[fa.telecom] TELECOM Digest V5 #14

heiby@cuae2.UUCP (Ron Heiby) (08/22/85)

TELECOM Digest                           Monday, August 5, 1985 4:55PM
Volume 5, Issue 14

Today's Topics:

                Questions on Cellular phone service..
                          Re: telecom v5 #11
                            Telebit Corp.
                Cancel Call Waiting on Incoming Call?
                              two things

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From: <bang!root@Nosc>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 85 09:18:18 pdt
Subject: Questions on Cellular phone service..


There seems to be quite a bit of confusion on how the San Diego Cellular
phone system is likely to operate.  (When it finally becomes operational, that
is. - So far its been delayed for over 9 months for one reason or another)

My understanding on phone rates for celluar calls is that a user is charged
for airtime no matter who originates a phone call.  If I am calling FROM
a cellular phone, then I  pay air charges (of .40 per minute) as soon as
I dial a number, whether or not it completes.  If I call TO a cellular phone
then the callee is charged airtime whether or not he answers (or is even there).

There is no grace time.

I am also led to believe that dealers selling phones are far more interested
in selling Phone Numbers than actual instruments.  They receive a commission 
on each call you make for 10 years. I guess this means that equipment prices
are likely to drop rapidly or that deals can be made easily.

This is all theory,  there is not a working system here, but I am curious.  If
the cost of the phones drops to a reasonable level (like under $400) it might
be worthwhile using it despite the usage charges.  If you have any experience
with a working cellular system, I'd be interested to know how well it works
and what it ends up really costing to use.


Bret Marquis

(ihnp4,sdcsvax)!bang!bam
bang!bam@NOSC

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Date:     Mon, 5 Aug 85 7:54:00 EDT
From:     Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL.ARPA>
Subject:  Re: telecom v5 #11

One of the payphone businesses listed was W.Q. Watson & Assoc.,
Gainesville, GA (you had FL) 30503, tel. 404-522-9246.
404-522 is Atlanta; perhaps this is 532.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 5 Aug 85 14:09:05 edt
From: mgrant@umd-burble.ARPA (Michael A. Grant)
Subject: Telebit Corp.

Has anyone been able to get any info out of Telebit Corporation?
I've been calling their 800 tel-ebit number about 5 times a day
since last week.  It answers with 'Thankyou for calling telebit
corporation, for faster service, please dial 1 for customer service,
2 for sales and other enquires.  Please dial now."  I've tried
dialing 1, 2, and nothing at all.  It rings and rings, and I never
get an answer.  Does anyone have any info on these '10K baud'
modems they claim to sell?
-MGrant

------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 5 Aug 85 11:57 MST
From:  Schuttenberg@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA (Jim)
Subject:  Cancel Call Waiting on Incoming Call?

Recent transactions here indicate that Pacific Bell has made available a
Cancel Call Waiting feature that is invoked prior to placing an outgoing
call. Is there any way to activate the feature after having received an
incoming call?

------------------------------

Date: Mon 5 Aug 85 16:54:35-EDT
From: Jon Solomon <JSOL@MIT-XX.ARPA>
Subject: two things

I discovered that my call waiting works if you complete BOTH calls
on the 3-way call. I.e. it's not good enough just to connect
the two lines together, both have to ANSWER before call waiting
works again (I guess I agree that the other caller shouldn't have
to listen to ringing or some disconnect message just because I got
a call wait and cannot disconnect it).

Also, if Pacific Bell is doing what NET is doing with cancelable
call-waiting, you need 3-way calling to turn call waiting off
after a call has been set up. This is the first time I have heard
of one custom calling feature depending on another.

Cheers,
--Jsol

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest
*********************
-- 
Ron Heiby {NAC|ihnp4}!cuae2!heiby   Moderator: mod.newprod & mod.unix
AT&T-IS, /app/eng, Lisle, IL	(312) 810-6109
"No; my legs are written in a functional programming language." (J. McKie)