Telecom-Request%usc-eclc@brl-bmd.UUCP (Telecom-Request@usc-eclc) (10/19/83)
TELECOM Digest Wednesday, 19 Oct 1983 Volume 3 : Issue 78
Today's Topics:
Telephone Company Unplugged.
Re: Ringing my phone
WWV toll free
Md. FX
ringing your own phone
Re: Dialing arrangements
installation of service
DC area code
Trade Unions and Competition in the U.K.
Telephones in the PRC
help with cheap 1200 baud modem
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 17 Oct 1983 21:13-PDT
Subject: Telephone Company Unplugged.
From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow
Reply-to: Geoff@SRI-CSL
Tiny Phone Firm Closed by State with Customers 15 Years on Hold
FRUITDALE, Ala. (AP) - This tiny town's telephone company has been
told to hang it up because state officials say some would-be callers
have been put on hold as long as 15 years waiting for a dial tone.
''This is the sorriest phone system I ever saw in my life,'' said
Billy Coaker, a Fruitdale resident who has complained for years about
the poor service. ''They ran a line to my house in September of '79.
It was four years ago, and they haven't put a phone in my house yet.''
Last Friday the Alabama Public Service Commission ordered the
Fruitdale Telephone Co. to shut down and let somebody take over the
phone business in the southwest Alabama community.
The 200 customers of the Fruitdale system live about one hour's
drive north of Mobile in a sparsely populated area where you can go
for five miles without seeing a house. The company never fully
recovered from damage inflicted by Hurricane Frederic in 1979, and
unsuccessfully sought federal loans for repairs.
The owner of the independent phone company, A. B. Miller of
Leakesville, Miss., was unavailable for comment Monday. His secretary
said he was out of town.
In Montgomery, PSC Commissioner Lynn Greer said he expects Miller
to appeal the order. It was the first time the PSC has ever voted to
shut down one of the state's 38 telephone companies.
Greer said Fruitdale's equipment was outdated, with some telephone
lines ''strung on fence posts.''
''It's been going on for years,'' Greer said. ''We've had hearing
after hearing, trying to give him a chance. Some of those people have
been waiting 15 years to get a telephone.''
Miller, who also operates the tiny Mississippi Telephone Corp.,
had about 200 customers in Alabama. He did not attend Friday's PSC
hearing.
About 700 people had signed petitions calling on the PSC and Gov.
George C. Wallace to help them get phones.
''I am most distressed at the news,'' said Robert Richard of
Montgomery, Miller's attorney. He said a decision on what action to
follow would likely be made this week after he has had a chance to
read the PSC order carefully.
The company had applied unsuccessfully for ''loan after loan'' and
was unable to serve the approximately 600 potential customers in
Washington County and northern Mobile County, Greer said.
Presumably, another independent, Millry Telephone Co., will take
over. The PSC two years ago declared the area ''open territory,''
allowing any phone company to apply for servicing the area.
''I don't know whether we have any competition or not,'' said
Millry business manager Ed Williams. Millry serves about 4,000
customers.
Two years ago, the Mississippi Public Service Commission suspended
Miller's certificate to operate in that state. The case was appealed
to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which overturned the suspension
after ruling the PSC did not give proper due process to Miller.
Recently, the Mississippi PSC suspended Miller's certificate a
second time, and Miller again has appealed the decision.
Miller has a ''few hundred'' customers in the Mississippi
Telephone Corp., which was also accused of ''poor service,'' said
Brian Ray, a Mississippi PSC spokesman.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 83 2:32:47 EDT
From: Ron Natalie <ron@brl-vgr>
Subject: Re: Ringing my phone
They way it works around here (C&P Telephone of MD) is that there are
"ring back" exchanges. There are a few exchanges that are reserved
for these numbers, but the one that works varies from exchange to
exchange and is changed periodically. What you do is dial the speical
exchange followed by the last four digits of your telephone number.
You will get a dial tone back immediately. Hang up your telephone
momentarily and you will get a higher pitched tone. Hang up again and
the phone will ring. Exchanges that have worked in the past are (446,
958, 998, and 999). Perhaps Carl Moore can tell you which one your
exchange uses.
-Ron
------------------------------
Date: 17 Oct 1983 14:18:31-PDT (Monday)
From: David Palmer <PALMER.SJRLVM4.IBM@Rand-Relay>
Subject: WWV toll free
Frank: In response to your query of some days ago, WWV can
be reached toll free at 800-957-9999.
This info came from net.ham-radio on the USENET.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 83 8:57:26 EDT
From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl-vld>
Subject: Md. FX
Is that the 621 exchange you have in Baltimore to provide DC area
local service?
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 83 12:01:43 EDT
From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl-vld>
Subject: ringing your own phone
I think dialing 959-xxxx from my (Delaware area 302) phone yielded one
ring after I hung up. (I do not recall seeing 959 in use as an
exchange in the normal sense of the word in any area code.)
------------------------------
Date: 18 Oct 83 9:28:02 PDT (Tuesday)
From: Lynn.es@PARC-MAXC.ARPA
Subject: Re: Dialing arrangements
I have a phone with a dial of the 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 variety (matches
Covert's NZ dial). I was told it was European when I bought it. The
only identification on the outside is "Telegrafverket", which I
guessed to be German. Inside, the parts are marked with a script EB,
sort of run together.
I also have a phone made by Telefonfabrik Automatic in Copenhagen that
has the US order of digits on the dial.
/Don Lynn
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 83 14:38:05 EDT
From: cmoore@brl-vld
Subject: installation of service
Recently, I moved my phone (individual line, along with secretarial
line running from central office to answering service switchboard),
and asked that the secretarial line remain connected so I could still
receive phone messages. However, I had to spend the night without any
phone service; calling my own number from another phone yielded "At
the customer's request, <number> has been temporarily disconnected."
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 83 14:41:32 EDT
From: cmoore@brl-vld
Subject: DC area code
Someone was wondering a while ago why DC (202 area) is not among the
easiest-to-dial area codes. Notice that if a state or province has
only 1 1 area code, it is N0X; except for 201 in northern NJ, 202 is
the easiest-to-dial N0X code.
------------------------------
Date: 18 Oct 1983 1629-EDT
From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO>
Subject: Trade Unions and Competition in the U.K.
Background: Up until recently, British Telecom (currently government
owned, formerly part of the post office, separate for the last few
years, due to be sold (51%) on the London Stock Exchange soon) had a
100% monopoly on telecommunications of all types in the U.K. Now, all
of the changes that have happened in the U.S. since 1964 until now
(but not including what's happening next January) will happen in the
U.K.
Mercury is a private long distance carrier, ala MCI.
Engineer is the term used in the U.K. where we would use installer,
repairman, or craftsperson.
>From an article in the October issue of Telecommunications:
British Telecom engineers have begun a campaign of industrial action
against the parent comanies of Mercury, the private telephone network.
The Post Office Engineering Union said its members would "black" all
maintenance and installation work at British Petroeum's Britannic
House headquarters, four buildings belonging to Cable and Wireless,
and the Barclays Bank computer center, all in London. The union is
opposed to the interconnection of Mercury and the public network.
------------------------------
Date: 18 Oct 1983 1836-EDT
From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO>
Subject: Telephones in the PRC
The following are a few excerpts from an article entitled "China
Improving Communications Services" by Liu Hua in Beijing (Peking),
which appeared in the October 1983 issue of Telecommunications:
China still has limited communications facilities... In the 30 or so
major Chinese cities, the supply of telephones now averages 2.1 for
every 100 persons; phone calls in these cities have only a 50 percent
chance of immediate service.
Approximately 400,000 subscribers were added in the cities during the
past two years... Shanghai alone installed more than 20,000
telephones, equalling the total added in the city during the previous
30 years.
In 1982, the southeastern province of Fujian bought a
program-controlled automated telephone exchange from Japan that can
simultaneously handle 10,000 telephone calls. Waiting time for a
telephone call from Fuzhou [the provincial capital] to Hongkong is now
nine minutes, compared to more than 20 in 1980. Fujian will soon
establish telephone communications with 41 countries and regions.
China intends to give priority to the expansion of the telephone
service in 12 big cities. This will provide service for government
offices and industrial and business establishments, expand the public
telephone service, and increase the number of private telephones. The
number of telephones for every 100 residents in the major cities will
rise from only four to 20 by the year 2000. In the rural areas, the
aim is to provide facilities for at least one subscriber in every
village.
By the year 2000, the development plan of the Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications seeks to achieve a total of 20 million telephone
subscribers, compared with 4.2 million in 1980.
Cities above the county-seat level will gradually get automatic
dialling of long-distance calls, and in big cities, such advanced
technologies as program-controlled digital electronic exchanges,
digital transmission, and optical-fiber transmission will be used.
"We'll strive for immediate placement of international telephone
calls," said Wen Minsheng, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications.
------------------------------
From: vortex!lauren at RAND-UNIX
Date: Monday, 17-Oct-83 14:18:43-PDT
Subject: help with cheap 1200 baud modem
When you get things very cheaply, there's usually a good reason.
Unless you have another one of those same bizarre modems around, you
are probably out of luck. That unit runs a half-duplex protocol... it
expects a true 4-wire connection for communications in a "full-duplex"
sort of mode. It is (as far as I know) not compatible with Vadic
3400, Bell 212A, or any other 1200bps true FULL-duplex protocols.
Sorry about that.
--Lauren--
------------------------------
End of TELECOM Digest
*********************