telecom@ucbvax.ARPA (01/06/85)
From: Jon Solomon (the Moderator) <Telecom-Request@BBNCCA>
TELECOM Digest Sun, 6 Jan 85 0:27:08 EST Volume 4 : Issue 142
Today's Topics:
Orlando call return service
511
New Countries Dialable by AT&T soon
TOUCHSTAR--A New Ripoff?
TOUCHSTAR Codes?
New Safety for Pacific Bell Calling Card Users
Long-haul: analog or digital?
Low price for telephones
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Date: Wed, 2-Jan-85 16:24:12 PST
From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@RAND-UNIX.ARPA>
Subject: Orlando call return service
To: TELECOM@BBNCCA
Hmmm. That service seems to have a rather serious potential problem.
Since you don't know the phone number of the person who just called
you (that you didn't answer), you have no way to know HOW EXPENSIVE
a return call will be initiated. And you won't know unless you get
through to the other end. Of course, if you could see the person's
number ahead of time (the number of the person who TRIED to call you)...
But *useful* calling number display services would seem to be some
ways off, and then the legal hassles will start... (For example, would
you want every store you called with a random query to record your
number and add you to their phone inquiry database?)
--Lauren--
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From: hou4b!dwl@Berkeley (d.w.levenson)
To: TELECOM@BBNCCA
Date: 2 Jan 1985 8:30 EST
Subject: 511
Another contributor asks why, when he dials 511, his phone was left
completely dead for some time. While 511 does not do that in New
Jersey, there is a longer number which does. The effect is that the
line is left with no battery, no ground, and a very high-impedance
termination at the central office for 30 - 45 seconds (depending
upon which CO, I think). This is a useful option for field repair
craft. When trying to find a short to ground, a short between tip
and ring, or any one of a great many potential loop faults, it is
much simpler if the line can be temporarily disconnected from the
CO. Our friend in Florida has probably discovered a code which
allows field craft to disconnect the CO (for a limited time) from a
line under test without bothering the CO craft.
Dave Levenson
AT&T-ISL, Holmdel
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Date: 03-Jan-1985 2158
From: covert%castor.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (John Covert)
To: telecom@bbncca.ARPA
Subject: New Countries Dialable by AT&T soon
Nine new countries go dialable by AT&T on 2 February:
Brunei 673
Gibraltar 350
Lesotho 266
St. Pierre & Miquelon 508
Swaziland 268
Tanzania 255
Uganda 256
Zambia 260
Zimbabwe 263
Useful information, no? (Actually, St. Pierre & Miquelon interests me;
I'd like to go there some day. Gibraltar, too.)
/john
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Date: Thu, 3 Jan 85 16:56:26 EST
From: The Home Office of <abc@BRL-TGR.ARPA>
To: telecom@bbncca.ARPA
Subject: TOUCHSTAR--A New Ripoff?
I suppose fairness dictates a "wait and see" attitude since the Bell
"System" isn't much of a system any more. Nevertheless, TOUCHSTAR, as
reported here, allows tracing of annoying (or any) telephone calls
received at your phone. But now they want $9.00 for it! Some years
back, we were plagued with criminally-annoying phone calls at home; the
local BOC installed some sort of "tracer" at the central office to
log time and source number of incoming calls. The only requirement was
that we first report the annoying calls to the police and agree to
prosecute the perpetrator. We then reported date and time of annoying
calls and the phone co. compared these with their logs. No suspect was
ever identified, but that's now it worked.
Now, it sounds like we'll have to pay for "protection?"
Brint
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Date: 4 Jan 1985 14:30-PST
Subject: TOUCHSTAR Codes?
From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow <Geoff@SRI-CSL.ARPA>
To: telecom@MC
I'd be interested in seeing a complete list and laconic
description of all the various TOUCHSTAR codes. Anyone in the
Orlando area have the poop or be willing to *88 and transcribe?
g
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Date: 4-Jan-85 15:42 PST
From: Steve Kleiser <SGK.TYM@OFFICE-2.ARPA>
Subject: New Safety for Pacific Bell Calling Card Users
To: TELECOM@BBNCCA
From the December 1984 issue of Openline (insert with bills).
QUOTE:
We've come up with two new ideas that will make your Pacific Bell Calling Card
even safer to carry and use.
One idea involves something *we've* done. The other is a simple thing that
we're strongly recommending *you* do. Both ideas have the same objective:
keeping your Personal Identification Number (PIN) *your* personal secret.
What *we've* done is this: all Pacific Bell Calling Cards issued from now on
will be printed *without* a PIN on the card itself. Instead, the PIN will be
printed on the holder that the card is mailed in. If you receive this new card,
it will be necessary for you to treat the PIN number on the holder just as you
would other personal identification numbers you may have used - memorize it,
and then keep the printed version in a safe place. (It's not a good idea to
carry your written PIN on your person unless you disquise it so only you can
figure it out.)
Now, here's what *you* can do if you already have a Pacific Bell Calling Card
with your PIN printed on it: First, *memorize* your PIN, then write it
somewhere safe. Then simply erase the PIN from your Calling Card. It will rub
right off using any ordinary pencil eraser. Your card will then be as safe and
secure as the new ones.
UNQUOTE
[note: this is not the AT&T hard plastic card, but the same thing (same number)
on a flimsy plastic card with Pacific's name on it. Amazing - they're finally
getting smart??]
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Date: 4 Jan 85 18:17:08 PST
From: Murray.pa@XEROX.ARPA
Subject: Long-haul: analog or digital?
To: telecom@BBNCCA.ARPA
Cc: Murray.pa@XEROX.ARPA
From TELECOM Digest of 24-Dec: "most long-haul toll circuits are still
analog".
Is that really true? I'd really expect things to be mostly digital by
now. I have been hearing about digital stuff for many many years, and
long distance traffic has been growing at a huge rate for as long as I
can remember. Even with a large pile of existing equipment at the start,
the compounding should make it mostly digital by now.
Does anybody have the statistics handy and/or can you tell me where to
look to get it?
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Date: Sat, 5 Jan 85 15:38:16 PST
From: "Theodore N. Vail" <vail@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA>
To: telecom@bbncca.arpa
Subject: Low price for telephones
While I have seen numerous telephones for sale at under $10.00, they
have always been (until today) the "made in Singapore" variety with an
expected lifetime of about one year. Today the Broadway Department
Store (a local chain not noted for low prices) is selling model 500 dial
telephones for $9.95 and model 2500 touchtone phones for $24.95. They
bear the PacTel label and are obviously the same quality as the old
Western Electic telephones with the same model numbers. They are built
like battleships and have an expected life (to first failure) of about
20 years. Moreover, they can be fixed if they break. Across the aisle,
essentially identical AT&T telephones were selling for three times as
much.
Is PacTel giving up selling the old-fashioned sturdy telephones?
ted
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End of TELECOM Digest
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