TELECOM Digest Sun, 13 Feb 94 21:44:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 81 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones (Alan Boritz) Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones (Richard A. De Castro) Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones (Steven H. Lichter) Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls (David A. Kaye) Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls (Jack Hamilton) Re: Advertising by New York Telephone (Michael Rubin) Re: Don't Trust the Phone Company - Part 2 (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: Don't Trust The Phone Company (Alan Boritz) Re: E-Mail Spying By Employers (Gary Breuckman) Re: V&H Report - 15 January 1994 (Clarence Dold) Re: Dispelling a Myth From the Past (David A. Kaye) Re: TDRs and Wiretaps (jdl@wam.umd.edu) Re: Need Info on ISDN Phones (Beverly Taylor) Re: Converting 11 Bit Data to 10 (Lars Poulsen) Re: Another Vendor Disguises Self as "AT&T" (Tom Coradeschi) Re: What is This Number? (Stu Whitmore) Re: Telephone Nunbers in France (John R. Levine) Re: The Dawn of a New Age (Stephen Goodman) Re: Increase Stand-by Time of Mobile Phones (Dan J. Declerck) Re: Remote Call Forwarding and Distinctive Ringing (Tasvir Shah) Re: Lebanese Get Drunken Phones (Hugh Lagle) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Paging Available on Cellular Phones From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 07:46:38 EST Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 scol@az.stratus.com (Scott Colbath) writes: > Bell Atlantic here in Phoenix announced yesterday that they were > making available to their cellular phone customers the ability to be > pagable on their cell phones. Is this being done anywhere else? It > sounds like a good idea. One is able to ditch the pager and just carry > a phone. Any comments? That's nothing new. Just set call-forward-on-no-answer to your pager number and you've got the same thing. aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place BBS (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ From: decastro@netcom.com (Richard A. De Castro) Subject: Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 17:33:07 GMT scol@az.stratus.com (Scott Colbath) writes: > Bell Atlantic here in Phoenix announced yesterday that they were > making available to their cellular phone customers the ability to be > pagable on their cell phones. Is this being done anywhere else? It > sounds like a good idea. One is able to ditch the pager and just carry > a phone. Any comments? It's a common method for the cellphone providers to increase on-air time -- when I checked into similar "offers" here in LA, you were charged for the time (in 30-second increments!) for the "page", and of course for the response. No, I still carry the pager. decastro@netcom.com Richard A. De Castro - California, North America, Sol-3 ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones Date: 13 Feb 1994 12:11:10 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) I believe PacBell Cellular offers this service, though I find Voice Mail to be as good since if I'm not on to answer it then it could not have been that important. Sysop: Apple Elite II -=- an Ogg-Net Hub BBS (909) 359-5338 12/24/96/14.4 V32/V42bis Via PCP CACOL/12/24 ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls Date: 13 Feb 1994 03:18:36 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Bill Llewellyn (thinker@ rahul.net): > is the poor man's self-help to peace and quiet on the telephone. Oh, I > know the ACLU and the Socially Responsible People don't approve of it, > but then, I don't approve of them either. PAT] The ACLU has no policy one way or the other on Caller ID. The ACLU concerns itself only with Bill of Rights issues, and more specifically First Amendment rights in test cases. In California where Caller ID is not in use, rape crisis centers were a driving force among groups against Caller ID. They're concerned that (as an example) a woman calling to order a pizza could be harrassed by unwanted calls if the pizza dude thought her voice was arousing. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And of course the fact that pizza drivers are often (best case scenario) sent to the wrong address as a 'joke' on the residents of the place where the driver was sent causing the company or driver to waste an order and lose money, or (worst case scenario) beaten and robbed of their money and their orders by people who lure them to a given address under false pretenses means nothing at all; absolutely nothing at all. ACLU lawyers and federal judges do not live in a world where those things happen, and they cannot imagine them happening, and since they cannot imagine it, therefore it does not happen. Simple as that. They ought to join the rest of us in Realworld and see how things are. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jfh@netcom.com (Jack Hamilton) Subject: Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 14 Feb 1994 00:23:09 GMT Steven H. Lichter (co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu) wrote: > This happened to my answering machine, but it was still a pain. I sure > wish California would wake up and allow full Caller ID and to hell > with the little old ladies and rights groups that feel their rights > are being violated; what about our rights to know who calls us? I think you're misrepresenting the position of the people who were opposed to Caller IDd in California. I was opposed to it, or at least to the way I understood it was to be implemented. The problem was that it was going to be difficult for callers to turn off identification. We wanted a way to turn off Caller ID "permanently" (until we reset it), rather than for every call we made. So, for example, I could dial *77 (I'm making up this number; I don't know what it might be in other states), and my outgoing calls wouldn't include the id. If I happened to call a number which didn't accept calls from non-id'd numbers, I could dial *78+the number, and that one call would have the id. The next call I made would go back to the default of not being id'd. If I wanted to turn id'ing back on, I could dial *87, and the Caller ID would always be included, unless I dialed *88+number, which would turn it off for that one call. All of these on/off capabilities would be free. Under this scheme, both parties would have complete and easy control over those aspects of caller if that affected them. That's not what Pac Bell wanted to offer. They said that if it was too easy for people to turn off Caller ID, big businesses wouldn't buy the identification feature, and it wouldn't be worthwhile for Pac Bell to introduce the new service. They decided not to offer it under the PUC's terms. (Apparently they felt that many people would opt not to be identified.) So you should lay the blame for the lack on Caller ID in California on the phone company's greed, not on the people who felt they have a right to privacy. Jack Hamilton USMail: POB 281107 SF CA 94128 USA jfh@netcom.com Packet: kd6ttl@w6pw.#nocal.ca.us.na [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Just as your right to to swing your arms around ends when your fist reaches my face, likewise your right to privacy ends when you cause my telephone to ring. If you want to live in your own private little world, no one is stopping you, but when you choose to interact with others, how can you sit there and say you have the right to approach them or call them anonymously? Where are their rights to be left alone? Like with pizza drivers, their rights don't seem to matter, eh? Whenever this Caller-ID pro/con thread starts here, it always seems to mushroom and bring me a huge stack of mail. So out of purely convenience in editing, I'll save up replies this time around and publish a random collection in a few days. To Jack Decker and others who always respond to controversial threads with *long* missives in reply and then become very indignant when their article is not used promptly on submission or in its entireity and go to other newsgroups accusing me of bias and censorship, please be forewarned: If you want to speak your piece on Caller-ID pro and con, submit it *promptly*, eliminate all or most of the quoted text, and realize that probably a dozen other people wrote to say the same thing as yourself. In a few days I will publish a batch of them, then we will all be sick and tired of reading about it and I'll squash further comments for a few months like last time. I'll try to publish a broad selection, and seeing as how I favor Caller-ID I'll probably let the anti- people have the 'last word' this time around. PAT] ------------------------------ From: miker@panix.com (Michael Rubin) Subject: Re: Advertising by New York Telephone Date: 13 Feb 1994 02:55:27 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In barmar@Think.COM (Barry Margolin) writes: > In article joseph@c3.crd.ge.com (James > Joseph) writes: >> New York Telephone has been spending truck loads of money advertising >> that they are changing their name to NYNEX. > If they weren't going to make a big deal about it, they wouldn't have > bothered changing their names in the first place. The reason they > changed the names of the subsidiaries was to change their image. New York Tel has an image of moronic customer service. The ads say things like "we're changing the name, not the service." What in heaven kind of image change would that suggest? > Presumably, the goal of both the name change and the advertising is to > increase revenues ... Most of their revenues are from the captive audience of local subscribers. I suspect they intend to reduce costs by having fewer operators, service reps, etc. shared among subsidiaries; and fewer different paper forms for bills and announcements. (Your problem hunting down a bad pair in your NYC office building will be handled by somebody in low-wage Hogwash, Rhode Island, who's never seen a building taller than two stories...) But knowing the public is already boggled by scads of previously unknown phone companies, they are widely publicizing the name change so as to avoid further customer confusion. Mike Rubin ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 02:03:41 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: Don't Trust the Phone Company - Part 2 On review, I have noticed that the scenario I proposed relative to the Bodines has been used twice in recent years by HollyWood (at least that I know of, may be more). In the first a cordless telephone was used (do the Bodine's have one?). 1) Pump Up the Volume (1990) 2) In the Line of Fire (1993) Both times the authorities broke in on the wrong people thanks to ANI. Personally, I would tend to expect this kind of knowlege/inclination to be more likely in Christian Slater fans than those of Clint Eastwood (I have seen both so what does that tell you 8*). Off to the races at Daytona today, Padgett ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Don't Trust The Phone Company From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 07:32:05 EST Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) writes: > Oh, no, exactly the opposite. If I pick up my phone after the first > ring I know for a fact that my box will miss the Caller-ID data, so > retrieving the last call and dialing it will get me the SECOND to last > phone number (since the last is missing). > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Who said either the victim or her husband > picked up the phone during the first ring? Nobody. That's not something about which a lay person would notice or care. If someone were right next to the phone when it rang, they could have picked it up before the first ring was completed, completely missing the Caller-ID data stream. > Around here, Caller-ID is delivered *immediatly* following the first ring; But that's NOT the way it's done HERE. NJ Bell delivers it sometimes immediately after the first ring, sometimes as late as during the second ring. I had to adjust the answer interval on my mailer system to delay modem pickup until after the SECOND ring, since pickup after the first ring (even just as the second ring began) USUALLY resulted in my Caller-ID box missing the data stream. If I answer my voice line, at home or in the office, after the first ring, I will USUALLY lose the Caller-ID info. > had they picked up the phone even two seconds after the first ring > stopped but before the second ring began the number shown would have > been correct. No, we can't be sure that it would have been correct. Based upon my experience with NJ Bell, I would assume a greater than 50% probability that it WASN'T delivered. aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place BBS (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am curious to know how Caller-ID is delivered in the middle of a ringing cycle. If NJ Bell does not deliver until after the second ring then that is indeed unfortunate; no one should be expected to wait that long before answering the phone if they are right next to it when it rings. Anyone else from NJ Bell terri- tory care to respond? Is delivery that retarded in arriving there? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 06:50:53 -0800 From: puma@netcom.com (Gary Breuckman) Subject: Re: E-Mail Spying By Employers In article bill@noller.com (Bill Tighe) writes: > Email used as evidence!?* How do investigators verify the source of an > email message? How do you know that this very post wasn't sent by my > evil twin brother Fred? > Pardon my paranoia but it seems that email messages are easy to fake. > Even if you don't send incriminating messages yourself, somebody who > wants your job or your head may do it for you. > Perhaps it is better to avoid email until the security and privacy > problems have been solved. Which is exactly why many people, even if they have Internet access through their place of work and can send mail or reply to newsgroups from there, often pay for a commercial account. Myself included. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: dold@rahul.net (Clarence Dold) Subject: Re: V&H Report - 15 January 1994 Organization: a2i network Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 18:17:59 GMT In article de@moscom.com (David Esan) writes: > Once a quarter I USED to receive the BellCore V&H tape. Using this > This is no longer our procedure. The information in FCC #10 is now Whatsa FCC #10? I would not be adverse to discontinuing my subscription to VHDATA, if FCC #10 was a suitable substitute. Clarence A Dold - dold@rahul.net - Milpitas (near San Jose) & Napa CA. ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: Dispelling a Myth From the Past Date: 13 Feb 1994 15:36:24 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] Donald E. Kimberlin (0004133373@mcimail.com) wrote: > cross-subsidization of AT&T's local companies with profits > from long distance service to Independent areas was _not_ one of them. Pre-divestiture there were numerous situations where the local BOCs were only partly owned by AT&T, such as Pacific Telephone (now Pacific Bell). It was 90% owned by AT&T and publicly traded on the NYSE. If any revenues had been mixed between AT&T Long Lines and the local BOC you can *bet* that the other 10% stockholders would have *screamed* to the Securities and Exchange Commission over it. ------------------------------ From: jdl@wam.umd.edu (Jonathan) Subject: Re: TDRs and Wiretaps Date: 13 Feb 1994 03:29:38 GMT Organization: University of Maryland, College Park I read in {Phrack} that it is impossible to tell whether or not there is a wiretap on your line without the cooperation of your local telephone company. The data from the TDR probably will not be useful to you unless you enlist the telephone company's cooperation. ------------------------------ From: btaylor@csuchico.edu (Beverly Taylor) Subject: Re: Need Info on ISDN Phones Date: 13 Feb 1994 05:05:28 GMT Organization: California State University, Chico In article , The Network Group <0004526627@ mcimail.com> wrote: > I need to know a source for ISDN phonesxxx -- excuse me: voice > terminals. > I have heard that AT&T has a few of these but haven't heard of any > other manufacturers such as Northern Telecom or others. Apparently the > Northern product for Meridian Digital Centrex is not an ISDN phone. We have used TelRad, Fujitsu, and AT&T ISDN sets. They're all used to run on an AT&T 5ESS. We're very satisfied with all of them and have only found these three will work with our CO switch. Bev Taylor Communications Services California State University, Chico btaylor@csuchico.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 11:29:00 +0100 From: lars@eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Converting 11 Bit Data to 10 Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK In article , widg00@wrksun1.wrk.dupont.com writes: > Does anyone know of a little black box that can convert the following: > 1 Start bit, 8 Data bits, 1 Parity bit, 1 Stop bit, ie eleven bit data > to 1 Start bit, 8 Data bits, 1 Stop bit, ie eight and no parity (10 > bits total). The eleven bit data format was used by Wang Labs in their Series 2200 systems. I always assumed that this was in order to prevent customers from supplementing the system with less expensive 3rd party terminals. Ask Wang users ... or check in computer supply houses for specialty products for the Wang aftermarket. Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products Phone: (011-) +45-31 49 81 08 Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B Telefax: +45-31 49 83 08 DK-2650 Hvidovre, DENMARK Internets: designed and built while you wait ------------------------------ From: Tom Coradeschi Subject: Re: Another Vendor Disguises Self as "AT&T" Organization: Electric Armts Div, US Army ARDEC, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 20:55:47 GMT drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) writes: > This must be the week for phone scams in New Jersey. ;) I received > several calls from a company identifying itself as "Network Services > of AT&T." They pitched a software-defined network using AT&T that > features flat rates of .18/minute over five mileage bands (wow), > compared to a much better rate we presently get from AT&T. The fax I > received, though, showed a Baltimore address and phone number and the > pitch then stated "utilizing the AT&T long distance network." In > other words, just another pushy reseller mis-representing themselves. My motorcycle dealer (Dave Cushing at Touch of Class BMW in Stewartsville, NJ) got a call from them too. When he pushed them on the ATT issue, asking them if there _were_ in fact ATT, they hung up on him. Better to find some other sucker, since he obviously wasn't gettng hooked ... tom coradeschi <+> tcora@pica.army.mil <+> DoD#413 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 20:28:08 -0800 From: whitmore@tahoma.cwu.edu (Rattlesnake Stu) Subject: Re: What is This Number? Organization: Central Washington University carlene lanham (cl@nde.unl.edu) wrote: > And, I've heard that some exchanges have a number that you call and it > will repeat back to you your own phone number. Does anyone know > anything about this number? What might it be? I seem to recall a semi-recent issue of {2600} (The Hacker Quarterly) listed a number one could call with a CallerID-blocked line and have one's phone number read back. As I remember, it was to demonstrate the inefficacy of blocking one's number when dialing a CallerID subscriber. I couldn't find it in the issue I have sitting here, and don't have any back issues handy, so it might take some looking. (And it may have been a 1-900 type number, as I think there was some type of cost associated with it. I didn't pay much attention at the time; perhaps I should have!) Anyway, if you can find a local collection of {2600}, you may be able to find it. (And {2600} is usually worth a grin or two anyway!) stuart whitmore@tahoma.cwu.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, they also have a newsgroup, I understand, called 'alt.2600', and from what I have been told, it is a really wide open arena for hackerphreaks to do their thing and post their messages. I don't know how many sites carry it. And bear in mind with any special services of the 700/800/900/976 variety, all bets are off where ID-blocking is concerned. You cannot block your number from those people even though what they get is technically ANI rather than Caller-ID. Yes there is a difference but the one is frequently -- almost always, I would say -- as good as the other. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 13:34:00 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Telephone Nunbers in France Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > Sure, now they are still really lucky to enjoy a network that has > evolved in 15 years from one of the most backward to one of the most > advanced in the world. There must be some mysterious mechanism, beyond > competition, ... Of course there was. The French government, Telecom's owner, told them to build a phone system that works, so they did. French phones are good, but they aren't cheap. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 08:52:00 EST From: Stephen Goodman <0003945654@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: The Dawn of a New Age In TELECOM Digest #69 Bill Halverson did not know who the author of the article was. Thanks to Les Johnson (LES@ULYSSES.ATT.COM) I found out the author: Michael Schrage, columnist for the {Los Angeles Times}. The article had been floating around Cyberspace when I got it and the author's name had been deleted. Steve G 3945654@MCIMAIL.COM ------------------------------ From: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com (Dan J. Declerck) Subject: Re: Increase Stand-by Time of Mobile Phones Date: 13 Feb 1994 17:24:20 GMT Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group In article , Bill Mayhew wrote: > I am pretty sure that pocket type cellular phones here in the US use a > power saving feature that cycles the reciever off and on while the > unit is in standby mode. It seems to take a second or two for my > Motorola pocket phone to decide it should ring. The cellular paging > channel does send the page out to the mobile several times in a row, > so there is a reasonable chance of catching the page even if the > mobile unit were to cycle its receiver. > I'm not familiar with the way GSM phones in other parts of the world > work, so there might be a reason they need to stay on continuously. The GSM spec allows a lengthy (2 minute ?) period to allow the Mobile Station to power down segments of it's internal parts. Dan DeClerck EMAIL: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com Motorola Cellular APD ------------------------------ From: shah@aslslc44.asl.dl.nec.com (Tasvir Shah) Subject: Re: Remote Call Forwarding and Distinctive Ringing Organization: NEC America, Inc Irving TX Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 16:28:01 GMT In article topolski@kaiwan.com (Robb Topolski) writes: > QUESTION: If a caller (from 555-1133) dials my Remote Call Forwarding > number (555-9922) which is forwarded to my home, which number is > evaluated by Distinctive Ringing? ANSWER: The original calling number 555-1133 is (should be) evaluated for Distinctive Ringing. tasvir ------------------------------ From: lagle@aur.alcatel.com (H. Lagle) Subject: Re: Lebanese Get Drunken Phones Date: 13 Feb 1994 16:47:00 GMT Organization: Alcatel Network Systems, Raleigh NC Reply-To: lagle@aur.alcatel.com In article 10@eecs.nwu.edu, lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) writes: > In article Alex Cena wrote: >> The Lebanese government has approved contracts to buy one million >> telephone lines from Alcatel Alsthom NV, Siemens AG and AB L.M. Ericsson. ^^^^^^^ > Well, here in Oakland, "Alcatel" is a liquor store (near the corner of > ALCAtraz and TELegraph), so I can't get away from images of phone > lines arriving by the keg ... Someone here has a picture of that liquor store. I was wondering where it was and where the name came from. Hugh Lagle, Alcatel Network Systems, Raleigh, NC USA Internet: lagle@aur.alcatel.com *** Individualists Unite *** [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, so now you know the truth, and I hope it has set you free -- all this time you have been employed by the subsidiary of a west coast gin mill and didn't know it. When people ask you what that picture is, you can tell them with pride that it is the headquarters office of your parent company! :) Cheers! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #81 *****************************