TELECOM Digest     Wed, 11 Jan 95 00:38:00 CST    Volume 15 : Issue 24

Inside This Issue:                          Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    AT&T Enters Rochester NY Local Telephone Market 
(wegeng.XKeys@xerox.com)
    Gain Hits (Steven Hoga)
    Looking For ADPCM Test Vector Set (Mark Indovina)
    How to Keep Track of Calls on Busy (Caller ID on Busy)? (Pete 
Kruckenberg)
    Recent Movie with Telecom Theme (Benjamin L. Combee)
    Optus Cision in Australia (Iaen Cordell)
    Re: Cell Phone PINs (Steve Seydell)
    Re: Cell Phone PINs (Carl Oppedahl)
    Re: Bell Atlantic Mobile Joins the PIN Crowd 
(coyne@thing1.cc.utexas.edu)
    Re: GSM in Canada? (John Scourias)
    Re: MANs in the US (Edward W. Bennett)
    Re: 800 Numbers From Overseas (Tony Harminc)

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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 11:25:47 PST
From: wegeng.XKeys@xerox.com
Subject: AT&T Enters Rochester NY Local Telephone Market


Several recent messages to the Digest have discussed the recent
changes to the local telephone service regulations that allow for
competition in the Rochester, Ny telephone market.  The January 10,
1995 edition of the {Rochester Democrat & Chronicle} contains a full
page ad from AT&T advertising that they are entering this market.  For
fun, I called the toll free number contained in the ad (1 800 716-
4ATT) 
to learn more about what AT&T is offering.

According to the AT&T rep that I spoke to, AT&T is reselling service
provided by Rochester Telephone (or is it Frontier Communications?
I`m confused).  With AT&T service customers keep their same telephone
numbers, but are billed by AT&T.  AT&T`s current rates are essentially
the same as Rochester Telephone`s, minus a 10% new customer discount
that is garanteed to be good for at least three months.  The AT&T rep
didn`t know what the rates would be after the three month period, but
suggested thay they would remain competitive.

AT&T is offering most of the advanced services that Rochester 
Telephone 
offers, with voice mail being the most asked for missing service 
(again 
all of this is implemented by Rochester Tel and resold by AT&T).  I
also learned that there is no sign up fee through March 31.

Other items of interest:

When I dialed the toll free number the greeting identified that it was
intended for Rochester AT&T customer service (so it may not work
elsewhere).  ANI displayed my calling number to the rep (I asked), but
their database contained the wrong name/address (probably because I
was assigned this number about a month ago, though it`s interesting
that the number was not listed as "unassigned").  The rep was
physically located in Missouri (I asked).

It will be interest to see what other companies enter this market.  I
have heard rumors that NYNEX, other baby bells, etc. are watching
things closely, but I have not heard of any other companies that have
definite plans to join in the fun.


Don Wegeng   dlw.xkeys@xerox.com

------------------------------

From: steven_h2@verifone.com (STEVEN HIGA/HNL DQ)
Subject: Gain Hits
Date: 10 Jan 95 11:31:16 -1000
Organization: VeriFone Inc., Honolulu HI


I've been having a terrible time with a modem due to gain hits.  I've
used both a Consultronics TCS-500 and TAS101/Gemini Modem testers and
discovered that this particulary modem can't seem to handle 1 dB gain
hits.  This has plagued me for awhile and unfortunately I don't know
how to test for it.  Both the new EIA/TIA TSB-37A and TSB-38 only
define gain hits but does not specify rate, level, duration, or Bit
Error Rate.

Anybody know of a spec that covers gain hits, maybe IEEE, ANSI, 
others?

------------------------------

From: ep520mi@pts.mot.com (MARK INDOVINA)
Subject: Looking For ADPCM Test Vector Set
Organization: MOTOROLA, Strategic Semiconductor Operation, IC Tech Lab
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 01:21:02 GMT


I'm looking for a copy of the test vectors for G.721, 32kbps Adaptive
Differential Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM). Was there a set available
from Committee T1?  Pointers, FTP sites?


Thanks in advance,

Mark A. Indovina, Principal Staff Engineer   mark_indovina@pts.mot.com
MOTOROLA   Strategic Semiconductor Operation, IC Technology Laboratory
Mail Stop 63, 1500 Gateway Boulevard, Boynton Beach, FL 33436-8292 USA
phone: 1-407-364-2379, fax: 1-407-364-3904

------------------------------

From: pete@dswi.com (Pete Kruckenberg)
Subject: How to Keep Track of Calls on Busy (Caller ID on Busy)?
Date: 10 Jan 1995 21:38:17 -0700
Organization: DahlinSmithWhite, Inc.


I'm running a dial-up computer service, and I'd like to be able to
keep track of how many people are getting busy signals when they dial,
so I can respond by adding more lines. I've thought of a couple of
ways of doing this, and wanted to know if any of them are do-able.

The first one is easy, but might not be feasible. If I could get
caller ID's on a busy line, I'd just add caller ID to the last line in
the hunt group, then feed the caller ID via serial into the computer.
Is caller ID on busy even feasible, and if so, does/will US West offer
it? What do I need to get to make it work?

Second option, if caller ID on busy is not available: get another line
(again, last in hunt group), which would always be busy (I don't want
it to ring and confuse the users), but would have call waiting and
caller ID on call waiting, then just pipe the caller ID into the
computer via serial. Again, does US West offer caller ID on call
waiting, and what do I need to make it work?

Final option: get a line (last in hunt group) which would never
answer, put caller ID and a caller ID -> serial box on it. It'll ring,
which might confuse the users, but at least it'll keep track of who's
calling and how often, when the other lines are busy.

If there are other, better ways of doing this, I'd appreciate your
input.


Thanks for your help.

Pete Kruckenberg   pete@dswi.com


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way we did it for several years was
to have telco send the count of busies. We had meters on each line 
which
advanced each time a call was recieved on that line. We had a meter 
which
advanced each time all incoming lines were busy. Having all lines busy
of course is not the same as turning away additional calls; maybe 
there
were none in the interim, maybe there were. For this we had a 
dedicated
pair from the central office. Whenever the CO had to bounce a call due
to all our lines busy (I think we had 100-125 incoming lines, most of 
which were 800 numbers in a hunt group, but maybe a dozen were local
Chicago lines, and another dozen or so were 'ring-down' or 'tie-lines'
which were terminated in the Automatic Call Distributor along with the
800 numbers) then the CO sent a pulse over that dedicated pair to a
meter which kept track of those calls the CO bounced. We also kept 
track
of 'lost calls'; those were the calls received in the queue in the ACD
which were answered with a recording 'all positions are busy, please
hold for an available position ...' and the calling party chose to
hang up or disconnect prior to getting a live answer. 

The 'meter clerk' was a person on each shift whose job it was to read
all the meters hourly, jot down the figures and prepare a report for
management. There were also meters showing how many calls were taken
by each position each hour. We generally averaged 600-800 calls per
hour during the day and evening hours, and about 200-300 calls per
hour during the overnight period, or about 13,000-14,000 calls per
day. As I recall, we had fifteen positions, but only kept about ten
of them staffed at any given time during the day, and just two or
three staffed during the overnight hours. 

Everyone could see the backlog of calls waiting. If one or two calls
were in the ACD queue waiting for a clerk position, then a small lamp
on each console marked 'CW' would illuminate steadily. If three or 
four calls were in the queue, the same lamp would blink slowly. If 
there were five or six calls waiting, the same lamp would blink 
rapidly. 
If there were seven calls waiting, a large 100 watt red lightbulb 
mounted on the wall at the front of the room would illuminate. Eight
or more calls waiting caused the red light to blink off and on. It did
not happen too often, but when that red light started blinking and
blinked for more than about a minute at a time, the shift supervisor
would get up and go to a section of the room where some typists and
filing clerks were working. With just a motion of his fingers, 
everyone
knew what was needed; everyone would stop what they were doing and
go into the other area and sit down at an idle position and start 
taking
calls. They would stay there doing so until they were told to go back
to their regular assignments. Every month or so the management would
carefully scrutinize all the numbers produced by those meters, and use
the information for staffing purposes, and to order additional lines
installed by telco as needed. 

A simple solution for you might be to have a meter on the final line
in the hunt group. Note the number of times every day that line is
selected. If the number of times that line is selected is more than
say, two or three times each day, then you probably have some callers
getting busy signals.  The other thing you can do is install a timer 
at
the end of the line. It has to be wired in series through all the 
phones
(you can use the A/A1 supervision pair in your modems for this 
purpose)
so the timer will not start unless it has a connection all the way 
down
the line; ie all phones have to be off hook. When all are off hook the
timer starts; when any single line is available, the timer stops. At 
the
end of the day you see how many minutes in total (god forbid hours in
total!) all lines were engaged. Again, if it is more than some 
acceptable
value, you need to add additional lines. PAT]

------------------------------

Subject: Recent Movie With Telecom Theme
From: combee@prism.gatech.edu (Benjamin L. Combee)
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 13:32:37 -0500
Organization: ROASF Atlanta
Reply-To: combee@prism.gatech.edu


Hello, TELECOM Digest.  I recently saw the French film _Three Colors:
Red_, and was reminded of it by a recent thread here on cordless phone
snooping.  This is an excellent movie, and it has several scenes of
interest to the telecom fan.  First, the opening credits to the movie
are overlayed over a breathtaking first-person flythrough the
telephone connection between two friends, and later in the film, a
retired judge confesses to spying on his neighbors cordless phone
conversations, even complaining about one guy with a Japanese phone he
couldn't pick up.  


Ben Combee  E-MAIL combee@prism.gatech.edu 
http://www.gatech.edu/acm/combee.html

------------------------------

From: iaenc@sydney.DIALix.oz.au (Iaen Cordell)
Subject: Optus Vision in Australia
Date: 11 Jan 1995 14:43:40 +1100
Organization: DIALix Services, Sydney, Australia.


Following, for the information of all Optus staff, is a media release
distributed this afternoon confirming Optus Vision's plans to compete 
in Pay
TV and local calls.


OPTUS VISION CONFIRMS PLAN TO DELIVER COMPETITION IN PAY TV AND LOCAL 
CALLS

Optus Vision - the joint venture between Optus Communications,
Continental Cablevision and Publishing and Broadcasting Limited -
today confirmed its plan for delivering increased choice in telephony,
pay television and interactive services over the most advanced
broadband network of its kind in the world.

The project will position Australia at the forefront of the world in
delivering combined telephony and home entertainment services. The
undoubted winners will be Australian customers as true competition in
the local loop becomes a reality.

Optus Vision also announced it will offer a powerful programming
package of over 20 channels, including two movie channels, two sports
channels and a wide variety of other channels from local and
international sources.

The movie channels are supported by a supply of movies from Warner
Bros., Disney, MGM, Village Roadshow and New Regency.

The sports channels will include major Australian sporting events as
well as significant international sports sourced through ESPN
International.  Nine Network will provide programming expertise to
these channels.

The Optus Vision rollout plan will see the network passing
approximately three (3) million households throughout Australia in the
first four years starting with Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Capital expenditure associated with the project is estimated to be
approximately $3 billion and the required funding for the venture is
expected to be around $2 billion which will be provided by a
combination of equity and debt.  The joint venture will employ some
3,000 people.

The network will showcase leading-edge technology and infrastructure
which the communications industry elsewhere in the world is looking at
introducing at the turn of the century.

Technical and engineering planning has been under way for the last six
months and construction will commence this month.  A hybrid
fibre-coaxial cable network will be deployed using both underground
and overhead distribution systems.

The network will be bi-directional and the first of its kind in the
world to deliver phone calls to the home exclusively over a single
fibre-coaxial system.

Announcements are expected to be made soon on supply contracts for
locally-manufactured fibre and coaxial cable.

An Optus Vision spokesperson said major considerations in the decision
to proceed with the joint venture included:

- Finalisation of programming elements essential to driving market
penetration;  and

- Clarification of the November 24 statement by Communications 
Minister, 
Michael Lee, on rules governing broadband networks, particularly in
relation to Optus Vision's ability to manage access to its network on
a commercial tariff basis, rather than incremental cost-based 
interconnect.

This clarification was received via the draft Ministerial statement
released on December 23 which followed extensive discussions with the
Department of Communications and the Arts.  The timeliness and scope
of the statement were major factors in enabling Optus Vision to
maintain momentum of its business activities through the Christmas-New
Year period, a spokesperson for the joint venture said.

One of the major public benefits of the Optus Vision joint venture
will be the very real prospect of cheaper local phone calls being
delivered on its fibre-coaxial network.

The Optus Vision spokesperson said price reductions in local phone
calls were long overdue for most Australians.  According to figures
compiled by AUSTEL and the Bureau of Transport and Communications
Economics, compound annual growth of local phone call charges for the
period 1981-1993 were in the vicinity of nine (9) per cent.

"This is a direct result of there not being competition in the local
loop.  The real benefits of competition can be seen by the fact that
in the same period the prices of international and national long
distance calls fell by three (3) per cent and four (4) per cent
respectively and fell by much more after Optus started operations in
1992.

"Consumers directly connected to the Optus Vision network will see
considerable reductions in their overall phone bills as we drive local
call prices down, similar to what we have done with long distance
prices over the last two years.

"We have set aside capacity on the network for the development of
educational and community based multimedia services and will be
looking forward to working closely with government and community
bodies to fully exploit the potential of our state of the art
broadband network.  This capacity alone is equivalent to capital
investment in the vicinity of $100 million."

The Optus Vision shareholding will be:

- Optus Communications (47.5 per cent);
- Continental Cablevision (47.5 per cent);  and


- Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (5 per cent).

(Publishing and Broadcasting Limited has an option to increase its
shareholding to 20 per cent.  This option is exercisable at any time
in the period up to July 1, 1997.  If the option is exercised after
March 1, 1995, the exercise price is the market value at the time.)

------------------------------

From: seydell@tenrec.cig.mot.com (Steve Seydell)
Subject: Re: Cell Phone PINs
Date: 11 Jan 1995 00:46:04 GMT
Organization: Cellular Infrastructure Group, Motorola


padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) writes:

> Mark Smith    Mercerville, NJ writes:

>> The new effort combines a Personal Identification Number (PIN) code
>> system recently pioneered by NYNEX Mobile Communications in New 
York
>> City with a new Fraud Protection Zone technique developed by Bell
>> Atlantic Mobile.

> Sorry but I seem to be missing something here. If the PIN is sent in
> the clear then anyone grabbing the cell phone number off the air 
will
> also get the PIN.

The PIN is sent as DTMF across the voice channel.  The ESN and mobile
ID are currently stolen by listening to the reverse signalling
channel.  It is technically possible to steal the PIN, but it will
take some time for thiefs to catch up.  The money saved by the telcos
will easily cover the cost of purchasing and operating this feature.


Motorola, Inc.                           Steven Seydell
Cellular Infrastructure Group       seydell@cig.mot.com

------------------------------

From: oppedahl@patents.com (Carl Oppedahl)
Subject: Re: Cell Phone PINs
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 02:38:05 GMT
Organization: Oppedahl & Larson


In article <telecom15.22.7@eecs.nwu.edu> padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com
(A. Padgett Peterson) writes:

> Mark Smith    Mercerville, NJ writes:

>> BEDMINSTER, NJ, AND ORANGEBURG, NY -- Two of the nation's largest
>> wireless carriers are teaming up in a unique program to prevent 
their
>> customers from being victimized by criminals who steal cellular
>> service.

>> The new effort combines a Personal Identification Number (PIN) code
>> system recently pioneered by NYNEX Mobile Communications in New 
York
>> City with a new Fraud Protection Zone technique developed by Bell
>> Atlantic Mobile.

> Sorry but I seem to be missing something here. If the PIN is sent in
> the clear then anyone grabbing the cell phone number off the air 
will
> also get the PIN.

>> In the rare instance that they are cloned, customers only need to 
call
>> their home carrier and receive a new PIN to restore service.  

> Oh, I see, once a phone is compromised, and the customer gets the
> bill, they can change the PIN and start all over again. True the
> customer could deactivate/change the PIN daily (hourly?) but how 
many
> will?  How fast can the cloners react?

> There are several means already available but since most involve 
some
> form of encryption they seem to be too dangerous for the public to
> have. With the PIN, the carriers can say they have done *something*.

There was a rather exhaustive thread about this a couple of months ago
in alt.dcom.telecom, as I recall.

The ESN and phone number are transmitted unencrypted on the control
channel.  The cell site returns several items including instructions
on which audio channel is to be used.  The PIN code is conveyed
unencrypted on the audio channe.

Apparently the reason PIN codes help the cell carriers is that most of
the phone-cloners are so dull and stupid that they can monitor the
control channel but not also monitor the particular audio channel to
which the call gets passed.

I assume this will simply escalate the conflict.  The cloners will
either (1) pick an audio channel to monitor along with the control
channel, and note down the pin number and esn that go together, or (2)
wire up the receiver that is receiving the control data stream, to
control the audio scanner channel changer.

I was reading a book about the cellular system that was published
eight years ago ... it identified the problem that if people copy down
the ESN and phone number they could get free calls ... despite this
the cellular industry moved ahead with the present system.


Carl Oppedahl   Oppedahl & Larson, patent law firm
oppedahl@patents.com

------------------------------

From: coyne@thing1.cc.utexas.edu
Subject: Re: Bell Atlantic Mobile Joins the PIN Crowd
Date: 10 Jan 1995 20:12:46 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas


> Why don't they start spending the money they spent on ECPA lobbying 
to
> invent a more secure system?!?!?!?

The reason they dont invent a more secure system is that the bulk of
the problem with the present system is designed in.  The new system
would have the same defective design feayures and would not help.

Originally the electronic serial number was meant to be built in to
the cell phones.  It was not to be programmable even with a soldering
iron.

Sellers did not like this because the cell carriers charged a lot to
make accounting changes so that it cost them to sell an upgrade or to
issue a loaner.  Sellers demanded and carriers aquiesed in
programmable esn phones.  Individual sellers have little clout but
collectively they are a force to be reckoned with.  Programmable esn
are what makes cell fraud a cottage industry.  Without them cloning a
phone would be a fairly technical task and it would require some
outboard parts.  There would be many fewer people technically capable
of cloning and most of them would have real jobs.

In the absence a significant change in the relationship between
sellers and carriers, any encryption based system would have fully
programmable parameters.  The new system would retain the problem
feature, which is clonability.  It would not give us releif it would
only give a half time till cloners adjust the game plan.

A new system should be non-clonable.  It would also be helpful if
carriers could program whatever needs programming with a secure link
so that at least one puzzle piece is known only to the carrier.  

A puzzle piece known only to the consumer would be good too.  That
would stop guys who reprogram switches and steal numbers wholesale.

As a side note: anti-theft systems for cars brought us little relief
from car thefts.  Thieves quit doing their work quietly in the middle
of the night and went to car jacking.

------------------------------

From: jscouria@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (John Scourias)
Subject: Re: GSM in Canada?
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 15:16:52 -0500


Reon_Can@mindlink.bc.ca (D. Matte) writes:

> I have been doing some initial research on the development of the 
PCS
> market in Canada.  Recently some of the players that have received
> licenses to test 1.9GHz systems have been touting GSM as the way to 
go
> (Telezone & Microcell 1-2-1).  If GSM is implemented would it mean
> that users would not be able to make use of their terminals in the
> U.S. as GSM is not likely to be adopted by the U.S. on a large 
scale?
> It would seem to me that having a system that is compatible with our
> largest trading partner would make for a more attractive service
> offering.

Hi Dan,

The PCS systems that operate at 1.9GHz are a derivative of GSM.  The
actual GSM standard operates at the 900MHz range, and its 'brother'
DCS-1800 operates at 1.8GHz.  At least one of the proposals currently
under consideration in the U.S. for a PCS involves a 1.9GHz derivative
of GSM, so it is still too early to know whether GSM will or will not
be implemented on a large scale in the U.S.

Also, the GSM-900 and DCS-1800 systems have been standardized in
Europe by ETSI.  The 1.9GHz system, however, as far as I know, has NOT
been standardized.  Theoretically, it should be just like DCS-1800,
but you never know what tweaks the Americans might put in.  So, if the
U.S. implements a 1.9GHz system, and Canada copies the same system, (I
don't think vice-versa would apply here ...) then you _should_ be able
to use a mobile phone across the border.  Of course you are right in
saying that mobility should extend beyond our borders.  The principles
of PCS of 'communication anywhere, anytime' would be violated if each
country implements its own system.  In this regard, I believe the
Europeans are on the right track in coordinating their 
telecommunications 
research and development, as well as implementation, on a Europe-wide
basis.


Best regards,

John Scourias   Department of Computer Science
University of Waterloo   Waterloo, Ontario, Canada  N2L 3G1
jscourias@barrow.uwaterloo.ca

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 11:23:15 -0800
From: EDWARD W BENNETT <JSEWB@acad1.alaska.edu>
Subject: Re: MANs in the US


The company I work for, ATU Telecommunications (the LEC for Anchorage)
just received regulatory approval for a MAN service. It's based on
FDDI, but is time-division-multiplexed so that multiple customers can
occupy the system. Bandwidth is available in 5 Mpbs segments; a 10
Mbps Ethernet LAN would thus need two of those channels. Total system
payload is 100 Mbps and runs over dual survivable fiber optic rings;
if demand warrants, a second 100 Mbps system can be added using lasers
operating at a different frequency (color). One of the advantages of
the system is that it can easily be carried by SONET/ATM in the
future. We call the system ATLAS, for Anchorage Transparent LAN
Service; it is based on a similar offering from U.S. West called TLS
(Transparent LAN Service).

 
Ed Bennett     Sr. Communications Specialist 
ATU Telecommunications, Anchorage, Alaska 
Voice (907) 564-1742  JSEWB@acad1.alaska.edu

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 10 Jan 95 19:17:49 EST
From: Tony Harminc <EL406045@BROWNVM.brown.edu>
Subject: Re: 800 Numbers From Overseas


 From: Mr Robert Hall <robhall@HK.Super.NET>

> The call appears to have been processed by the Hong Kong switch, but 
I
> get a recording in a very American voice telling me:

> "access to the 800 number you have dialed is not free when dialed 
from
> outside the United States.  If you proceed with this call, you will 
be
> billed international direct dial rates for this call.  If you do not
> wish to proceed with this call, hang up now".

> So, I wonder if the assumption that it's up to my local IDD provider
> to just turn on access to U.S. toll-free numbers is, in fact 
correct,
> or whether the U.S. 800 service provider has a say in the deal as
> well.  Are there all of the usual tariff negotiations between the
> carriers?

I've been wondering about overseas access to non-US NANP 800 numbers.
What happens if you dial a Canadian 800 number this way?  Is the
overseas carrier actually doing an SS7 lookup to determine the carrier
or are they just assuming that country code 1 = USA ?  Sigh -- I can
guess the answer.  Could someone with a few pence to burn try a
Canadian number that isn't reachable from the US, such as Bell
Canada's Ontario business office line 800 668-2355 (or 800 NOT-BELL as
I prefer to think of it)?

I won't be surprised to hear that you get to pay for a call that says
"the number you have dialed cannot be reached from your calling area".


Tony Harminc

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V15 #24
*****************************

                             
