TELECOM@Usc-Eclb.ARPA (04/01/83)
TELECOM AM Digest Saturday, 2 April 1983 Volume 3 : Issue 19
Today's Topics: Clarification - Stat Muxing
Product Info - DEMON Dialer(r)
Pricing Query - Telex And TWX
Telephone Purchase Prices--Washington
Query Reply - Some TSPS info
Verfication Of Third Number Calls From Public Phones
FCC Ruling Info - Access Charges
Technical Query - Multi-Device Hookups
Response Query - Access Fees
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Date: 26 Mar 1983 1048-EST
From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO>
Subject: Stat muxing
AT&T uses stat muxing exclusively on undersea cable. It is not used
anywhere in the domestic network.
Articles in the Bell Labs publications do not mean that the technology
described is in use in the network. The phone company implements its
systems in the real world, under real world marketing considerations.
The equipment to do TASI is not cost effective on terrestrial
circuits.
Newer TASI equipment is now available which makes it cost effective
for END-USERS to use TASI over leased circuits. This is usually only
the case for very long haul (e.g. Massachusetts to Colorado or Puerto
Rico) where the TARIFFED price of the circuit makes the circuit much
more expensive than the cost to the carrier to provide the service.
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Date: 24 March 1983 00:09 EST
From: Mitch Wolrich <MITCHW @ MIT-MC>
Subject: DEMON Dialer(r)
To: MERRITT @ USC-ISIB
Remailed-Date: 28 Mar 1983 0959-PST
Remailed-From: Ian H. Merritt <MERRITT@USC-ISIB>
The address of Zoom Telephonics is:
Zoom Telephonics
122 Bowdoin Street
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 523-6281
DEMON Dialer Model 176T Quantity 1-3 $200, Greater than 4, $121
(I have used one of these, they aren't bad, but Ma Bell speed dialing
is better and you are correct about how they work; you type in a speed
dialing code, it seizes your line and does the retries, BTW, you also
have to leave your phone off the hook... Thats how it signals you to
pick up your phone when it suceeds, It make a LOUD audible noise..
They at least should have been able to make it do some sort of
distinctive ringing...)
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Date: 28 Mar 1983 1422-PST
From: ROODE at SRI-NIC (David Roode)
Subject: Telex and TWX
What are their rates like? Are they cheaper than non-prime telephone
usage to transfer data with modems? The data rate ought to be
considerably higher with the latter.
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Date: Tue 29 Mar 83 00:27:07-PST
From: Richard Furuta <Furuta@WASHINGTON.ARPA>
Subject: Telephone purchase prices--Washington
Interesting you should ask how much the telephone company wants for
their telephones in various areas of the country. We just received an
offering from Pacific Northwest Bell. A phone has a 30 day warranty
if it's already installed, 90 days if it's new, and the effective date
of the offer is February 14, 1983, although the notice was actually
received in mid-March. Here's the first few prices:
Purchase Price
Product Not Presently Current Current
presently installed monthly repair
installed rate charges
Standard Rotary $45.00 $25.00 $1.50 $25.00
Std. Touch-tone 65.00 45.00 2.50 30.00
Princess Rotary 55.00 35.00 2.75 30.00
Princess Tch-tn 75.00 55.00 3.50 35.00
Trimline Rotary 65.00 50.00 3.00 35.00
Trimline Tch-tn 80.00 60.00 4.00 40.00
The "Presently installed" prices expire on May 14, 1983, after which
the prices are the same as "not presently installed. Repair charges
apply after the warranty period. There's lots of other models on the
list, but I think this covers the most common.
I seem to remember the prices in last summer's California offering
were a bit lower, plus Pacific Telephone offered financing which
Pacific Northwest Bell doesn't do.
--Rick
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Date: 30 Mar 1983 0418-EST
From: Hobbit <AWalker@RUTGERS>
Subject: Some TSPS info
In answer to a recent inquiry about TSPS specifics:
I used to play the May I Help You game, so I dealt with this
firsthand. The TSPS machine is more or less a gateway between local
customers and outgoing calls, and includes timing and logging
capabilities. It also can do some rather wizardly things with your
local central office.
First of all, the terms ''back'' and ''forward'' refer to originating
caller and destination number, respectively. The Release Forward key
does just that: Hangs up on the called party, while keeping the
calling party connected to the console. The KP FWD key enables
dialing the ''forward'', or called, number. KP BACK enables dialing a
number and having it become the calling party, but there is a hook in
this that prevents entering a new back number for an *incoming* call.
It is used rarely. RING BACK does exactly what someone mentioned -
regardless of the hookswitch condition of the back line, it sends it a
second or so of ringing voltage. This is done by sending some sort of
packet to the central office that tells it to do this. RING FWD is a
little different; all it really does is momentarily disconnect the
called end of the loop, in a pulse. It doesn't *ring* the forward
phone. It is helpful sometimes when dealing with overseas operators;
when they put you on hold you can ring forward and their indicator
will flash on and off.
There are a couple of other KP keys, e.g. TBL [used to enter trouble
codes], SPL [used to enter billing numbers]. Basically a KP key tells
the machine that you are about to place a number in a register, that
register being defined by which KP key you pressed. ST [Start]
terminates the sequence.
One major screw that TSPS does to the calling end is that it disables
hangup timeouts. If an operator wishes to hold on to your line on a
loop, she may do so. This also applies to the forward end once it has
been answered, as there is no end-of-call supervision timeout
recognized by a TSPS machine. I believe that the only way to break
free of this is create some real hairy error condition [like running
AC line voltage down your ESS line] that will clear a few switches.
All TSPS billing is done in-house; that is, the CO has nothing to do
with operator-handled calls after it passes the ANI packet and
disables hangups. The billing details are written to a magtape
[?!??!] and later sent to the billing department.
Further details desired? Just ask. My info may be a couple of years
out of date [it's been a while], but it still gives the basic idea.
_H*
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Date: 30 March 1983 08:54 est
From: LSchwarz.Activate at RESTON
Subject: Verfication of Third Number Calls from Public Phones
cc: LSchwarz.Activate at RESTON
Beginning March 15th in all Bell Operating Companies' areas, operators
will not place third number calls from public telephones without
authorization from an answering party at the third number. If the
third number (billed party) is busy or does not answer, the call will
not be put through. This will apply to such calls made during the
night hours as well as during the day and evening hours. BOC have
implemented this policy to help reduce third number toll fraud.
BOC are trying to encourage the customers to use Calling Cards
(formerly called Credit Cards) to place long distance calls when they
are away from home. There is no charge for the Calling Card and in
many areas customers can place a calling card call without the
assistance of an operator. Calling Cards provide customers a lower
price charging option as well as a convenience and privacy. Customers
can call their business office to order a Calling Card.
(Contributor's Note: I am wondering how can each Calling Card customer
be protected if the number ever was revealed to the culprit? Does the
customer have the same rights as the credit card holder, such as up to
$50.00 limit, etc? Any comment?)
<LJ>
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Date: 30 March 1983 09:25 est
From: LSchwarz.Activate at RESTON
Subject: Access Charges
cc: LSchwarz.Activate at RESTON
Here is the summary of the FCC filing on ACCESS Charges (The FCC's 254
page interstate access charge order released on February 28th does not
vary greatly from news accounts of the FCC's Dec. 22, 1982 decision
approving new charges by which teleco may recover network access
costs):
Under this order, ATT and BO, filing seperate tariffs, will file with
the FCC before Oct. 3, 1983 if the charges are to go into effect on
Jan. 1, 1984.
Highlights of the order:
Customer Charges: During 1984, the minimum access charges plus
customer usage charges will recover $4 of the total access costs per
line per month (a total of $4.3 billion a year); Minimum monthly
customer access charges will be set at $2 per line for residence
customers and $4 per line for business customers; Customers will pay
their full share of access costs at the end of a five-to-seven year
transition period in 1989 or 1991 (when all customers will pay a flat
rate charge); Maximum access charges cannot exceed what customers
would pay for an access line dedicated to interstate private line
service (nationally, this average about $28 a month). Maximums must
be reduced 10 percent a year between 1984 and 1989; and Teleco will
have the flexibility, however to adjust the recovery of access costs
through a combination of flat and usage charges in keeping with the
threat of uneconomic bypass of their facilities.
Carrier Charges: In 1984, all Long Distance carriers will pay a
carrier access charge to the local teleco to recover fixed access
costs above the $4 level (the cost to be paid by customers).
Nationwide, this will amount to about $4.2 billion a year; The carrier
charge will be a uniform nationwide rate based upon minutes of use of
the local network; Of the $4.2 billion to be paid by long distance
carriers, ATT will pay $1.4 billion in 1984 to the local companies
through an Exchange Carrier Association as a fixed-cost premium access
charge. This amount is based upon the FCC's estimate of differences
of interconnection quality provided to the various long distance
carriers; The premium access charge will be phased out over four
years, or within the same time span as the phase out of interstate
customer equipment costs.
Universal Service Monitoring: As the FCC's mandate from Congress, the
FCC will monitor the shift of fixed access costs recovery from Long
Distance carriers to customers during the transition period and modify
its plan as necessary.
The Universal Service Fund: In order to preserve of Universal Service,
the fund will be established next year to enable teleco serving high
cost areas - those with higher than average access line costs due to
demographic, geographic, and technological differences - to set phone
rates at levels that will not drive customers to cancel services; this
Fund will be supported by payments made by all long distance carriers
to the Exchange Carrier Association and will continue to operate
indefinitely; and the size of this fund and the formula used to
collect and distribute this money will be proposed by a federal-state
Joint Board of Regulators this Spring and approved by the FCC before
divestiture.
Exchange Carrier Association: This is an association of local exchange
telephone companies that will file and adminster access charge
tariffs, oversee the operation of the Universal Service Fund, and
distribute the carrier access charge funds; Membership is limited to
local teleco. Consumer groups, regulators, and long distance carriers
are ineligibnle to join; and ATT is required to file the association's
first access charge tariffs with the FCC, but the company is not
expected to be responsible for future filings.
State Regulation: The FCC acknowledged that the interstate access
charge plan would influence the development of intrastate access
charge plans but did not require state regulatory commissions to
follow its approach; The FCC believes, however, that its plan offers
the states a well though-out approach to recovering access costs and
that a uniform approach would increase adminstrative effieciency for
commissions and companies alike; and the FCC also believes customer
payment of intrastate access charges will help reduce differences in
inter- and intrastate long distance charges and discourage uneconomic
bypass of phone company facilities.
Bypass: There are two kinds of bypass - economic and uneconomic;
Economic bypass is the direct supply of new kinds of services that
aren't presently available from the Telecos; Uneconomic bypass is the
supply of traditional kinds of services at prices below what the
telephone companies can charge - but above their actual costs; The FCC
recognizes bypass as a growing phenomenon but believes that cost-based
access charges will discourage uneconomic bypass; The FCC decline to
prohibit bypass, however, because new technologies may serve customer
needs not adequately met by the telecos; It also believes the
development of new, sophisticated technologies will spur the telecos
to provide needed customer services that are technologcally possible;
and it said regulatory action is needed now to discourage uneconomic
bypass because the next three to five years will be crucial to the
deployment of such systems.
<LJ>
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Date: 30 Mar 1983 1341-PST
From: Wmartin at OFFICE-3 (Will Martin)
Subject: Multi-device hookups
We have an application (teleconferencing) which could be better
realized if we could hook a number of data communications devices
together all at once, via a conference call. What we want to do is
have a number of microcomputers running communications software with
300 bps modems all cross-connected via this single conference call.
When one micro sends data out over its modem, all the others should
receive it and act as programmed to display or accept the data, as
appropriate.
As far as I know, we have never been able to do this. We can connect
one micro directly to another via dial-up using this combination of
hardware and software, but trying to bring another set in doesn't
work. I think that the problem is carrier-tone recognition and timing;
the software expects to be talking to one other modem only, and new
ones joining a connection in progress have missed the initial
handshaking. Is this the problem?
Can it be overcome by something simple, like strapping pins on an
RS-232 connector or otherwise forcing the later-joining modems into
believing that they have a valid connection? Or is it more complex, or
even fundamentally impossible?
Advice and comments welcomed...
Will Martin
IRM Division
USArmy DARCOM ALMSA
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Date: 31 March 1983 08:45 est
From: LSchwarz.Activate at RESTON
Subject: Access Fees
Who should pay?
It is understood that residential telephone subscribers may see a new
item on their monthly telephone bill - a long distance "access charge"
of about $7.00 per month. What is most unusual about this new charge
is that it must be paid every month even if the subscriber makes no
long distance calls.
Of course, we do understand how a phone bill is engineered, how costs
and rates are determined, and how recent legalized technological
developments have revolutionized the telephone industry.
But the long distance costs are recovered on a per minute basis, how
can the customers be treated fairly whether you make one or 101 calls
while being charged for the "local loop" costs which does not vary
with usage (in other words, the cost is same for the expense of laying
and maintaining your phone line no matter how many calls you make!)
Any comment on determining more reasonable access charges? WHat
guidelines should be established to assure all telephone customers
nationwide?
<LJ>
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End of TELECOM Digest
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