telecom@ucbvax.ARPA (09/07/84)
From: Jon Solomon (the Moderator) <Telecom-Request@MIT-MC>
TELECOM Digest Friday, 7 Sep 1984 Volume 4 : Issue 81
Today's Topics:
Equal Access
Re: A bug or a feature?
Bell 212A Modem DIP switches
CO feature & connection (responses)
4-Month Lead Time For 56 Kbps Lines
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Date: Wednesday, 5 Sep 1984 18:43:35-PDT
From: priborsky%bison.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Tony Priborsky)
Subject: Equal Access
How will WATS numbers fare with equal access? The blurb in a recent
newspaper article indicated that I will have to declare my long
distance carrier (having subscribed in advance to a non-AT&T carrier
if I so chose) will be accessed by 1-, same as AT&T. Will MCI
"forward" 800 calls over to AT&T? If so, will they charge for the
service? What about the 900 service?
Thanks... Tony.
[Most likely you will be told by the MCI switch to hang up and dial
10288-1-800 and the number. Yuck.--JSol]
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Date: Wednesday, 5 Sep 1984 19:03:38-PDT
From: nelson%quill.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Documents of Our Lives.)
Subject: Re: A bug or a feature?
In La Crosse, Wisconsin, the Century Telephone Corporation runs the
show.
I don't know what type of equipment they have; I do know that after I
would finish dialing a number (either rotary or tone), I would hear a
series of fast "beeps" which seemed to correspond to tones generated
by a touch-tone telephone.
Anyway, we had nearly the same results with dialing our own phone
number. A female voice would come on, saying
"You have dialed a party on your line. Please hang up the phone
and try again. If you need further assistance, dial your
operator.
This is a recording."
If we hung up right away, nothing happened. If we waited for a few
seconds before hanging up, the phone would be silent for a second,
then start ringing. When we picked it up, a clicking noise could be
heard. Hanging up would restore things back to normal.
I personally liked the feature; it was a great way to check out the
telephones I installed for friends, although I think the phone company
had intended it to be used by people who wanted to call each other,
but shared a party line.
Does anyone know how to get the ringback effect on 603-88y-xxxx? If
so, please let me know. I'm specifically looking for the 888 and 881
exchanges. Thanks.
JENelson
Wed 5-Sep-1984 22:15 EST
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Date: Thursday, 6 Sep 1984 05:19:09-PDT
From: waters%viking.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Lester Waters)
Subject: Bell 212A Modem DIP switches
"It's always a DIP switch!"
Does anyone out there have any info about the banks of DIP
switches contained in a Bell 212A 300/1200 baud modem? It would be
nice to have info on all the switches and their meanings, but in
particular, I am looking for a switch that controls the action of
whether or not to take the phone off the hook when Carrier is
Detected. Currently, If TR (Terminal Ready) is raised, and the phone
is taken off the hook, the modem takes the phone off the hook
internally to itself - thus preventing me from dialing the phone.
A while back, the modem used to wait for both TR (DTR) and CD
(Carrier Detect) before picking up the phone. I have a button on the
phone, much like a Hold button, which is pressed when the phone is
used as a data line (after dialing your destination and hearing the
carrier).
Any help would be appreciated.
- Lester -
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Date: Thursday, 6 Sep 1984 05:54:25-PDT
From: goldstein%donjon.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Fred R. Goldstein)
Subject: CO feature & connection (responses)
Ted Vail's observation about the new 5EAX ringback feature reminds me
of all the variations I've seen on that theme among "Bell" COs. It's
generally the policy of a CO (steppers may not be smart enough,
though) to allow a ringback number to be dialed, so people can adjust
bells, etc. It probably dates back to the days when telco installers
did everything! If they meant it for us peons to use, they'd have
documented it. But in Jersey Bell areas, the common technique was to
dial 550, wait for dial tone, rotary pulse (only) a "6", then hang up.
In a New York Tel CO I once lived near, you dialed your own number,
which returned a special tone and ringback. In Boston, you dial 98n
(n=0,1,2 or 3, depending on which CO) followed by the last four digits
of your own number. Etc. Always fun to know.
Re: Why the snit carriers usually sound so bad: Except for SBS and a
few local resellers, the bulk of the trivial carriers don't pay for
trunk-side (ENFIA-B/C, now Feature Group B) access to the local
networks, but hook up to the line side, rather like PBXs with remote
access features. Don't blame the telcos if line-side connections
(Feature Group A) sound cruddy; how do you think the snits keep their
costs down? Also, most are much more likely than ATTCOM to use
satellites (long delay), etc. Do blame the telcos if they don't make
trunk-side connections available, though; some LD carriers have had
problems getting them.
Re: Overseas hookup via radio: You're likely to have two major
problems with the foreign government trying to use a "long-range
cordless phone". One is that you'd need a license to use the radio
waves (cordless phones in the US are treated as "incidental radiation"
devices and allocated special frequencies; other countries don't).
Two is that you'd need permission to hook it up to the local telephone
network anyway, which is doubtful.
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Date: 6 Sep 84 15:57:50 EDT
From: dca-pgs @ DDN1.ARPA
Subject: 4-Month Lead Time For 56 Kbps Lines
I'm amazed that you could get them as fast as four months. When I was
with the DDN (until last June ) we were hearing 12-18 months.
XEROX-PARC must have more juice than the Defense Department...
-Pat Sullivan
Defense Switched Network (DSN)
<dca-pgs@ddn1>
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End of TELECOM Digest
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