Telecom-Request%usc-eclc@brl-bmd.UUCP (Telecom-Request@usc-eclc) (11/18/83)
TELECOM Digest Friday, 18 Nov 1983 Volume 3 : Issue 102
Today's Topics:
Phone Ring back
costs of local service
Keypad arrangements
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Date: 16 Nov 1983 0549-PST
From: Chris <Pace@USC-ECLC>
Subject: Phone Ring back
I would also be interested in phone-ring-back for (714)995
exchange, if anyone has it...
Tnx in advance,
Chris.
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Date: 15 Nov 83 15:55:47 EST (Tue)
From: cbosgd!mark@Berkeley (Mark Horton)
Subject: costs of local service
Does anyone actually have some good ballpark figures on what it costs
a local phone company (maintenence and depreciation) to keep your
local loop, CO, and inter-CO trunk going, and what it "costs" to
operate them on a usage-sensitive basis? I guess my problem is that I
see local rates going up from $10/month to $20/month (wildly varying
from place to place) plus an additional $2 to $8 for this "access
charge". I don't see how part of the added cost is for your local
loop and the other part is just increased local cost. Does TPC really
spend $20/month on my local loop plus my share of the CO? It seems to
me that most of the time my line just sits there underground and
doesn't do anything - rarely they might have to send somebody out to
repair some cable of which my wire is part.
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Date: 17-Nov-1983 12:14
From: decwrl!rhea!castor!j_covert@Shasta
Subject: Keypad arrangements
The reason the keypad in most places is organised opposite from
calculators is that Bell Laboratories (and I've also been told that
the CCITT also) did studies to determine the error rate with several
dial arrangements.
The Bell Labs studies included the calculator dial, dials arranged
circularly (so that the buttons would be in the same place as the
holes in a regular dial), and a few other arrangements.
The currently most common configuration was the one with the lowest
error rate.
However, it should be pointed out that these studies were done in the
late 50s/early 60s, long before calculators were as common as they are
now.
I don't know how different the studies would have been if calculators
had been more common. Even today, many more people use telephones
often than use calculators often.
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End of TELECOM Digest
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