[fa.telecom] TELECOM Digest V4 #207

telecom@ucbvax.ARPA (06/29/85)

From: Moderator <Telecom-REQUEST@MIT-XX.ARPA>

TELECOM Digest                         Saturday, June 29, 1985 12:00AM
Volume 4, Issue 207

Today's Topics:

                             MCI/IBM/SBS
                Re: long distance directory assistance
                             Penril woes
                    AJ-4800 modem catches ctrl-S?
                    autodial on synchronous modems
                    LATA billing on calling cards
                               Various

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Date: Thu, 27-Jun-85 16:09:35 PDT
From: vortex!lauren@rand-unix (Lauren Weinstein)
Subject: MCI/IBM/SBS

My personal opinion is that this is the best thing that could have
happened for AT&T at this point!  It seems counter-intuitive, but
it's true.  MCI was going to go ahead and get funding from somewhere
to continue their current plans--and their recent disappointment with the
award in their suit against AT&T forced them to go along with a substantial
buyout by IBM.  But the point is that they would have found funding
somewhere, and even IBM isn't an infinite purse of money (as MCI
will no doubt learn).  IBM also makes its share of rather "questionable"
business/pricing decisions, as we also all know.

Now, the end result of all this is that the push for full deregulation
of AT&T will be greatly enhanced.  Already there are murmurings from
the Commission on this point--that with IBM in the game there isn't
much reason to worry about problems when AT&T is fully deregulated.
In fact, the regulatory approval cycle for AT&T had been shortening
anyway--but this can't help but speed up the process--to AT&T's
ultimate advantage.  An unleashed AT&T might be interesting to
behold in the competitive marketplace.

The real losers in all this will almost certainly be the smaller
carriers--maybe even up to and including GTE Sprint.  What ends
up happening, of course, is that we end up with two giant corporations
selling both telecommunications and computers, when originally
we had, uh, two giant corporations selling telecommunications
and computers (but each was only involved in one aspect, not both).

The little guys will really suffer, though.

--Lauren--
 

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

From: dual!islenet!bob@Berkeley
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 85 02:45:16 pdt
Subject: Re: long distance directory assistance

John Levine asks "Who do directory assistance operators work for ..
How about when I dial 809-555-1212 and the operator says 'what island,
Please'".

The local telcos.

For example, if you call 808-555-1212 (and you'll also be asked "which
island?", but it's Hawaii, not the Carribean), you'll be talking to a
directory assistance operator working for Hawaiian Telephone Company
downtown here on Bishop Street.  Happens to be a GTE subsidiary.  HawTel
will be reimbursed by AT&T (or whoever) for handling your query, AT&T (or,
again, whoever you placed the call thru) keeps track of the fact that you
placed the call and charges you (perhaps thru your local telco).

A considerable fraction of the cost of directory assistance here is
reimbursed this way.

I believe that non-AT&T long-distance carriers often tend to use AT&T for
directory assistance calls rather than set up separate agreements and
connections with the local telcos involved ... not too sure about this
last, though.

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

Date: Friday, 21 June 1985  07:33-MDT
From: Steven Taylor <decvax!mcnc!ecsvax!taylor@Ucb-Vax.ARPA>
Subject:   Penril woes

There are at least 3 prom sets for the Penril autodialers in question.
The "vanilla" prom set does indeed keep cd high (as best I remember)
in order to keep terminals happy.  (It was designed to be used with
dumb crt's as an outgoing device.)

A second version was designed specifically to work with Develcon
dataswitches in a bidirectional mode.  That is, they could be used on
the switch for outgoing calls or incoming calls on the same port.  I
KNOW that this prom set does not keep cd high, but brings it up in
response to DTR coming high.  (Remember, the dataswitch does not bring
dtr high until it is trying to initiate a call.  This difference may
be the root of the problem mentioned.)  If you need more detailed info
on this, I'll be glad to discuss this firmware in detail.

Finally, there is also, I understand, a "Hayes compatible" firmware
set available now as well.

Your Penril rep should be willing to work with you on getting a prom
that will work, but you may have to get hin to do some investigation
before he will admit that the three version (minimum) really exist.

Steven Taylor
Distributed Networking Associates
Charlottesville, VA 22901
(804) 979-0656

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

Date: Monday, 24 June 1985  21:42-MDT
From: mark@maryland.ARPA (Mark Weiser)
Subject:   AJ-4800 modem catches ctrl-S?

I have an Anderson-Jacobson 4800 baud modem which uses the ordinary
phone lines.  It works pretty well, except for one thing.  It seems to
interpret ctrl-S and ctrl-Q.  I have not found this documented
anywhere in the manuals, but it is obviously happening.  After a
ctrl-S typed at my keyboard (in emacs, naturally), no other chacacters
appear until a ctrl-Q is typed.  But then, the ultimate strangeness:
The ctrl-S HAS been passed on from my terminal to emacs, and so has
the ctrl-Q!

This has got me baffled.  How in the world can a modem get away with
interpreting ctrl-S/ctrl-Q, and then passing them on as well?  Am I
misinterpreting something?  Is there a way to turn this off, other
AJ-4800 baud owners out there?

On a related note, I can't seem to get 8=bit data through the AJ.  My
terminal has a meta-key which turns on the 8th bit on all characters.
By the time these characters get through the AJ modem they have
somehow been transformed to have proper parity, which is a disaster.
Any way to turn off this mode?

Thanks in advance.
	-mark
-- 
Spoken: Mark Weiser 	ARPA:	mark@maryland	Phone: +1-301-454-7817
CSNet:	mark@umcp-cs 	UUCP:	{seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!mark
USPS: Computer Science Dept., University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

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

Date: Monday, 24 June 1985  16:22-MDT
From: Mark Roddy <harvard!talcott!panda!enmasse!mroddy@Seismo.ARPA>
Subject:   autodial on synchronous modems

I'm faced with a design question on implementing autodial for low speed
synch modems (i.e. 4800 bps.) 
	
The only synchronous modem I've got a spec for is a UDS 4800 model.
Dialout is accomplished by:
	1) driving pin 12 high;
	2) driving DTR high;
	3) waiting a specified time;
	4) raising pin 25 high for 3.5 seconds;
	5) providing high and low pulses on pin 25 corresponding to bell
	   standard pulse dial signals.

The questions are:
	
1) does anyone manufacture synchronous modems with some analogy  to the
Hayes protocol for async dial out?

2) Is UDS's method done by anyone else? (i.e. is this a standard?)

3) If the answer to question 2 is no, then is there a standard?

4) If the answer to 2 and 3 is no, then what dialout interface do
other netlanders provide for their intelligent comm boards?

5) In fact, even if the answer to 2 or 3 is yes, I'd be interested
in knowing how other people provide autodial for comm. boards.

Please send mail, if there is interest I will post a summary of responses
to the net.

Thanks.
-- 
					Mark Roddy
					(harvard!talcott!panda!enmasse!mroddy)

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

Date: Friday, 28 Jun 1985 06:02:59-PDT
From: goldstein%donjon.DEC@decwrl.ARPA  (Fred R. Goldstein)
Subject: LATA billing on calling cards

Re: V4I206;  Sunnyvale and Mill Valley are both in the same LATA
(Bay Area), so PacBell carries the call.  Area codes have no particular
relationship to LATAs except in New England, or where states are LATAs.
All of 415, most of 408 and a some of 707 are in one LATA.

When a calling card call is intra-LATA, the BOC who owns the call
passes the bill to the cardholder's BOC, hence the call appears on the
"New England Telephone" page.  When the call is inter-LATA, AT&T keeps
the billing under their own aegis.  Technically, one could have viewed
the call as "Pacific Bell", but New England Tel doesn't have a page
for them! ;-)

Fred

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

Date: Fri 28 Jun 85 12:28:40-PDT
From: HECTOR MYERSTON <MYERSTON@SRI-KL.ARPA>
Subject: Various

	Multi-NPA LATAS.  Some LATAS, more correctly, Serivice Areas, do
indeed split NPAs.  The SF Bay service area includes all of NPA 415 and
most, though not all of NPA 408.  Part of 408 is in the Monterey Ca serice
area.
	The last I heard the split on operators is as shown below.  Substitute
your local telco for Pacbell.

 Operators.................. AT&T ................... PacBell.............

Dial 0- Calls         Handle, charge Pacbell

Dial 0+ Calls         Handle

411 Calls                                             Handle

555-1212                                              Handle, charge AT&T (*)

...........................................................................

0 - = Regular Operator Assisted calss
0+  = 0+NPA NXX XXXX (ie credit card calls
*   = Other IEC may also contract with LEC for 555-1212 service

    Reference equal access.  Those who believe carrier sales pitches that
"With equal access we will have the same quality as AT&T" should examine
the question of what constitutes an end-to-end connection.  No amount of
improvement in the local acess will compensate for badly engineered 
networks, satellite delays or kludgy compression techniques designed to
wring the Nth channel out of a marginal system.

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End of TELECOM Digest
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