Telecom-Request%usc-eclc@brl-bmd.UUCP (12/24/83)
TELECOM Digest Saturday, 24 Dec 1983 Volume 3 : Issue 125
Today's Topics:
Uselessness of Blue-Boxing
Expanded local calling area
Portable tone generators vs. "blue boxes"
Re: Expanded local calling area
Blue Box Called Number Detection
Cheap semi-local service
examples of expanded local area
!! You can't expect 1200-Baud quality in a dial-up line !!
RING Back numbers in NYU Area
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Date: 22 Dec 1983 2141-EST
From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO>
Subject: Uselessness of Blue-Boxing
The scenario you have just described is not only possible, but it is
also a felony to describe it.
[Please, no more felonies on TELECOM, thanks. --JSol]
But the impact of Blue-boxing on the phone company has not only been
reduced by the enhanced detection schemes, it has also been more
significantly reduced by the drastic reduction in the number of
circuits using in-band signalling.
This has been done in two ways:
1. Many circuits which still use in-band signalling for the address
information no longer use in-band signalling for the supervisory
information, i.e. even though the MF tones are still used on the trunk
to dial the call, there's no tone which will clear down the call.
2. Many circuits a fully CCIS (Common Channel Interoffice Signalling).
In this system, there are data links between what are known as STPs
(Signal Transfer Points?) independent from the Trunks between
Switching Offices. This separate signalling network helps in call
setup, in alternate routing, etc. It is possible for the entire path
and circuit availability to be constructed before the circuits are
even set up.
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Date: Thu, 22 Dec 83 19:17:54 PST
From: Theodore N. Vail <vail@UCLA-CS>
Will Martin asks if he can buy an "enhancement to [his] phone service
to make calls to [an] exchange or number 'local' in effect, or give
... a present of a service enhancement that I would pay for, which
would make that phone the equivalent of 'local' to us."
General Telephone and Pacific Telephone provide a service, for
residential customers only, called "Optional Residential Telephone
Service" (ORTS). Until recently, (at least the General Telephone
version) allowed one to, among other things, purchase an "exchange",
within 30 miles, for a price ranging from about $3.75 to about $5.25
per month. This flat rate permitted unlimited toll-free calling to
the chosen exchange. At most 4 exchanges could be so purchased.
There were several other options and limitations. Now, without
changing the name ORTS, they "still" allow one to purchase an
"exchange" but, instead of unlimited toll-free calling, you get a
specified number of minutes to that exchange, and after those minutes
are used, a reduced toll-rate is provided.
You can also purchase a foreign exchange (FX) line. General Telephone
currently charges a mileage charge of $3.50 per quarter mile per month
(measured from the telephone to the boundary of the exchange from
where the service emanates). My FX (so that I can use a modem to call
in to UCLA) costs, all told about $48.00 per month. It also enables
people in the vicinity of UCLA to call me, free, when my modem isn't
tying up the line. General wants to raise the rates by a very large
amount (which is extremely to hard to compute from the information in
their rate filing.
Have you considered renting time from a satellite? Perhaps it would
be cheaper to install your own earth-bound microwave system?
vail
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Date: Fri, 23 Dec 1983 00:27 EST
From: DVW.STRAT%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA
Subject: Expanded local calling area
Will,
The latest that I've heard about FX service out here in DC,
VA, and MD, is that Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone is discontinuing
it, whether you have it now, or want it in the future.
A friend of mine in Maryland, outside of the DC Metro area is
being severely inconvenienced by this, because the majority of his
calls go to the DC Metro area.
From what I hear, C & P held a meeting for all subscribers to
FX service in his area, and didn't have any suggestions for
alternative service types, nor were they unduly concerned. I guess
they simply weren't deriving enough revenue from these services.
*sigh*
I hope that your search is more fulfilling than my friend's
has been so far.
--Bob--
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Date: Fri, 23 Dec 1983 00:54 EST
From: DVW.STRAT%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA
Subject: Portable tone generators vs. "blue boxes"
Will,
As regards people like the Mafia, and drug traffickers using blue
boxes, I'd like to quote from an Esquire article "Secrets of the
Little Blue Box", by Ron Rosenbaum.
[He was interviewing the "creator of the blue box"]
"I wish I could show you the prototype we made for our big syndicate
order." He sighs. "We had this order for a thousand beeper boxes from
a syndicate front man in Las Vegas. They use them to place bets coast
to coast, keep lines open for hours, all of which can get expensive if
you have to pay. The deal was a thousand blue boxes for $300 apiece.
Before then we retailed them for $1,500 apiece, but $300,000 in one
lump was hard to turn down. We had a manufacturing deal worked out in
the Philippines. Everything ready to go. Anyway, the model I had ready
for limited mass production was small enough to fit into a flip-top
Marlboro box. It had flush touch panels for a keyboard, rather than
these unsightly buttons sticking out. Looked just like a tiny protable
radio. In fact, I had designed it with a tiny transistor receiver to
get one AM channel, so in case the law became suspicious the owner
could switch on the radio part, start snapping his fingers, and no one
could tell anything illegal was going on. I thought of everything for
this model--I had it lined with a band of thermite which could be
ignited by radio signal from a tiny button transmitter on your belt,
so it could be burned to ashes instantly in case of a bust. It was
beautiful. A beautiful little machine. You should have seen the faces
on these syndicate guys when they came back after trying it out.
They'd hold it in their palm like they never wanted to let it go, and
they'd say 'I can't believe it. I can't believe it.' /You/ probably
won't believe it until you try it."
As you can see, there must have been a great deal of syndicate
blue boxing, (the article was written in 1973, I believe) but I have
no idea as to how much they still do. I'd expect that they'd have to
have some technician who keeps track of which areas have gone CCIS,
and therefore couldn't be reached or called from, as well as those
areas still functional. I'm not sure how cost effective this would be,
but then again, if you could spend $300K on hardware in 1973...
--Bob--
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 83 1:09:57 EST
From: BRINT <abc@brl-bmd>
Subject: Re: Expanded local calling area
I am in what might be called a "Small town" and have full Metropolitan
Baltimore dialing privileges (to and from) by paying a surcharge on my
monthly bill which is based on the mileage to the central office for
my exchange. Here, this is known as "foreign area exchange service" ,
and it is rumored that divestiture will abolish this because it is
considered a "long distance" service rightfully belongin to the long
distnce carriers and not to the local fone company.
By the way, can anyone confirm or deny this rumor?
Brint
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 83 23:13:23 pst
From: The tty of Phil Lapsley <jlapsley%D.CC@Berkeley>
Subject: Blue Box Called Number Detection
Again, I can only speak for Pacific Telephone land, but from what I
gather, the equipment drops trouble cards when multifrequency tones
(i.e., blue box tones) are sent at incorrect speeds. When a blue box
is used, it is generally done manually, with the duration of each tone
lasting as long as a given button is held down. However, this is not
the case with Bell's signalling equipment, which sends the tones at
specific digit/interdigital intervals (don't quote me, but I think 120
ms KP and ST, 68 ms digits).
So in any case, the system will flag the blue box calls as an
equipment malfunction. When the "equipment malfunction" is found not
to exist, I would presume the matter would be forwarded to Telco
security. The information they would then have would be the time the
call was placed, the number calling, and the "real" (or blue boxed)
number being called. Of course, they would also know what equipment
it was routed through.
I would not think organized crime would make too heavy use of blue
boxes, since it would tend to automatically flag their calls and draw
attention to them, while I would think they would want to keep a low
profile. Besides, it has been a while since I have seen an organized
crime king using a pay phone at 1 AM on a rainy morning.
Phil
------------------------------
Date: 22 Dec 1983 2020-PST
From: Lynn Gold <FIGMO@KESTREL>
Subject: Cheap semi-local service
I remember when I was growing up in NJ, it was common for two parties
who lived near enough to be local but far enough for their phone
service to be toll would have some kind of special line installed
whereby they could call each other cheaply (as if it were local).
There was a one- time charge for this, and for many people who had
situations similar to yours, it paid for itself quickly.
--Lynn
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Date: Fri, 23 Dec 83 8:20:55 EST
From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl-vld>
Subject: examples of expanded local area
I don't know the technical term, but I'll mention some examples I
know:
one-way--If you are in a Pa. (area 215) exchange immediately adjacent
to Phila. metro, you can obtain Phila. metro service. Dial 1+ for
numbers not already in your local area; calls from such numbers to
your phone are still long-distance. E.g. if you have such service
from Mendenhall (215-388), you dial 1+local number to reach Phila.,
and Phila. to 215-388 remains long-distance.
two-way--Available around the fringes of Baltimore & Washington areas.
E.g. the Aberdeen exchanges 301-272,273,278 are beyond Baltimore
calling area, but 575 has local service to & from Baltimore metro, not
just Balt. city. Note, however, that changing to 575 from the other
Aberdeen exchanges takes away local service to areas along the
Susquehanna (i.e. the direction opposite to Baltimore). 575 is also
available in Havre de Grace (301-939) but does not have local service
to 301-939.
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Date: Fri 23 Dec 83 15:34:18-CST
From: Werner Uhrig <CMP.WERNER@UTEXAS-20.ARPA>
Subject: !! You can't expect 1200-Baud quality in a dial-up line !!
Below follows an article which appeared on a
USENET-news-group. I think this might be of interest to this
group. I removed the author, not out of disrespect, but out
of respect for his possible dislike to publicity. It
addressess a topic I have recently addressed here, mainly:
"What level of quality of transmission service is the phone
company committed and obligated to provide".
Given that I'd like to build a black-box wich allows
communications over a regular dial-up line at higher than 1200
Baud, I started wondering, if something as what is described
below, is possible and if I have a right to demand from the
phone-company that they fix whatever may be causing it. My
concern was based in the sudden realization, that I am
"contracting" with the phone company for service, without ever
having gotten a contract for what I have a right to getting,
contrary to my usual habits when contracting for service.
Unfortunately, there was only one response I remember having
seen, which makes me wonder if this group is not getting
forwarded to USENET, where all the BELL-computers are
listening in ....
------------------------------- ( start of forwarded
msg )
Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Telecommunications and the Phone
Company Lines: 50
I recently installed a computer system in the little town of
Sugar Grove, IL. The phone company in this area is Illinois Bell
Telephone (name is good until Jan 1, anyway). To allow outside access
to this system, I also installed a UDS212A/D modem. The phone company
was notified of the installation and given the FCC registration number
and ringer equivalency number. Fine. I tried dialing into this system
from my home in Aurora, IL, about 15 mi. distant. Lo, and behold I get
garbage characters every 30-45 seconds at 1200bps!! I know the problem
isn't in the modems because they work fine between two Aurora
exchanges.
As a next step, I called 611 (repair service) and explained
the problem to them. Their answer was that they weren't obligated to
provide data quality service on a voice line. I explained that these
modems were designed to work on voice grade lines and they are used
all over the country to transmit and receive data on unconditioned
lines. Illinois Bell insisted that it's not their problem unless I
wanted to rent a conditioned line for data transmission.
After my anger had cooled down somewhat, I started thinking
about the implications of this sort of attitude on the part of
telephone companies. There are businesses which are getting into the
teletext and videotex markets and incorporate 212 type modems into
their products. Can you imagine some consumer buying one of these
products, finding out it won't work, and then being informed they
would have to rent a special conditioned line in order to use it?!!
This problem also extends into the home terminal market as well. The
phone company won't have to charge you for use of the modem, because
they can soak you for a special line!!!
Actually the problem to which I'm referring can't be too wide-
spread, or there wouldn't be any market for 212 type modems. The
problem is in a digital trunk between the Sugar Grove central office
and the Aurora office. The synchronizing clocks drift out of phase and
every so often re-synchronize themselves. It is at this point that
garbage shows up in the data. By 'digital trunk', I mean that the main
line between the two offices carries a digitally multiplexed signal of
voice traffic and is demultiplexed at both ends.
During regular voice communication and low-speed (<= 300bps)
data communication, the problem isn't noticeable. But due to the way
1200 bps data transmission is accomplished, the re-synchronizing
clocks mess up the data.
The result of all this is that I will have to work at 300bps
or pay for a conditioned line to work at 1200bps. THAT MAKES ME
ANGRY!!!!
[A suggestion: Try making a voice call to the line you are trying to
communicate via data with. If the connection is lousy THEN complain,
else you might try twiddling the intensity of the tones of the modems
(have an authorized person do this). You could just be getting a line
which isn't amplified properly. The Phone company is right, they don't
have to provide data communications, but it is possible to complain
about voice grade quality if it indeed is a problem. --JSol]
------------------------------
Date: 23 Dec 83 17:45 EST
From: Stephen Tihor <TIHOR@NYU-CMCL1.ARPA>
Subject: RING Back numbers in NYU Area
Does anyone know the current ringback number in the NYC area, esp.
Manhatten?
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End of TELECOM Digest
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