telecom@ucbvax.ARPA (02/01/85)
From: Jon Solomon (the Moderator) <Telecom-Request@BBNCCA>
TELECOM Digest Thu, 31 Jan 85 16:21:28 EST Volume 4 : Issue 152
Today's Topics:
threats AT&T has against non-payers
AT&T Equipment rental
Push-button (not touch-tone) info needed
T1 circuit requirements
ATT and billing
T1 device offered by DEC = DMZ32
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Date: 30 Jan 1985 1402-PST
From: Richard M. King <DKING@KESTREL.ARPA>
Subject: threats AT&T has against non-payers
To: telecom@MIT-MC.ARPA
In many places AT&T has a contract with the local phone company; in
return for X dollars the local company performs the billing. Part of what
they may promise to do for this money is to disconnect people for whom AT&T
can demonstrate a large unpaid balance.
Why do people bother to pay their bill? Because people are honest,
by and large. What moral justification can you find for not paying the
rental charge on a phone, after having made a cognitive decision not to
buy one?
Someone sophisticated enough to work out that you don't have to pay
the bill, if indeed that is the case, would have been sophisticated enough to
buy their phone long ago.
The only class of people left are those who are too poor to pay the
bill. If, indeed, nonpayment of the phone rental charge makes no trouble, I
suspect that this fact is already well known in the low-rent district.
Dick
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From: ima!johnl@bbncca
Date: Wed Jan 30 22:43:00 1985
Subject: AT&T Equipment rental
To: bbncca!telecom
If I were AT&T, which lord knows I'm not, I'd cut off long distance service
to people who don't pay their equipment rental bills. (This assumes that
AT&T's tandem equipment can be trained to allow and disallow calls depending on
calling number; at this point I believe only SBS checks at the time of the call
that the calling number is one which SBS knows how to bill -- ITT has billing
arrangements with the BOCs for users who are not presubscribed, and who knows
what the other ones do. But I digress.)
At the moment, most customers, even within equal access areas, don't really
understand that AT&T isn't the only way to call out of town, but that will
change eventually.
I suspect that within a year or two the long distance carriers will have to get
together and exchange lists of deadbeats. It's already very easy to subscribe
to MCI and not pay the bill until they cut you off, then to ITT, then to
SPRINT, then to SBS, and so forth. When equal access is widespread,
people will find out that when 10288 (AT&T) stops working because they didn't
pay, they can just try other different 10XXX until they
find another company that will let them through, and so on.
Any company that doesn't make some arrangement to avoid picking up other
carriers' nonpaying customers will end up with a clientele of deadbeats.
Just you wait and see.
Anarchically,
John Levine, ima!johnl or Levine@YALE.ARPA
PS: It'll be fun in the meantime. Expect the LD companies to push for
absurd political solutions to their sloppy billing problems before they
clean up their act.
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Date: 30 Jan 85 10:50:57 EDT (Wed)
From: Nathaniel Mishkin <apollo!mishkin@uw-beaver.arpa>
Subject: Push-button (not touch-tone) info needed
To: apollo!Telecom@bbncca.arpa
My parents have two phone lines into their house. All the Bell-installed
phones are rotary and (what the phone company calls) "push-button" (i.e.
they have a row of buttons along the bottom to select which line you
want). They also have a HOLD button. They (and the random equipment
that supports the hold feature) are presently leased from ATT (which
apparently doesn't let you buy this sort of equipment).
My parents would like to get new, touch-tone phones but apparently neither
ATT nor NY Telephone has anything to offer that satisfies their need.
My question: in these modern times, does any company offer some sensible
piece of equipment that addresses this need? Something like a scaled-down
version of the phone systems many small businesses now get: normal-looking
touch-tone phones with no row of buttons that all connect to a central
box (using the standard 4-wire cable and connectors) that does hold and
line selection?
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Date: Thursday, 31 Jan 1985 06:07:33-PST
From: goldstein%donjon.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Fred R. Goldstein)
To: telecom@bbncca.ARPA
Subject: T1 circuit requirements
There are a couple of restrictions on T1 circuits that make it less
than a simple data circuit. ATTCOM's tariff specifies that you must
use "D4" or "Extended framing" format, unless you're a government
agency, on their inter-LATA lines. The BOCs are often looser,
especially on intraexchange circuits which don't really go through any
of their multiplex equipment.
The key to these formats is that the 1.544 Mbps is divided into 24
channels, each 8 bits x 8000 samples per second. After 24 octets
are sent, there's a "framing bit", for a total of 193 bits/frame.
The framing bits in turn constitute a specific pattern that repeats
every 12 (old) or 24 (extended) frames. This is further divided
into a repeating bit pattern (which the terminals use to synchronize
on) and other information (extended framing supports a slow speed
diagnostic channel made up of framing bits). The Channel Service
Unit knows what this is all about, and you need one (or equivalent
functionality) on both ends of an ATTCOM T1 circuit.
Beyond that, there's a 10% "one's density" rule, and a "15 consecutive
zeroes" rule. This is necessary because the circuit is isochronous
(self-clocking), deriving its clock from the data. A one is a pulse,
and a zero is a nothing. Alternate pulses invert direction (bipolar).
All of this allows 1.5 Mbps to run 6000 feet on twisted pair, which
makes it kinda funny when people take the RS-232 "50 foot @9600 bps"
seriously for async applications.
There is a DEC board (CPI-32) that plugs into the VAX and hooks
directly to a T1 circuit. It derives 24 subchannels, and is mainly
intended to be used for a PBX interface. CPI also meets all
of the framing & ones density requirements. It was discussed in the
March-April 1984 issue of Business Communications Review.
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Date: Thu 31 Jan 85 12:29:57-PST
From: Chris <Pace@USC-ECLC.ARPA>
Subject: ATT and billing
To: telecom@BBNCCA.ARPA
Actually, I suspect they would just turn it over to a
collection agency. If publishers can "quibble" over
books that cost <$10, why cant they? If nothing else,
they will be happy to write you a letter and hassle your
credit rating.
Chris.
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Date: Thursday, 31 Jan 1985 06:49:00-PST
From: potucek%nisysg.DEC@decwrl.ARPA
To: telecom-request@bbncca
Subject: T1 device offered by DEC = DMZ32
To All of those who thought DEC was sleeping:
Digital has a T1 interface called the DMZ32 which is a Unibus to T1 I/O
"The purpose of this equipment is to multiplex/demultiplex 24 standard
(RS-232-C/V.28)low-speed asynchronous data lines (up to 19.2K baud) onto
a high-speed, time-division multiplexed (TDM) trunk. The TDM trunk interface
is compatible eith the North American Standard T1/DS-1 carrier that operates
at 1.544M bits/s. Up to nine modem-control signals per low-speed line can be
multiplexed/demultiplexed by the H3014 remote distribution panel without
interfering with data transmission."
/jmp
John M. Potucek
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End of TELECOM Digest
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