TELECOM Digest Mon, 28 Feb 94 00:08:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 106 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Bell Canada Recovers From Cable Disruptions (Bell News via Dave Leibold) Canadian Equal Access Begins in July (Bell News via Dave Leibold) Neal-Wilkinson Table (Marty Lawlor) DSP in Communications Book Wanted (Ken K.P. Lo) National Area Code Listing - Where? (Matthew R. Zeier) Software For Voicemail Testing? (Linda Slovick) Shots of 1965 Cord Board and Switch Room (Jonathan Welch) Palo Alto Considers the Communications Biz (Michael J. Graven) Telecom News From British Columbia, Canada (Vancouver Sun via R. Sambolec) 810 Area Code Trouble? (Carl Moore) Conference Announcement (Vijay Bhargava) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 27 Feb 94 13:54:55 -0500 Subject: Bell Canada Recovers From Cable Disruptions Organization: FidoNet [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 21 Feb 94] Freak cable cuts fail to foil our first class service. On a record-breaking cold day in late January when cars wouldn't start, water pipes burst, and schools shut down for the day, Bell's fiber network -- transporting the signals of thousands of long distance calls -- suffered two major blows. A contractor, taking soil samples with a four-inch diameter drill at a site 22 kilometres west of Montreal's Mirabel Airport, cut the main intertoll fiber cable between Montreal and Toronto. Damaged were 83 T3 facilities. T3 is a volume of service capability. For example, one T3, which is a 45 megabits-per-second data stream, carries the equivalent of 672 simultaneous conversations or one network quality television signal. The cut, therefore, affected 55,776 voice circuits. But, thanks to the self-healing capabilities of Bell's networks, not a single conversation was disrupted. Within 50 milliseconds -- less than the blink of an eye -- all the circuits were switched to an alternate, route-diverse fiber. Repair crews were quickly dispatched to locate and repair the cable cut. Less than three hours later came the other blow. Municipal contractors repairing a frozen water main at 800 Wilson Avenue in Toronto cut the toll fiber cable connecting the radio relay/fiber repeater site in Uxbridge to the Ronald Avenue central office. Carried on this cable are 107 T3 facilities amounting to 71,904 voice circuits. "Forty six of these T3s were already on alternate cables due to the earlier problem," explained Gord Rushforth, general manager, Ontario Network Control. Again, within 50 milliseconds, 59 of the remaining 61 T3 facilities were switched to alternate route diverse fibers. "The remaining two T3s were put on broadband restoration fibers by activating automated restoration plans," said Gord. "At the same time, our High Performance Routing (HPR) traffic network rerouted calls that would normally travel on these two facilities to their destinations." Gord is convinced that without the capabilities of our technology and our survivable network planning, "these two incidents, following one on the heels of the other, could have led to the single worst failure in the history of Bell." "A prolonged service failure on 144 T3s or 96,786 voice circuits would have been catastrophic," he said. Agreeing with Gord is Ron MacIvor, vice-president, Network Operations. "It's clear that our investment in self-healing networks is now paying off," he said. Bell Ontario president Murray Makin called the split-second recovery "an extraordinary accomplishment." "While the technology provides for this type of service capability, I must really compliment the Network Services teams on the planning, designing, maintenance and administrative work that went into bringing this capability to life and ensuring it worked when the need arose." Referring to the recent Anik 2 failure, Murray said that "uninterrupted service is what gives Bell the edge over most of our competitors. "But while any company can buy similar technology, in the end it's the employees who make it work," he said. "And obviously, ours do just that." ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 27 Feb 94 13:54:12 -0500 Subject: Canadian Equal Access Begins in July Organization: FidoNet [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 21 Feb 94] Equal Access -- it will test our strength, but it offers us an opportunity to show who's best. Along with parades, "equal access" will march our way on July 1, Canada's 127th birthday. Equal access will shorten the dialing procedure for customers who subscribe to a long distance competitor. They will no longer have to dial the 13 or 17 extra digits now required to reach that competitor's network. Like Bell customers, they will only have to dial 1 + area code + phone number to place a long distance call. The July 1 implementation of equal access was ordered by the CRTC in its June 1992 landmark decision, opening the doors to full long distance competition. Equal access will allow other carriers and resellers to access the full facilities of Bell's Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), enabling the delivery of advanced, future services and improved call set-up time. Bell has been working closely with competitors and the commission to develop and implement the technical, operational and systems aspects of network interconnection services. "Equal access will certainly benefit our competitors in the marketplace," says Bob Campbell, vice-president Network Planning. "But is also removes the major crutch they have used to claim that we have an unfair advantage over them." "Seize the opportunities" Bob believes that Bell should not fear the dawn of equal access. In fact, as long as we're prepared, equal access presents business oppor- tunities that the company can seize -- with the help of all employees. "For instance, it provides us with the ideal opportunity to remind customers why they have stayed with Bell in the first place -- because we provide total end-to-end telecommunications service, coupled with the best quality, value, innovation, and dependability. These are our strengths." As the implementation date for equal access approaches, customers will be bombarded from all sides with competing messages and aggressive sales pitches. Bell employees must be prepared to assist our customers in sorting out the confusing array of claims in the marketplace as competitors vie for the customer's attention. Public contact employees in particular will be in a unique position to guide customers through this confusing environment, while ensuring that they are made fully aware of Bell products and services. Even though Bell will stand to lose market share under equal access, Bob points to another important backstop: Bell's Carrier Services team. "By providing wholesale service excellence to our competitors, Carrier Services remains their supplier of choice and wins back important revenues for the company that would otherwise be lost." {Bell News} will be featuring articles leading up to July 1 to keep employees informed of the steps we're taking to provide equal access, and how we'll position it with our customers. Bell Canada Corporate Public Affairs and Bell Ontario Public Affairs are preparing materials to keep employees up to date with competitive information, and help prepare employees for effective response. And Bell SYGMA is developing a training program for employees whose jobs will be the most directly affected by equal access, including business office, Phonecentre, Operator Services, and Installation and Repair staff. The challenge for employees leading up to, and following, July 1 will be to stay focused on the customer responsiveness required to retain customers and maintain market share, as well as looking for opportunities to "win-back" customers who try out the competition. "Equal access will change the way many of us do business," says Bob, "but one constant will remain: the need for all of us to convince customers through words and actions that Bell remains their best-value, total service telecommunications provider." ------ (djcl extra note: Bell Canada also reported that some competing carriers are already busy pre-subscribing customers so that their default carrier will be switched when equal access time comes.) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Feb 94 08:34:10 EST From: mel@roch1.cci.com (Marty Lawlor) Subject: Neal-Wilkinson Table One of our engineers is trying to locate a Neal-Wilkinson Trunk Capacity Table. I believe he saw it cited in an AT&T publication. Any help in locating either hardcopy or electronic version is appreciated. Marty Lawlor Northern Telecom mel@cci.com ------------------------------ From: KKPLO@ELECTRICAL.watstar.uwaterloo.ca (Ken K P Lo) Subject: DSP in Communications Book Wanted Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Sun, 27 Feb 1994 15:02:33 GMT Hi everyone, The title says it all. Can anyone recommend a good book on DSP in communications? Thanks, Ken K P Lo S3 Rm 105 Box 460 A Student of University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario (519) 725 - 6332 kkplo@electrical.watstar.uwaterloo.ca ------------------------------ From: mzeier@interaccess.com (Matthew R. Zeier) Subject: National Area Code Listing - Where? Date: 26 Feb 1994 02:52:12 GMT Organization: InterAccess I'm searching for an up-to-date listing of all US Area Codes. Can someone point me in the right direction? Matthew R. Zeier mzeier@home.interaccess.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Try the Telecom Archives. Use anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, use name@site as password, then 'cd telecom-archives/areacodes'. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Feb 94 17:41:12 PST From: Linda Slovick Subject: Software For Voicemail Testing? I need to be able to send and receive test calls to/from our voicemail systems automatically. While I've pretty much narrowed the hardware down to either a Dialogic or Voice Power (AT&T) equipped 486 system, my boss warns me that I won't have time to cut the code myself, so I'm looking for software that will do what I need at well above the API-level. What he's got in mind is some sort of application software already intended for telephony test situations, an application generator (optimized for test?), or a high-end 4GL. Sending calls is pretty straightforward. I figure that pretty much any text-to-speech software for either board will allow me to make up messages such as, "This is test message number one sent via IEC 288 from Milpitas to Monterey at 9:37 on Tuesday." Receiving calls isn't too bad on the speech recognition side of things, as most of what the card has to be able to listen to is either recorded operators, voicemail prompts, its own messages being delivered back to it, and call processing. I figure that call processing might be the part that eventually gets to be the hairiest problem once we try negotiating various switches, LECs and IECs, so something known to be robust in this area would probably be more useful to us than killer speech recognition. At this point, no decisions have been made as to OS. DOS or some flavor of UNIX seem most likely here, but compelling applications software would drive both our OS and hardware decisions. Thanks in advance for any advice! Linda Slovick Slovick Engineering slovick@apple.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Feb 1994 20:53:49 -0500 From: Jonathan_Welch Subject: Shots of 1965 Cord Board and Switch Room I just finished watching "The Slender Thread" on American Movie Classics. About 15 minutes into the film there's a terrific sequence of shots of a row of operators running a cord board one of which is called upon to initiate an emergency trace. Then the scene switches to a technician going through rack after rack of what I'd guess was a stepper switch. I bet AMC will show this a few more times in the next few weeks -- you might want to catch it to see what this kind of equipment looked like at that point in time. Jonathan Welch VAX Systems Manager UMass/Amherst JHWELCH@ecs.umass.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for the tipoff. Yes, some of that equipment would be fascinating to observe by our younger readers; many of whom have never even seen a 'cordboard'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael J. Graven Subject: Palo Alto Considers the Communications Biz Date: Sun, 27 Feb 1994 11:16:49 PST Reply-To: mjg@cs.Stanford.EDU (Michael J Graven) The {San Jose Mercury News} reported on February 25 that the city of Palo Alto is considering building its own communications utility to rival the incipient networks being advertised by Pacific Bell and others. The proposed system would be a mix of fiber and coaxial cable. Earlier this month, the city (with assistance from Digital Equipment Corp.) launched a municipal information system linked to the World Wide Web. Officials claim they are the nation's first city on the Internet. "This will be one of the most important decisions we'll make," said Mayor Liz Kniss. The city council is expected to decide next month whether further consideration is warranted. Currently, Palo Alto is one of a very few municipalities in California with a city-run utility. Water, gas, and electric service are provided by the city; electric rates are said to be comparable if not a bit lower than surrounding municipalities, and the city revenue derived from them is considerable. More interesting is that the utility conduit right-of-way is also owned by the city, so a municipal service would be able to avoid the expense of leasing conduit space. If Palo Alto decides to undertake construction of this information Main Street (sorry), it will join Seattle, New York, and Austin, Texas: other municipalities developing their own fiber systems. Several options exist: the city could install a fiber net, or it could use some preinstalled coaxial plant belonging to Cable Co-Op, the cable TV cooperative; it could run the information utility by itself, or in partnership with an outside business; it could outsource information provision and take the role of a common carrier; it could farm the whole thing out to a contractor; or it could just sit back and decide to pass by the opportunity. Dianah Neff, Palo Alto's director of information resources, said "the decision whether to get into the (communications utility) business has to come within a year -- max." Already, city right-of-way is being leased to private business. Digital has fiber among its local offices through Palo Alto conduit. If private industry were to beat the city to the punch, there would be little incentive for municipal intervention. Michael mjg@cs.stanford.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is not to say Palo Alto is like Chicago -- far from it; but I hope they intend to *compete* with the existing service from PacBell rather than use municipal condemnation authority to *seize and take over* existing private facilities. We here had a very bad scare two years ago when the City of Chicago got the not-so-bright idea to 'municipalize' (the official, and less offensive way of saying 'steal') Commonwealth Edison facilities here. The city fathers seemed to think they could do so much better a job at electrical power generation and distribution -- and at a cheaper rate -- than Edison, whose franchise had to be renewed last year. Imagine: the same fools and idiots who run our public housing, our public transportation and our schools -- in shambles, all three -- were to be in charge of the nuclear power plants as well. The city council talked seriously about it for several months, and it literally scared the bejeezus out of the few remaining large corporate and industrial firms still located in our town (so many have split the scene over the years I have lost count). The city council tried to drum up support from the citizenry (not that it matters, they tend to pretty much ride roughshod and do as they please, but it helps to make it look like there is a consensus of approval), and they did get some support from the folks who think having the government in charge of literally everything is a great idea, but most people -- and none of the large businesses -- here wanted anything to do with it. We know how badly things get messed up when the government gets into an area traditionally served by private concerns such as real estate and property management, transportation, etc. The idea of the power going out on a cold night in January because the dimwit cousin of someone in City Hall was in charge of the power plant as a favor to his father-in-law the alderman is most unappealing. A couple of the biggies here flatly told Mayor Daley they would close their plants and move elsewhere; they simply would not risk remaining, and the mayor backed down eventually. Now I repeat, Palo Alto is not Chicago, but I hope the citizens there (if they are given any say-so in the matter -- here we are not; the politicians and lawyer/judges just do as they please) will think long and hard about allowing the government and a bunch of cronies to run something as vital as a telecommunications network. Telecom, like nuclear power generation/distribution, is not something the government should be managing. Errors in judgment are just too common, and mistakes can have disasterous consequences. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Richard Sambolec Subject: Telecom News From British Columbia, Canada Date: Sun, 27 Feb 1994 14:26:45 PST According to the {Vancouver Sun} (02/25/93, D9) the B.C. Securities Commission has approved a $15 million financing, allowing for the conversion of warrants into shares. "The prospectus approval by the securities commission will allow holders of 1,071,400 special warrants to convert their instruments into 1.141 common shares per warrant. And the securities commission's receipt of the prospectus allows Cam-Net access to the $14,099,624 held in escrow since the warrant sale last October." What makes this news, you ask? Well, in the fine tradition of the V.S.E., there is more to this story than may first appear. Cam-Net's C.E.O., Robert Moore, is alleged to have: 1) sold 416,400 Hovik shares on the VSE without a prospectus on May 26, 1988; 2) made a subsequent application for an exemption from the requirement to file a prospectus which contained material misrepresentations and failed to disclose material facts of the Hovik sale; 3) failed to comply with an order by the Superintendent of Brokers to report the particulars of the sale; 4) failed to file insider trading reports for the sale of $2.7 million worth of Cam-Net shares between August 1989 and September 1992; 5) delayed filing insider trading reports for the sale of $3.4 million worth of Hovik shares between May 1988 and September 1990 until March 1993; Cam-Net is a Vancouver-based long-distance reseller which has done nothing but lose money hand over fist since entering the competitive market. According to the paper, on February 18, 1994, Cam-Net reported a net loss of $7.1 million for the nine months ending November 30, 1993, and lost $1.76 million for the same period in 1992. What is the Hovik connection you ask? Well, in addition to being C.E.O. and Chairman of the Board of Cam-Net, Robert Moore held a controlling interest in Hovik Medical Corp, which is now known as Globetel Communications Ltd. Cam-Net Communications Inc. is owned by Cam-Net Communications Network Inc., which is publicly traded on NASDAQ and VSE, has numerous affiliated companies. Its Canadian subsidiaries are: Alldial Communications Inc. (based in Sudbury, Ontario), Cam-Net Communications Inc., Cam-Net Telecommunications Inc., Cam-Net Data Systems Ltd., Cam-Star Management Services Ltd., Canadian-American Communications Inc., Canadian Northstar Satellite Systems Ltd., Canadian Northstar Transmission Systems Ltd., Network Teleconnect Ltd. (based in Burlington, Ontario), Northstar Equipment (Canada) Ltd., Northstar Engineering (Canada) Ltd., Telesolutions Corporation (including its wholly-owned subsidiary, Consumers Telephone Corp., based in Toronto, Ontario) and VisionTel Communications Inc. VisionTel was founded in 1991 by managers who left Rogers Network Services when RNS decided not to enter the switched voice long distance market. It was jointly owned by its four Canadian founders, and Montana Power, the US utility which also operates a regional long distance carrier. Apparently Montana Power is no longer involved, and the Canadian principals accepted shares in Cam-Net as part of the merger. Cam-Net also has a few US subsidiaries, including: Business Tele-Communications Corporation (BTC), Cam-Net Inc., Cam-Net Holdings Inc., Cam-Net Systems Inc., Cam-Star Management Services Inc., Northcom Inc., Northstar Engineering Inc., Northstar Equipment Sales Inc., Northstar Satellite Systems Inc. (Oregon), and Northstar Transmission Systems Inc. Other related companies, besides Hovik/Globetel include: 308723 B.C. Ltd - the U.S. subsidiary, Northcom Inc. was purchased from 308723 B.C. Ltd. The numbered company's sole shareholder is Cam-Net Chairman and C.E.O., Robert E. Moore. Goeken Communications, Inc. -- the U.S. subsidiary, Business Tele-Communications Corporation (BTC) was purchased from GCI Liquidation Trust, successor to Goeken Communications, Inc. Goeken Communications, Inc. is related through John D. Goeken, a director common to both companies. Other news in the B.C. telecom industry: Westel Telecommunications Ltd.'s directors and senior managment people unveiled their new long distance service for B.C. at an invitation-only launch yesterday (February 24 at 5:30 p.m.) at the B.C. Enterprise Hall at the Plaza of Nations (part of the former Expo '86 site) in Vancouver. Westel was formed in April 1993, replacing its predecessor, B.C. Rail Telecommunications. B.C. Rail Telecommunications headed the BCRL/Lightel/Call-Net (*not Cam-Net) consortium which also petitioned for access to the domestic long distance market in the June 1992 IX-2 hearings before the C.R.T.C., Canada's federal regulator. Interestingly, my sources tell me that B.C Rail Telecommunications/Westel is suing Lightel for breach of contract with respect to their "phantom" partnership agreement. News from central Canada: The Rogers Communications Inc. take-over attempt of Maclean Hunter continues along its bumpy ride. Yesterday (February 24) the Maclean Hunter board of directors told its shareholders Rogers' $17-a-share offer was not enough. In the mean time, shareholders have driven both stocks down in heavy trading. Interestingly, Maclean Hunter suffered a setback in its efforts to thwart Rogers' take-over attempt. The Federal budget released on Tuesday (February 22) closed a tax loophole known by the exotic moniker, "The Butterfly Manoeuvre." New regulations no longer allow companies to sell their U.S. assets without incurring capital gains taxes. Otherwise it has been a "slow" week north of the 49th parallel ... Regards, Richard I. Sambolec Internet: sambolec@sfu.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Feb 94 17:52:53 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: 810 Area Code Trouble? Item sent to me: Phones have been in the news this week. Some businesses in Michigan are having trouble with the area code change over. Some equipment does not recognize 810 as a viable area code. I have personally run into this. I am sure it will all be corrected by the August official implementation date. ------------------------------ From: bhargava@sol.UVic.CA (Vijay Bhargava) Subject: Conference Announcement Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 01:05:16 GMT Sponsored by IEEE, India Council, IEEE Bangalore Section and the IETE (India) FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS The International Conference is conceived as a forum for discussion in this part of the world of the most recent advances in Wireless technology, networks, and services. Therefore the organizing technical committee will be pleased to receive most up-to-date information on the following subjects (although not limited to these). The Conference will have several technical sessions spread over two days (Aug. 18-19), preceded by one day (Aug.17) of tutorials covering two of the most topical current subjects. The organizing committee expects a lively and stimulating discussion on all wireless related subjects in the Garden city of India, Bangalore, specially of interest to developing countries. An extended abstract must be received by the Technical Program chair no later than April 15, 1994. Authors will be notified about acceptance by May 15, 1994 and a camera ready copy will be due by June 22, 1994. Deadlines: Abstract: April 15, 1994 Camera-ready copy : June 22, 1994 Plenary Speakers from Leading Organizations: - AT&T Bell Labs - Pactel Corp - NTT - Northern Telecom - INMARSAT - ALCATEL - QUALCOMM - Motorola - CITR Theme-Speaker: N. Vittal, Govt. of India Tutorials: - FLMPTS - How soon is soon enough - CDMA - A broadband Wireless Access Sessions: - Wireless Technology: Speech Coding for wireless Digital Modulation and channel coding TDMA or CDMA - Wireless Systems and Networks: Trunked Radio Systems (or Private Mobile Radio) Wireless solutions for Developing countries Mobile Data Satellite Communication Networks and VSAT's Wireless PABX's Wireless LAN's - Telecommunications Services Radio Paging and Voice-Mail Digital Cellular and PCS CT-2 Integration of wireless subscribers into existing PSTN Frequency Spectrum how much and how many For general inquiry regarding the conference including, exhibiting at the conference, advertising in final program or sponsoring a meal event please contact: Mr. Y.S.Rao, Conference Co-Chair Dr. A.K.Seth, Conference Co-Chair BPL Systems and Projects Limited C-DOT, Centre for Development of Telematics 1/1 Palace Road 9th Floor, Akbar Bhavan Bangalore 560 001, India New Delhi 100 021, India Phone: +91 80 220 5311 Phone: +91 11 677 525 FAX : +91 80 220 5311 FAX : +91 11 688 5528 Email: bplysr@ncb.ernet.in Manuscript may be submitted to: Dr. Vijay K. Bhargava, Technical Program Chair Dept of Elec. and Comp. Eng. University of Victoria, PO Box 3055 Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3P6 Phone: +1 604 721-8617 FAX : +1 604 721-6048 Email: bhargava@sirius.uvic.ca ADVANCE REGISTRATION Last Name: ........................... First Name: ......................... Company Name and Address: ................................................... ................................................... ................................................... ................................................... Telephone:................. FAX: ................. Name of Spouse/Guest: ....................................................... IEEE of IETE Member Registration (Membership# ..........) Rs 4,000/U.S.$200.00 Non Member Registration Rs 5,000/U.S.$250.00 (Includes all sessions, conference records, refreshments and lunches) Tutorials Rs 2,000/U.S.$100.00 (In addition to the registration fee above. Includes lunch and notes) Please check: |_| Tutorial #1 - Future Public Land Mobile Telecom Service (FPLMTS) |_| Tutorial #2 - CDMA - A Broadband Wireless Access Total remittance payable to: ICPWC '94 Hotel Information: Bangalore had a number of starred hotels (tariffs ranging from Rs 2,400 to Rs 4,000 in addition to Windsor Manor where the conference is organized viz. The Taj, Oberoi and others. A few rooms will be booked in advance at these hotels on first come basis to get a preferential rate for the conference participants. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #106 ****************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253