors (which aren't accurate, are costly, and
are rarely found on PBXs), it has no way of knowing if the caller
got busy, no answer or answer. So it times the call and figures a
busy or no answer wouldn't go as long as a completed call. Got a
better idea?
Now if the CO would return "answer supervision", the PBX would bill
accurately. Most modern COs are capable of it, but Bell companies,
stuck in "screw the user" tradition, won't turn it on. Sometimes
we get lucky, but it's not the norm.
BTW there are a couple of exceptions. AT&T's 4ESS-based long distance
services (Megacom, etc.) do provide answer supervision. And ISDN,
when it arrives, will also provide it. It has also been requested
by many users as part of the FCC mandated "Open Network Architecture"
program, but that's turning into a regulatory morass that doesn't
fit here...
So don't blame the PBX, blame your local telephone company.
fred
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From: David Coffield <mcvax!comp.lancs.ac.uk!david@uunet.UU.NET>
Subject: Any references for papers on ATM?
Date: 14 Jun 88 15:18:07 GMT
Can anyone mail me any references they may have to papers
on ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) networks/architectures?
I've only got one paper on this and the references in it aren't much help.
Thanks,
David Coffield.
--
janet: david@uk.ac.lancs.comp Department of Computing
arpa: david@comp.lancs.ac.uk University of Lancaster
uucp: ...!mcvax!ukc!dcl-cs!david Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4YR, UK
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Date: Thu, 16 Jun 88 15:12:15 EDT
From: henry@GARP.MIT.EDU (Henry Mensch)
Subject: Reminder: area code 508
This comes from ne.general; I thought telecom might be interested ...
Article 250 in ne.general:
From: marston@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (David Marston)
Subject: Reminder: area code 508
Date: 16 Jun 88 14:06:56 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 23
At the time this is being posted, we have one month until area code
508 is officially implemented in Massachusetts. The cutover date is
7/16/88. Briefly, the following cities and towns represent the
innermost ring of exchanges that will CHANGE from 617 to 508: Salem,
Peabody, Middleton, North Reading, Wilmington, Billerica, Carlisle,
Concord, Sudbury, Wayland, Natick, Dover, Walpole, Foxborough,
Mansfield, Easton, Brockton, Avon, East Bridgewater, Bridgewater,
Middleborough, Carver, Plymouth. Anything beyond that ring that was
formerly in 617 will also change to 508. Okay, let's see the outermost
ring of cities and towns that will REMAIN in 617: Marblehead,
Swampscott, Lynn, Lynnfield, Reading, Woburn, Burlington, Bedford,
Lincoln, Weston, Wellesley, Needham, Dedham, Westwood, Norwood,
Sharon, Stoughton, Randolph, Holbrook, Abington, Whitman, Hanson,
Halifax, Plympton, Kingston. Those and all cities and towns closer in
to Boston keep the same phone number.
I suggest that you look around for files containing phone numbers,
whether physical files or electronic databases, that will need
updating. If your number will be changing, review your .signature and
business cards, and ensure that phone lists within your organization
will be reviewed. Your phone switch may know area codes for
routing-optimization and your uucp files may need to change. If you
know of other items to review, please post a reminder here.
................David Marston decvax!dartvax!eleazar!marston
marston@eleazar.dartmouth.EDU
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From: mcvax!cgch!wtho@uunet.UU.NET (Tom Hofmann)
Subject: Country code for Caribbean locations
Date: 16 Jun 88 06:48:19 GMT
As far as I know several Caribbean islands belong to the North-American
telephone system (U.S.A., Canada; country code: +1) having the area
code 809. Therefore, the international prefix for that region should
be +1 809. From West Germany that's the correct code, indeed. However,
here in Switzerland the code is +500 809. +1 809 doesn't work from here
neither is there success with +500 809 from West Germany.
Does that mean that there are regions on this world which haven't
a single international access code? (Except the "+" which always
differs.) I believed that every internationally accessible telephone
number could be dialed as +<country><area><number> where only the
"+" differs. Isn't it CCITT's task to make those codes standardized?
And since 809 obviously belongs to country code +1, won't +500 be used
for another country in the future?
Tom Hofmann E-mail: wtho@cgch.UUCP
...!mcvax!cernvax!cgch!wtho
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End of TELECOM Digest
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