TELECOM@Usc-Eclb (09/14/82)
TELECOM AM Digest Tuesday, 14 September 1982 Volume 2 : Issue 117
Today's Topics: No 5 XBar And IDDD
Desirable New Features
New Features - "Camp On" & "Barge In"
What Telco Doesn't Provide To Customers - Answer Supervision
EAX Add-On - 3-Way Calling
Humor By Dave Barry
Phone Number Changes
Cheap Thrills On The International Front
Cordless Telephone Query
International Dialing Information
Heading Correction
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Date: 13 Sep 1982 0101-EDT
From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO>
cc: lauren at UCLA-SECURITY
Subject: No 5 XBar and IDDD
Very, very few No 5 XBars anywhere in the country have IDDD. I know
of some in Canada (e.g. 613-592), and I know that there are some in
the U.S., but I don't know exactly where any one of them is. I've
been told that Princeton may be getting it, but I don't know any
details.
>From 613-592, the "#" at the end to cancel timing does not work;
dialing it causes the call to go to reorder; you have to wait.
I've also been told that in some of the early implementations in
No 5 XBar, the registers were not built out to full length, so only
11 digit (count starts at first digit of World Numbering Area)
numbers could be dialed. I've just attempted to dial a twelve
digit number from 613-592 and it did go through (I had some trouble
at first, and it took several attempts).
------------------------------
Date: 13 Sep 1982 15:48 PDT
From: Lynn.ES at PARC-MAXC
Subject: Re: Desirable phone feature
cc: Lynn.es at PARC-MAXC
On my office phone (Pacific Tel, Los Angeles area) I have "Trunk
queueing" feature, which allows you to keep trying after getting a
busy. If you hang up immediately on busy, then when the line becomes
unbusy, your telephone calls back you and the party you were trying to
reach (in that order). If you wait till the tone changes on the
original busy, then hanging up really hangs up. This seems to be
WMARTIN's second desired feature.
There is also a code to dial to cancel waiting for the call to go
through. This is particularly handy since many people were
accidentally hanging up too soon when this feature first was working.
Trunk queueing originally was to work on both in-building calls (for
which I dial 3 and the last 4 digits) and outside calls (9 and 7
digits). Last I heard, they disabled the feature on either inside or
outside calls (I forget which) because it didn't work right.
Before trunk queueing was available, we had "automatic call back"
feature. It was the same thing, but you had to dial (ok, punch, since
there is no * on a real dial) *5 plus the number, and it only worked
on inside calls. Note that "trunk queueing" is an automatic version
of "automatic call back", which wasn't quite automatic.
Incidentally, busy is treated differently than plain busy in one other
situation I can think of. If you have "call forwarding on don't
answer" (by 3 rings), but the place it then tries to forward to is
busy, then it keeps ringing the first line beyond 3 rings instead of
giving the caller a busy.
As long as we are complaining about phone features, this is my pet
peeve. They bundled "call forwarding on don't answer" with "call
forwarding on busy". If I don't answer, I would like the call to go
to the lab where I spend much time, but if it's busy, I would like the
call to go to the other phone I can see from my desk. But I can't
activate one feature without activating both to the same phone.
/Don Lynn
[I want one to know based on what time it is whether or not to do call
forwarding from work to home or vice versa. --JSol]
------------------------------
Date: 13 Sep 1982 0109-EDT
From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO>
Subject: New features
The feature which Will described as "camp-on" is actually planned to
become a part of the network, once the "stored-program-control"
network is actually in place.
It is already available in PBXs and CENTREXs (since it's simpler when
only one machine is involved). It's called "Automatic Callback
Calling." You activate it by dialing a special code and the the
desired number (yes, it makes you hang up and then say you want the
feature, and tell it the number again). If the number isn't busy, the
call just goes through. Otherwise, you get "confirmation tone" and
then you hang up. When both phones are free (you can make other calls
in the meantime), it first rings the calling phone back with
"priority" ring (three quick rings per cycle), and then, when you pick
up your phone, it starts the called phone to ring.
The other feature, selective call barge-in, is technically possible in
the S-P network, but I have not heard of any implementation plans.
This is not to say they don't exist. (It seems likely that here, too,
you would have to hang up and start over again.)
------------------------------
Date: 13 Sep 1982 0115-EDT
From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO>
To: jheinrich at PARC-MAXC
Subject: Answer Supervision
The information Ma Bell does not provide to the SCCs is any indication
of whether or when the called party answers the telephone.
Under the recent split-up agreement, the SCCs must be given exactly
the same access to the network as AT&T gets. This includes answer
supervision and calling number identification, as well as other
simplifications in access (the technical details of which have not yet
been completely worked out).
------------------------------
Date: 13 Sep 1982 0118-EDT
From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO>
To: lauren at UCLA-SECURITY
Subject: EAX add-on
Does GTEL have the other EAX features tarriffed?
I once knew someone in St. Petersburg, Florida, who had Add-on, Call
Waiting, and Call Forwarding. I think it was an early trial; I no
longer have contact with this person. Does anyone else have any more
recent experience with EAX features actually operating anywhere?
------------------------------
Date: 13 September 1982 05:02-EDT
From: Eliot R. Moore <ELMO at MIT-MC>
Subject: EAX 3-Way
To: vortex!lauren at LBL-UNIX
cc: TELECOM at MIT-MC, ELMO at MIT-MC
The last time we inquired, we were told that the marketing department
had not found a significant market for the feature, and therefore it
was not being offered. GTE also said they were in the process of
taking yet another survey to determine whether or not they should
offer the service, but declined us the opportunity to comment on the
survey.
Elmo
------------------------------
Date: Today
From: Many sources in the DEC Engineering network
Subject: Read on...
17 jul 82
What I Like About The Telephone
By Dave Barry
What I like best about the telephone is that it keeps you in
touch with people, particularly people who want to sell you
magazine subscriptions in the middle of the night. These
people have been abducted by large publishing companies and
placed in barbed-wire enclosures surrounded by armed men with
attack dogs.
Caller: Hello, Mr. Barry?
Me: No this is Adolf Hitler.
Caller: Of course. My mistake. The reason I'm calling you at 11:30
at night, Mr. Hitler, is that I'm conducting a marketing
survey, and...
Me: Are you selling magazine subscriptions?
Caller: Magazine subscriptions? Me? Selling them? Ha Ha. No.
Certainly not. Not at all. No, this is just a plain old
marketing survey. (Sound of dogs barking.)
Me: Well, what do you want to know?
Caller: Well, I just want to ask you some questions about you
household, such as how many people live there, and what
their ages are and whether any of them might be interested
in subscribing to Redbook?
Me: I don't want to subscribe to anything, you lying piece of
slime.
Caller: How about Time? Sports Illustrated? American Beet Farmer?
Me: I'm going to hang up.
Caller: No! (The dogs get louder) Please! You can have my daughter!
Me: (Click.)
The first telephone systems were primitive "party lines" where
everybody could hear what everybody else was talking about.
This was very confusing:
Bertha: Emma? I'm calling to tell you I seen you boy Norbert shootin'
his musket at our goat again, and if you don't...
Clem: This ain't Emma. This is Clem Johnson, and I got to reach
Doc Henderson, because my wife Nell is all rigid and foaming
at the mouth, and if she don't snap out of it soon the roast
is going to burn.
Emma: Norbert don't even own a musket. All he got is a bow and
arrow, and he couldn't hit a steam locomotive from six feet,
what with his bad hand, which he got when your boy Percy bit
it, and which is festerin' pretty bad.
Doc Henderson: You better let me take a look at it.
Bertha: The goat? Oh, he ain't hurt that bad, Doc. He's skittery
on account of the musket fire.
Clem: Now she's startin' to roll her eyes around. Looks like two
hard-boiled eggs.
Caller: Hi I'm conducting a marketing survey is Mr. Hitler at home?
Clem: No, but I'll take a year's worth of American Beet Farmer.
The party line system led to a lot of unnecessary confusion
and death, so the phone company devised a system whereby you
can talk to only one person at a time, although not
necessarily the person you want. In fact, if you call any
large company, you will Never get to talk to the person
you're calling. Large companies employ people who are paid,
on a commission basis, solely to put calls on hold. These
people are trained by the airline reservations clerks. The
only exception is department stores, where all calls are
immediately routed to whichever clerk has the most people
waiting.
But we should never complain about our telephone system. It
is the most sophisticated system in the world, yet it is the
easiest to use. Fore example, my 20-month-old son, who
cannot perform a simple act like eating a banana without
getting most of it in his hair, is perfectly capable of
direct-dialing Okinawa, and probably has. In another year,
he'll be able to order magazine subscriptions.
------------------------------
Date: 13 Sep 1982 1340-EDT
From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO>
To: willson.uci at UDEL-RELAY
Subject: Phone number changes
It seems unlikely that they would go to the work of moving you back
into the other machine if you cancel your speed calling, especially
since they would have moved you if you had paid the exorbitant number
change fee. (In another 17 months you will have paid the $50
anyway...)
It's too late now (and maybe for the best) -- if you had decided that
the ESS feature you wanted was three-way calling, you might have
gotten hooked. I really feel restricted when I'm using a phone that
doesn't have three-way. And pretty soon I'll have the six-port on one
of my lines.
------------------------------
Date: 13-Sep-82 12:49PM-EDT (Mon)
From: John R. Levine <Levine at YALE>
Subject: Cheap thrills on the international front
I just discovered, while trying to call a friend in Tasmania, that if
you go through Bell's new International Information Service
(800-874-4000) you can get international directory assistance for free
without having to place a call. If you go through the regular
operator, you still have to make a call if you get a number.
Just what you need - fill in those blank lines in your address book
for friends that live so far away that you won't call them anyway.
I was surprised to note that the operator here at the 800 number took
my request, typed it into something (I could hear the typing) and then
just repeated it to the foreign operator she had gotten in the
meantime. Perhaps they plan to do some nefarious thing to the people
who get numbers that way.
------------------------------
From: uucp at NPRDC
>From sdcatta:wa143 Mon Sep 13 16:43:36 1982 remote from sdcsvax
International information, access numbers, country, city and local
numbers can all be obtained from AT&T Long lines directly at 800
874-4000. This is their overseas center specifically set up to aid
international callers.
Bret Marquis
ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!bam
sdcsvax!sdchema!bam@NPRDC (not uucp@NPRDC)
------------------------------
Date: 13 Sep 82 14:36:37-EDT (Mon)
From: Randall Gellens <gellens.CC@UDel-Relay>
Subject: Cordless Telephone Query
Via: UDel-CC; 13 Sep 82 14:45-EDT
Can someone give some info on the various "cordless telephones" that
are around? Is there one that is significantly better or worse, and
what are the prices and warrenties like? What should a potential user
look out for?
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Date: 13 Sep 1982 0103-EDT
From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO>
Subject: Heading correction
The V&H tape was up-to-date; it was the directory that wasn't. I have
found that the "IDDD originate capability" flag is often wrong; not
only on the V&H tape, but actually in the database the operators have.
------------------------------
Date: 13 Sep 82 7:43:33-EDT (Mon)
From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore.BRL-VLD@BRL>
cc: cmoore.Brl-Vld at BRL
Subject: Re: TELECOM Digest V2 #116
My last previous message to Telecom was not meant to say "V&H coordinate
database not up to date". I was commenting on info from other sources
within phone company.
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End of TELECOM Digest
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