telecom@ucbvax.ARPA (06/28/85)
From: Moderator <Telecom-REQUEST@MIT-XX.ARPA>
TELECOM Digest Thursday, June 27, 1985 5:11PM
Volume 4, Issue 206
Today's Topics:
Quality of 1+ vs. 10xxx; voting hack
Panasonic Phones and Modems
equal access confusion
Also need MD212+ schemos
Re: Panasonic Phones and Modems
AT+T Communications billing
Re: TELECOM Digest V4 #204
news: IBM sells SBS to MCI for stock and options
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Date: Tue 25 Jun 85 20:19:31-EDT
From: S.PAE@MIT-EECS
Subject: Quality of 1+ vs. 10xxx; voting hack
According to MCI's customer service representatives, calls going
through 10xxx service will have the same quality that I would get if I
chose MCI as my primary carrier (for 1+ service). Is this
correct--does New England Telephone just do a lookup when I dial 1+ to
get my primary carrier, but then use exactly the same mechanism to
establish the circuit that 10xxx service uses?
The representative I talked with had NEVER had anyone ask her a question
about connection quality. Either most customers are oblivious to the issue
or everyone aware enough to ask knows to not trust the answers they give.
For folks who are presently using Expressphone (AMEX MCI) service, the
only screw of 10xxx/1+ access is that the billing for those will come
through your local carrier. Charges coming through this mechanism will
not be added in with your other Expressphone charges for volume discounts.
Unless you want the discounts, 10xxx/1+ sounds like the right way to access
MCI from your billing telephone.
There seem to be some not-yet-discussed problems with equal access.
Do the carriers have data about how many customers in a given area
they can reasonably expect to service adequately? What happens if they
get too many subscribers? What criteria do these companies have to
have before they can be on an area's equal access ballots? What if all
the hackers in an area conspire to go with the most baroque (least
desirable) carrier in an area just to hack the people who don't vote?
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Date: Tue 25 Jun 85 22:26:44-EDT
From: Bob Soron <Mly.G.Pogo@MIT-OZ>
Subject: Panasonic Phones and Modems
I've used two Panasonic "ITS Easa-Phones" with my Timecor
modem (I'm not proud) and have had very few problems. The
Panasonic phones use batteries and even without either
batteries or phone line connection have kept the numbers
in memory for four or five hours. The KX-2220, which had
sixteen-phone-number memory and auto-redial, stopped working
with the modem when I moved from Arlington to Watertown; I
attributed it to the higher ringer equivalence of that phone
(1.6). The 2340 works fine on these lines, although it
doesn't have auto-redial, which I miss since the Timecor
modem has nothing in the way of features. (Its REN is 1.0.)
In short, if my experience holds you should have no trouble
combining your modem with a Panasonic ITS/Easa-phone...
...Bob
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Date: Wed, 26 Jun 85 09:44 EDT
From: Kovalcik@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (Richard Kovalcik, Jr.)
Subject: equal access confusion
I had been trying to call a 900 number for the last week and kept on
getting a fast busy. In a fit of inspiration this morning I decided to
try a long distance credit card call. (This itself would have presented
some problems, since New England Telephone has for the third time gotten
my ATT calling cards for both of my home phone lines messed up. It
seems that they have a lot of trouble with people who move.) This (the
credit card call) also gave me a fast busy. I then realized that they
had probably switched me over to my chosen equal access carrier
(Sprint). I called the business office and asked what was going on and
what the ATT access code was. They couldn't tell me. They suggested I
call ATT. I called the Operator. She couldn't tell me either and
suggested I call ATT (for the access code). I called ATT. They told me
their access code (10ATT) and tried to convince me to switch back to
ATT. I called Sprint. They told me the 700 test number to see if I was
connected to them. (700-555-4141). That gets a fast busy too. At this
point I tryied a normal long distance call and that got a fast busy. I
know that I had been making long distance calls over the last week, but
they were all apparently to 800 numbers. So, it now appears that I have
a phone where the only long distance call I can make with out dialing a
special equal access prefix is an 800 call. I wonder how long it will
take them to get this straightened out.
It seems to me that the local access companies and ATT are making this
considerably harder than it has to be.
-Rick (my equal access carrier is limbo) Kovalcik
------------------------------
Date: 26 Jun 85 17:18:14 EDT
From: Stephen Carter <SCARTER@RUTGERS.ARPA>
Subject: Also need MD212+ schemos
>Monmouth College is in need of the schematics (or any other technical
>information) for the Ven-Tel MD 212 PLUS modem (specifically, one of
>the older models in the black case).
I am also in the same position, so if any other kind person out there
has schemos and a user manual for these things, I would appreciate
a copy also.... A user's guide would be most helpful.
thanks
SCarter
Arpa: SCarter@Rutgers.Arpa
uucp: ...{seismo,allegra,ihnp4!packard}!topaz!scarter
AT&T: 201-932-2260
USnail: Rutgers State University
Lab for Computer Science Research
Hill Center Room 605, Busch Campus
Piscataway, NJ 08854
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 85 09:44:12 EDT
From: sasaki@harvard.ARPA (Marty Sasaki)
Subject: Re: Panasonic Phones and Modems
Thanks for the very specific advice. I'll probably go and claim
my rain-check for the phone this afternoon.
Marty Sasaki
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 85 18:04:22 EDT
From: Jim Berets <jberets@bbn-vax>
Subject: AT+T Communications billing
Perhaps this has already been discussed when I wasn't paying attention...
I recently got my New England Telephone bill. While in California,
I made a number of calls on my calling card. Among them:
Berkeley, CA (415) to CT (203) on the AT+T Communications billing page
Palo Alto, CA (415) to West LA, CA (213) on the AT+T Communications page
Mill Valley, CA (408) to Sunnyvale, CA (415) on the NET page
Redondo Beach, CA (213) to West LA, CA (213) on the NET page
Are parts of (408) and (415) in the same LATA, making the Mill Valley
to Sunnyvale call "local"?
Jim
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From: ecsvax!etaoin%mcnc.csnet@csnet-relay.ARPA
Date: 26 Jun 85 9:24:07-EDT (Wed)
Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V4 #204
Re: Operators - most work for AT&T; I don't know what the BOC's have
done, but GTE still operates a few class 4 switches and is leasing those
switches and attendant operators' services to AT&T. I assume that the
other independents (Centel, United, etc) still have operators?
Re: Calling # identification - Is an option which varies with telco
and site; I have seen XXX-9999 and many 3-digit ones such as 538 & 711.
Michael Auman
------------------------------
Date: Thu 27 Jun 85 15:43:27-CDT
From: Werner Uhrig <CMP.WERNER@UTEXAS-20.ARPA>
Subject: news: IBM sells SBS to MCI for stock and options
[ from Austin American Statesman - June 26, 1985 ]
IBM to acquire major stake in MCI
=================================
(David Sanger - NY Times) ...IBM announced it is buying 18% of MC with an
option to expand its holding to 30%.
The acquisition instantly makes IBM one of the biggest players in the
turbulent long distance market at a time, when AT&T is struggling to enter
IBM's territory. IBM's investment in MCI comes less than 8 months after the
world's largest computer company completed its acquisition of the Rolm Corp.,
a maker of complex telephone switching ecquipment that had been another major
rival of AT&T.
Under the terms announced Tuesday, MCI will get virtually all assets of one of
its competitors, Satellite Business Systems, a long-distance telephone service
started in 1975 by IBM, Comsat, and Aetna. Comsat dropped out of the
money-losing venture last year, and IBM said Tuesday that, as part of the
financial arrangements, it was buying out Aetna's share.
If the Justice Dept and the FCC approves, IBM will swap SBS's assets for 45
million newly issued shares of MCI common stock - worth about $427 million at
Tuesday's closing price. IBM will also receive warrants entitling it to buy 7
million more shares of MCI common for $15 a share.
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End of TELECOM Digest
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