telecom@ucbvax.ARPA (08/21/85)
From: Moderator <Telecom-REQUEST@MIT-XX.ARPA>
TELECOM Digest Tuesday, August 20, 1985 6:27PM
Volume 5, Issue 22
Today's Topics:
New "Flat-Rate" Service from GTE Telenet
PC Pursuit
Re: V5 #20 Cellular Airtime
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Date: Mon, 19 Aug 85 23:27 EDT
From: Frankston@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: 48V, 16V
I just bought some Panasonic 809 two-line phones with hold buttons.
I've already had a Teletender two line switch with hold. The Panasonic
phones have indicator lights to show line in use and hold condition.
For Line-2, this worked well. Line-1, however, was always lit as if in
use and hold did not work. The Teletender hold one line 1 also started
failing about two or three months ago.
I checked the line voltage and found that line-2 had the appropriate 48V
but line-1 was down to 16V (actually 15.4, but who's counting). I
checked this at the protection block (the one with the grounding wire)
with no equipment attached.
I called repair (on Sunday) to check it out. After talking my way past
the first person, the supervisor agreed to send someone out that day.
(I'm impressed at actually getting that much service). He eventually
came and we determined that the problem is that back in May when I had a
third line installed, they'd put the first two lines on an AML (I don't
know what the intials stand for) which is a multiplexor. My line-2 was
the primary and line-1 the secondary. The result is the 48/16 voltage
situation.
Today (Monday) the agreed to remove the AML and find additional pairs.
Luckily two pairs were freed up by the leased line I removed.
I also reached engineering at Panasonic. They said that they'd gotten
this complaint before but didn't have a fix yet from the factory.
Hopefully, flagging this will help people who've run into similar
situations.
I'm interested in any details on both the technical and tariff issues.
In particular, can you require Telco to deliver 48 volts?
PS: I'm pleasantly surprised by NET's (Nynex) responsiveness on this
matter. I'm on the 617-969 exchange, a DMS-100 switch, for those
interested.
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Date: Mon, 19 Aug 85 23:31 EDT
From: Frankston@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: Re: Cancel Call Waiting - Pacific Bell misprint
I noticed the letter about *72 and *73 instead of 72# and 73#. That
worked on my switch also, BUT, *70 doesn't work whereas 70# does seem
to. It is a DMS-100.
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Date: 20 Aug 1985 01:45:22 PDT
Subject: New "Flat-Rate" Service from GTE Telenet
From: Eliot Moore <SWG.ELMO@USC-ISIB.ARPA>
Communications Week - Monday, August 19, 1985, page 23:
GTE Telenet Fields Discount Telecom Service For Home PCs
By James Doherty
Reston, VA - GTE Telenet Inc., a unit fo GTE Corp., has unveiled a
service enabling residential personal computer owners to use the
company's nationwide packet-switching network at a greatly reduced
price during the evenings and on weekends.
The service, called PC Pursuit, costs a flat rate of $25 per month
and can save users up to 75 percent on long-distance telephone bills
for bulletin board messaging, program sharing, downloading of computer
software, or talking with friends via computer, the company said.
J. David Hann, GTE Telenet president, said the service "will
dramatically change the way PCs are used in the American household."
He said the service will give users "virtually unlimited access to
information contained in hundreds of free databases."
The service will be available in 12 major metropolitan areas, and
"assuming it takes off as we think it will, we will expand it," said
a GTE Telenet spokeswoman.
She said the service will allow users access to free, private home
databases. "There's a terrific culture out there based on sharing
information databases that are fun and useful, and they haven't been
available for any price," she said.
GTE Telenet said users of PCs equipped with modems and
asynchronous communications software can use PC Pursuit via a local
call to the Telenet public packet-switched data network.
Pre-registered PC Pursuit users will call an access number and
then be prompted to enter their home phone number, the number they
wish to reach, and then hang up. If the user's number is authorized,
the subscriber is called back and automatically connected to the
destination number, which can be a distant database or other PC user.
Stephen Durham, vice president of product planning and
applications at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Cermetek Microelectronics
Inc., said the service will certianly free people from worrying about
phone costs--the key word is flat, in flat rate. What's interesting
is you might see a lot more personal telephone mail, that's been
mostly used by business till now. And we they would buy modems. It
is statistically significant that 70 percent of PC owners don't have
modems, so that says there's a relatively large unserved market."
Utilizing Excess Capacity
The GTE Telenet spokeswoman said users now pay at least $10 an hour
for long-distance phone calls, "and they're doing it at night to save
money and because that's when they have time to do this as a hobby
because they work in the day. We have provided a business network
used heavily in the day, but at night gets really quiet, so we'll use
this excess capacity."
Robert B. Morris III, analyst at Montgomery Securities, San
Francisco, confimred that "it is clear Telenet is looking for ways to
increase use of its network."
The GTE Telenet spokeswoman said her company talked to
recreational PC users "and found the average person spends about nine
hours a month on the modem." "At $10 an hour, that's a pretty hefty
phone bill. So we found we'll hit just about all of them by providing
a service at $25 a month," she said.
--End of article--
GTE Telenet obviously thinks they'll make money at this, and I hope
they do! This offering (even with Telenet's sluggishness) could
be a real boon to all late-night users!
There are some questions unanswered - what 12 metro areas? 2400bps
service? What does the OUTGOING calling area look like? Does the
destination number have to be registered?? Answers to these and
many many more when I subscribe, today!
Hope this doesn't go the way of the "Heartline."
Cheers,
Elmo
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Date: Tue, 20-Aug-85 11:38:24 PDT
From: vortex!lauren@rand-unix.ARPA (Lauren Weinstein)
Subject: PC Pursuit
I had a long talk with GTE Telenet today regarding this offering.
There are some possibly significant limitations. They are willing
to call out at 1200 bps, but there is a strong implication that they
are only willing to make LOCAL CALLS from their center. For example,
in L.A., this may mean that they would be unwilling to call (for
either originating or completing calls) West Los Angeles since their
center is downtown (and a ZUM call away). There was some haziness
on this point (e.g. ZUM restriction? Toll restriction?) but this
will clearly be an important issue to watch given the limited local
calling areas in many metro areas. There is also some question as
to available Telenet dialout capacity in these metro areas--circuit
congestion may be a significant problem.
--Lauren--
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Date: Tue, 20 Aug 85 13:54:34 EDT
From: Robert Jesse <rnj@BRL.ARPA>
Subject: Re: V5 #20 Cellular Airtime
The definition of cellular "air time" is a business decision left
to each individual carrier.
One extreme (which some carriers actually implement) is to run the
airtime counter anytime the subscriber is allocated a voice channel.
This includes a mobile subscriber listening to ringback, busy, reorder,
announcements, etc. (independent of answer supervision) *and* the time
a cellular phone is ringing to signal an incoming call.
The rationale here is that the company is in business to sell spectrum,
and they have every right (they do!) to charge for spectrum delivered,
whether or not a call is completed. The hardest part to swallow is
paying for the time your phone is ringing (since you didn't initiate the
act) but the carriers' position is if you don't want to pay, then turn
your phone off.
The other extreme (e.g. my carrier, Cellular One Balto/Washington) is to
bill for airtime only on completed calls, and then starting the timer only
upon detecting answer supervision.
This is perhaps a bit generous -- lots of valuable spectrum delivered is
unbillable -- yet the carrier reasons that this policy engenders a perception
of fairness in the customer and thus encourages use and actually increases
profits.
Speaking from personal experience, the effect should not be underestimated.
I am *much* more likely to pick up my portable and attempt a call when using
a system with this policy than when roaming in a less favorable area.
There are lots of variations between the extremes. Check with your potential
carriers *before* subscribing to their service! Let 'em know if you don't
like what you find out!
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End of TELECOM Digest
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