For your convenience in reading: Subject lines are printed in RED and
Moderator replies when issued appear in BROWN.
Previous Issue (just one)
TD Extra News
Add this Digest to your personal
or  
TELECOM Digest Fri, 16 Sep 2005 18:13:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 423 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update #497, Sept. 16, 2005 (Angus TeleManagement Group) Broadband Bill Addresses Advanced Services (USTelecom dailyLead) Cellular-News for Friday 16th September 2005 (Cellular-News) Re: BellSouth/AT&T New Orleans "Main" at Baronne & Poydras (P Coxwell) Re: Flat Rate Water, was: Verizon Complaints About EVDO (Paul Coxwell) Re: Roaming Charges (John Levine) Re: Roaming Charges (Ken Abrams) Re: Back in the Cord-Board Days (Paul Coxwell) Re: How a Telephone Works (Paul Coxwell) Re: Back to the Future in 845-268 Land (Paul Coxwell) Re: Back to the Future in 845-268 Land (Isaiah Beard) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 11:31:21 -0700 Subject: Telecom Update #497, Sept. 16, 2005 From: Angus TeleManagement Group <jriddell@angustel.ca> Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group <jriddell@angustel.ca> ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 497: September 16, 2005 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** NEC UNIFIED SOLUTIONS: www.necunifiedsolutions.com ** ROGERS TELECOM: www.rogers.com/solutions ** VONAGE CANADA: www.vonage.ca ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Cellcos Want Two Years to Make Numbers Portable ** CRTC Wants Comment on Wireless Portability ** Rogers and Bell Plan Wireless Broadband Net ** Telus--Over Half of Alberta TWU Members Working ** FCC to Aid in Hurricane Relief ** Zarlink Offers "Timing Over Packet" Devices ** Policy Panel Receives Second-Round Submissions ** Comments Invited on VoIP Appeals to Cabinet ** CCTA Wants Small CLECs' Obligations Reduced ** CRTC Asks Bell to Clarify VoIP Number Portability Issues ** Aliant Denied Relief on Winback & Promotion Rules ** Quebecor Says Bell is Violating Winback Rules ** RIM Faces New Suit ** Nokia to Launch Push Email ** EBay Snaps Up Skype ** U.S. Congress Reviews Telecom Act ** Nortel Legal Chief Resigns ** Aliant Names New CFO ** Special Offer to Telecom Update Readers ============================================================ CELLCOS WANT TWO YEARS TO MAKE NUMBERS PORTABLE: If a plan proposed by the wireless carriers is implemented, Canadians won't be able to keep their phone numbers when they switch wireless carriers, or switch between wireline and wireless, until September 2007. The proposal, based on a PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, has been submitted to Industry Canada. ** Wireless Number Portability has been operating across the United States for nearly two years. Early this year, the federal government asked the CRTC to "move expeditiously to implement wireless number portability." ** Richard Branson, head of Virgin Mobile, charges that "the big carriers are dragging their heels on giving customers the freedom they deserve because it works to their advantage -- it helps to keep their customers locked in with one carrier." He says the change could be made "in only a few months." CRTC WANTS COMMENT ON WIRELESS PORTABILITY: CRTC Telecom Public Notice 2005-14, issued at 2pm today, asks for public comment on issues related to the introduction of Wireless Number Portability, including ways to shorten the implementation time frame proposed by the CWTA. To participate, notify the Commission by September 26 and submit comments by October 6. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2005/pt2005-14.htm ROGERS AND BELL PLAN WIRELESS BROADBAND NET: Rogers Communications and Bell Canada have agreed to pool their broadband spectrum holdings and build a Canada-wide wireless broadband network through a joint venture, Inukshuk Internet. ** This project was begun early in 2004, when Inukshuk was owned by Microcell (Fido), Allstream, and NR Communications. Last year Rogers acquired Microcell and MTS bought Allstream. MTS then sold its stake in Inukshuk to Rogers and NR, and Bell has now agreed to buy all of NR's share. (See Telecom Update #409, 423, 467) TELUS -- OVER HALF OF ALBERTA TWU MEMBERS WORKING: Telus says that 52.6% of its unionized employees in Alberta were reporting for work as of August 31, up from 48.8% in mid-August. The company has not released any figures for British Columbia, where a majority of the bargaining unit members are located. FCC TO AID IN HURRICANE RELIEF: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has allocated $211 million from the Universal Service Fund to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. Among other things, the funds will provide wireless handsets and 300 free minutes to evacuees and others, and will help pay the costs of reconnecting consumers to the telecommunications network as the disaster-struck area is rebuilt. ** The Commission is creating an expert panel to recommend ways to improve disaster preparedness, network robustness and reliability, and public safety operations. ZARLINK OFFERS "TIMING OVER PACKET" DEVICES: Ottawa-based Zarlink Semiconductor has introduced two Timing-over-Packet devices, which aim to enable wireless carriers to achieve "circuit-switched performance over an economic packet infrastructure." POLICY PANEL RECEIVES SECOND-ROUND SUBMISSIONS: September 15 was the deadline for reply comments to be submitted to the Telecom Policy Review. All comments will be posted on the panel's website. http://www.telecomreview.ca/epic/internet/intprp-gecrt.nsf/en/rx00044e.html ** Archived presentations from last week's broadband consultation in Whitehorse, and the Web forum on the same topic, are also available on the panel's website. http://www.telecomreview.ca/epic/internet/intprpgecrt.nsf/en/h_rx00038e.html#webcast COMMENTS INVITED ON VoIP APPEALS TO CABINET: Industry Canada has published a notice in the Canada Gazette, inviting comment on the various appeals submitted to Cabinet requesting changes to the CRTC's VoIP decision (see Telecom Update #488, 490, 492). http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/en/sf08446e.html http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/en/sf06105e.html http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2005/dt2005-28.htm CCTA WANTS SMALL CLECs' OBLIGATIONS REDUCED: The Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association says that many of its small members want to offer VoIP by contracting with a reseller, but this makes it impossible for them to comply with some of the CLEC obligations, such as interconnecting with other carriers, providing equal access to all long distance carriers, or supporting number portability. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2005/8622/c13_200510695.htm CRTC ASKS BELL TO CLARIFY VoIP NUMBER PORTABILITY ISSUES: The CRTC has asked Bell Canada to explain why its Digital Voice service does not support number portability on secondary numbers, and how the telco plans to remedy this limitation (see Telecom Update #496). http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Letters/2005/lt050906.htm ALIANT DENIED RELIEF ON WINBACK & PROMOTION RULES: The CRTC has turned down Aliant's request for interim relief from the rules restricting its winback and local promotion activity in Nova Scotia and P.E.I. The Commission said removing these rules prematurely could reduce competition. The substantive issues will be examined in the local forbearance proceeding and in the Bell/SaskTel application to have winback rules declared a Charter violation. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2005/dt2005-53.htm http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2005/8640/c12_200505076.htm http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2005/8622/b2_200505068.htm QUEBECOR SAYS BELL IS VIOLATING WINBACK RULES: Quebecor, on behalf of its subsidiary Videotron, says Bell Canada has been violating the winback rules by addressing automated calls, "survey" calls, or mailed cards to customers leaving Bell for Videotron. Quebecor wants the CRTC to order Bell to stop such practices immediately. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2005/8622/q15_200510710.htm RIM FACES NEW SUIT: A New York-based developer, Eatoni Ergonomics, is suing Research In Motion, alleging that RIM is wrongly using its patented keyboard technology. RIM has settled suits by several high-tech companies but is still locked in a patent battle with NTP Inc. NOKIA TO LAUNCH PUSH EMAIL: Nokia is developing software to push email and business applications to smartphones and other mobile devices. Nokia Business Centre, developed in collaboration with Good Technology, will be available from some carriers by year-end. EBAY SNAPS UP SKYPE: Online auctioneer eBay has agreed to buy Skype Technologies, an Internet phone company based in Luxembourg, for about US$2.6 billion. More than 50 million users have signed up for Skype's free worldwide computer-to-computer calling service. U.S. CONGRESS REVIEWS TELECOM ACT: The Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives is asking for public comment on draft amendments to the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The amendments would set a framework for regulating broadband Internet and VoIP services. http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/News/09152005_staff_disc.pdf NORTEL LEGAL CHIEF RESIGNS: Nortel Networks Chief Legal Officer Nicolas DeRoma has retired. DeRoma, 59, joined Nortel in 1997. ALIANT NAMES NEW CFO: Aliant has named its VP Finance and Controller Glen Leblanc as Chief Financial Officer. The post has been filled since February by CEO Jay Forbes. SPECIAL OFFER TO TELECOM UPDATE READERS: It's just four weeks until Telemanagement Live, Canada's preeminent conference and exhibition on business telecom and networking. Telecom Update subscribers who register online now will receive a $200 discount on an All Access pass, including all sessions and meals and a ticket to the Telecommunications Hall of Fame Dinner. ** To qualify, register at http://www.telemanagementlive.com and enter AMBP95 in the "promotional code" field. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web late Friday afternoon each week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see http://www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2005 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail jriddell@angustel.ca. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 14:28:09 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com> Subject: Broadband Bill Addresses Advanced Services USTelecom dailyLead September 16, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=24675&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Broadband bill addresses advanced services BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * BellSouth bounces back after Katrina * Rogers Communications, Bell Canada to launch wireless broadband network * DT won't unload T-Mobile USA * Behind the story on the AOL-MSN talks * Nortel to resell Airspan's WiMAX gear USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Presented by ILC: Broadband Services: Network Provisioning Across Multiple Technologies EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Report: IPTV to buoy VOD growth VOIP DOWNLOAD * Economist: VoIP's impact heard loud and clear * Analysts examine eBay-Skype deal REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC releases $211M to rebuild communications network Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=24675&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Friday 16th September 2005 Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 07:28:06 -0500 From: Cellular-News <dailydigest@cellular-news.com> Cellular-News - www.cellular-news.com UK's Largest WLAN Network http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14067.php As part of a major overhaul of IT infrastructure at the University College London Hospitals (UCLH) NHS Trust, Aruba Networks WLAN technology has been used to create what is believed to be the United Kingdom's largest sin... Using Cellphones To Create Art http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14068.php Boffins from MIT have taken anonymous cell phone usage information to create some interesting profiles of cities. Today the experience, infrastructure and morphology of the city are more closely related than ever before.... 3G Launch in Bulgaria http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14069.php Bulgaria's M-Tel has announced the technical launch of its UMTS network, with commercial services due within a few months. The company has already launched an EDGE upgrade to its GSM network.... Donuts into Cellphones - 100th Store for Franchise Chain http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14070.php Cellular superstore franchise Wireless Toyz this week opens its 100th store with its first location in Anaheim, California. The company has added 37 outlets since last January and says that it is scheduled to open 50 mor... Chinese Vendor Launches 3G Handset http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14071.php China's TCT is to launch its first WCDMA handset, using a reference design from Royal Philips Electronics. TCL Communication Technology (TCT) is a leader in its domestic market, with sales of approximately 15 million han... European Operator Wants Second Hand Network Kit http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14072.php Somera Communications has announced that one of the largest wireless carriers in Europe has established Somera as its primary vendor for procuring quality refurbished network equipment. Somera has already booked more tha... Mobiles Kill Off The Public Payphone http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14073.php TeliaSonera Finland has decided to abandon its payphone business. TeliaSonera Finland has a little less than 2000 public telephones of which around two hundred in the region of Auria. Of the payphones over 1200 are indoo... Making Mobile Music Work will be a Hard Task http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14074.php The large number of stakeholders in the mobile music value chain is the key obstacle in developing a workable business model. "The addition of mobile operators to the downloadable music value-chain adds a layer of comple... Theft Of Verizon Wireless Customer Records Halted http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14075.php Verizon Wireless says that it has secured a court order to halt a Tennessee-based company's illegal practice of obtaining and selling confidential telephone records of Verizon Wireless customers. Earlier this summer, Ver... Vodafone Selling CDMA Datacard for USA Travellers http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14076.php Vodafone has launched a high-speed datacard for use in the USA, over Verizon Wireless' EVDO (Evolution-Data Optimized) network. Across Europe, Japan and New Zealand, Vodafone customers access the Vodafone WCDMA network. ... Australian PM Basks In Glow Of Telstra Sale Vote http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14059.php Years of political frustration over Telstra Corp.'s (TLS) ownership limbo were swept aside Thursday as the Australian government welcomed parliamentary consent for the telecom giant's A$34 billion (US$26 billion) privati... Poland's TPSA Launching Orange Brand Next Week http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14060.php Poland's dominant telecommunications operator, Telekomunikacja Polska SA (TPS.WA), Thursday said it will launch France Telecom's (FTE) worldwide Orange mobile brand as of Sept. 19. ... Nokia Gets GSM/GPRS Order From Telefonica Moviles Chile http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14061.php Finland's Nokia Oyj (NOK) said Thursday it has signed a contract with Telefonica Moviles Chile, part of Telefonica Moviles S.A. (TEM), for the expansion of its movistar branded global system for mobile communications/gen... Brazil Mobile Customers Reach 78.9 Million In Aug, +38% On Year http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14062.php Brazilian mobile phone companies added 13.3 million customers in the first eight months of the year, bringing the total subscriber base to 78.9 million, telecommunications regulator Anatel said Thursday. ... Motorola Unit Sale Would Return Focus To Core Business http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14063.php The sale of Motorola Inc.'s (MOT) automotive parts division would free up resources for the telecommunications equipment maker to focus on its stronger core wireless handset and infrastructure business. ... Investcom, Watan Win Afghanistan Mobile Telecom Licenses http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14064.php Lebanese mobile telecommunications company Investcom Thursday said it has won a license to offer mobile telecoms services in Afghanistan. ... O2: Telefonica Statement About Buy Targets Was "General" http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14065.php Telefonica said Thursday that in response to the request of the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers, it notes the recent press reports concerning its acquisition strategy and possible acquisition targets including 02 PLC foll... Siemens To Disclose SBS and Com Operations Overhaul Plan Next Week http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14066.php Siemens AG (SI) said Thursday it will give details in the coming week about the reorganization of two of its ailing units, Siemens Business Services, or SBS, and its telecommunications equipment unit. ... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 16:44:44 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk> Subject: Re: BellSouth/AT&T New Orleans "Main" at Baronne & Poydras Streets Mark, Great to have you back! > And the AT&T 4ESS in the building (NWORLAMA04T, 060-T) is working, but > quite overwhelmed with call volume. You will frequently get "All ccts > busy" or "due to the hurricane in the area you are calling" > recordings, with trailers of "zero-six-zero, tee" (060-T being the > Network Switch Number of the New Orleans 4ESS). Off on a tangent somewhat, but is there any sort of numbering system applied to these modern ID numbers or is it more or less random allocation? I'm familiar with the old-style IDs such as "914-1" for White Plains etc., but I've never been able to figure out how the current system is supposed to work. For example, dialing into the NANP from the U.K. using an unallocated prefix within a valid area code often results in a "Your call cannot be completed as dialed" recording with an ID of "two" followed by two letters, e.g. 2BM. Are these class 2 tandem offices? Does the network even still use the same class designations as in the past? -Paul ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 16:12:13 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk> Subject: Re: Flat Rate Water, was: Verizon Complaints About EVDO > In our area sewer bills are based on water consumption and sewage > costs more than water. Both bills have a high minimum charges -- > single people living alone rarely use more than that minimum and > probably would pay less on a more usage based rate schedule. Over here in England supplies were all unmetered at one time, with the charge being based on the "ratable value" of the house (i.e. the same base as used to calculate local property taxes). Sewer charges work the same way, with a different multiplier to arrive at the actual amount charged. My home is still on such unmetered service, and this year the bill comes to approx. $530, [*] near enough half and half for supply and sewer. The sewer charge is normally higher than the supply charge, but I get a $50 discount as I have no surface water draining into the sewer. Houses in the area still on their own septic tanks would pay only the supply portion of the bill, about $265, plus the small surface drainage fee if their surface water went onto a street and then into the public sewer. Meters are standard for new homes now, and many older properties have also been converted to metered service. Most water companies offer a trial period of metering, and if you're not saving money after a year or so you can revert back to unmetered service (that option isn't available when the property changes ownership or on new homes built with a meter). The metered service in my area is billed as a small fixed annual fee plus so much per cubic meter, both for supply and sewer. It works out to about $43 plus 0.7 cent per U.S. gallon for supply and $111 plus 0.8 cent per gallon for sewer.(again with a $50 discount if you have no surface drainage to the sewer). [*] All converted at 1 GBP = $1.80. > So King Daley I had a solution for that also: we will take a tiny > little five foot wide length of land on the north side of Irving Park > Road (where Chicago touches Schiller Park) and stretch that all the > way west then through the Forest Preserve (don't worry about those > commissioners, they are my puppets also) and we will keep on > extending that little strip of land through Rosemont until it reaches > the eastern edge of Ohare, where then we 'balloon it out' to take in > all of Ohare. So by that gerrymandering Chicago is able to annex > Orchard Field (which they would begin calling 'Ohare' Field; FYI that > is why the FAA designation for Ohare is 'ORD', from the Orchard Field > days). Pat, I wondered about the situation at O'Hare first time I was going to pass through there some years ago and looked at the map. In my Rand-McNally road atlas there's a dotted line labeled "Chicago City Limits" which follows the marked area of the airport exactly, yet the big yellow area which otherwise marks the limit of Chicago stops way short of the airport. In fact following that Irving Park Road the city limit appears to be at Pueblo Av. on the eastern edge of Schiller Woods, which I make a good 3 miles from the airport boundary. Thanks to your explanations, now I know why -- My map is obviously not detailed enough to show a 5 ft. wide strip! When did the annexing of Orchard Field and the change of name to O'Hare actually take place? I'm guessing 1960s? -Paul [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Orchard Field was its name during World War II; it became O'Hare sometime in the middle 1950's, but the FAA retained the old designation of ORD for ORcharD Field. My impression is cartographers (map makers) go insane attempting to properly chart out the northwest side of City of Chicago. The boundary is quite plain on the south side, much of the north side and even going east and west (on the north) for the first few miles it is clearly on Howard Street (except far east by the lake where it juts up north of Howard Street for a couple block where the Chicago/Evanston boundary is the southernmost edge of Calvary Cemetery. Then the boundary makes a sharp turn and goes southeast on Clark Street (which the Evanstonians refer to as 'Chicago Street') back south to Howard then straight west for a few miles on Howard. I think all of the Chicago Transit Authority train yards at that point are considered Chicago, but at street level, _on the north side of Howard Street_ beginning at the CTA tracks underpass, the north side of Howard Street begins taking Evanston street numbers; the CTA Howard Station (on the south side of the street [Howard and Paulina Sts]) is known as 1759 West Howard; the CTA employees only office on the north side of Howard and Paulina, right across the street is known as 301 Howard Street by the Evanston numbering system. Right next door to 301 Howard (Evanston) is 1760 West Howard (Chicago) because the elevated tracks go overhead at that point. I think Howard is the only street name Chicago/Evanston share in common. A few blocks west of Howard Street and Western Avenue (in Evanston, 'Western' is known as 'Asbury Street'), the Chicago boundary line drops south (at Kedzie Avenue [Chicago], I forget off hand what Evanston calls that street), and the suburb of Lincolnwood begins on the south side of the street, the Chicago street numbers continue through Lincolnwood. After a couple blocks, the Village of Skokie begins on the north side of Howard Street, and the Chicago system of street numbering resumes [on both sides of Howard] since Skokie and Lincolnwood both go along with Chicago's way of numbering things. It only gets more complex as you go further west; at Lincolnwood, the Chicago boundary drops south to Devon Street (6300 north I think); the boundary line cuts in and out, frequently jutting in and out of alleys, a half block here, a half block there. Most of this goes back to earlier years in the 20th century as 'unincorporated areas' (based on the votes of the residents therein) chose whether or not to affiliate with City of Chicago or whichever suburb they were otherwise contiguous with. SBC (nee, Ameritech, nee Illinois Bell) has one telephone exchange out there on which '911' does _not_ go to Chicago Police, it instead rings to the Cook County Sheriff which handles unincorporated areas of the county. People living in that area (known as 'unincorporated Norwood Park Township' [so as not to be confused with 'Norridge', an incorporated suburb which is completely surrounded on all four sides by Chicago]) get put on that exchange. The little town of 'Golf, Illinois', which was cut out of a corner of Glenview, Illinois is like that. Golf backs into Glenview to the north and west, to Skokie and the golf course/country club on the east and Morton Grove on the south. Incorporated, but it buys its fire protection from Morton Grove and its police protection from Cook County Sheriff. All those places use the 'Chicago street numbering system' except for Evanston which is very independent. Golf, Illinois has its own train station, its own post office and its own school, and naturally its own golf course/country club and it is entirely _fenced in_ or set back so far from Waukegan Road (main drag in Glenview/Morton Grove) and Church Street (main connecting road between Evanston/Skokie/ Morton Grove and points westward) that no one can get in there except on foot or by alighting at the Golf train station. You may recall John Wayne Gacy, the Democratic ward committeeman from some ward or another of Chicago, and serial killer of young boys who had the misfortune of being manipulated by him in his construction business, or otherwise 'uncertain of their own sexuality', etc. One reason he fell through the cracks for so many years and escaped any apprehension at all is because he lived in the 'no mans land' of unincorporated Norwood Park Township. Police never went around there, it was not their territory. Finally, police from Des Plaines, Illinois who were investigating him (after about twenty years of his getting away with murder [quite literally]) took him into custody, and turned him over to Cook County Sheriff. People use the phrase 'Chicago' quite generically, but _Chicago Police_ had nothing to do with that case; nothing at all. Surrounded on all four sides by Chicago and three other suburbs, but the _block he lived on_ was (and still is) part of unincorporated Norwood Park Township. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 16 Sep 2005 05:33:58 -0000 From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> Subject: Re: Roaming Charges Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > This raises a question I thought of recently, but had not bothered to > ask anyone about. Suppose I start a cell call in local but move to a > roaming tower during the call? Does the call get charged as roaming > or not? I doubt you'd get a handoff in a situation like that. It'd drop the call and you'd call back. R's, John ------------------------------ From: Ken Abrams <k_abrams@[REMOVETHIS] sbcglobal.net> Subject: Re: Roaming Charges Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 13:23:58 GMT <ranck@vt.edu> wrote > This raises a question I thought of recently, but had not bothered to > ask anyone about. Suppose I start a cell call in local but move to a > roaming tower during the call? Does the call get charged as roaming > or not? What about the opposite situation, start of call is roaming > but moves into home area during the call? Won't happen. The call would be dropped. AFAIK, a change from "home" to "roam" means you are changing carriers. Calls in progress are NOT passed or handed-off from one company to another. (It appears that they usually can't even pass from one tower to another within a company.) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 16:14:05 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk> Subject: Re: Back in the Cord-Board Days > A look at small town telephone directories of the 1960s showed dialing > was both limited and cumbersome in many places. To reach a neighbor- > ing exchange, one might have to dial a special prefix, and a different > prefix for each area, as well as from where you're calling from. The > charts could be rather complex. It was the same in Britain at that time, with local routing codes being used extensively. Small exchanges serving villages and rural areas (referred to as dependent exchanges) dialed 9 to reach their parent office, and callers on the latter would dial two-digit codes to reach those outlying places, most commonly 8x, but sometimes other combinations such as 5x, 6x, or 7x. Calls from one dependent exchange to another within the area used the parent exchange as a tandem, with listed codes which made the routing perfectly obvious, e.g. dial 983 plus the local number. Trunks between the parent exchange and its counterpart in a neighboring area were accessed with more codes, typically 9x. These outgoing trunks were made accessible from incoming trunks so that the dependent exchanges could "dial through." Thus a call from a dependent exchange in one area to a dependent exchange in an adjoining area would result in two tandem exchanges and a listed routing code which was quite long, e.g. 99182, in which the first 9 routes to the parent exchange, 91 selects a trunk to the neighboring area, then 82 routes to a dependent exchange (and the chances are that after all that the local number in that tiny office would be only three digits long!). Just to complicate matters further, if there was sufficient traffic between two points direct trunks could be installed and a completely separate direct routing code added, sometimes just a single digit on a spare first level (e.g. "For calls to ______, dial 6 plus the number"). The way that the routing codes varied from one office to another meant that dialing cards or booklets were issued separate from the phone books instructing callers how to dial nearby places from their phone. Of course, armed with a whole batch of such cards from the area, it wasn't difficult to map out almost the entire system of routing codes and figure out ways of routing calls which were not officially sanctioned. In fact in some cases it allowed a call which should have been charged at long-distance rates to be placed as a local call. These local routings survived right up until the 1980s. -Paul. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 21:07:37 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk> Subject: Re: How a Telephone Works > Here in the USA, we call these systems "pair gain." There are many > types of pair-gain equipment in use, but the most common in current > use is "Digital Loop Carrier" (DLC); I assume you have something > similar in the UK. We do indeed. The pair-gain units employed here are commonly known as DACS (Digital Access Carrier System). The small settlement in which I live is about 5 miles from the central office as the wire runs. In recent years many of the houses have been changed from holiday homes to permanent residences, and as a result there has been a huge increase in the demand for lines, far in excess of the spare pairs in the cables which run down the road to the nearest cabinet distribution point in a village about a mile away. The result is a proliferation of DACS units atop poles to keep up with the demand. The problem we have now that ADSL service has just become available is that it can't be implemented via DACS, so when somebody orders broadband service it might be necessary to rearrange connections and put non-ADSL lines onto a DACS to free up a pair for the ADSL subscriber. > I believe that the pilot tone the modem sends is defined to tell the > echo cancellers to go away. Of course, now that phone calls are > typically digitized at the originating CO and turned back to analog at > the callee's CO, whether it's across the street or half way around the > world, how much echo cancelling do we need? The CCITT standards for data comms employed in Europe specified a separate guard tone years ago which was to be applied by the answering modem, and intended -- I believe -- to turn off the echo cancellation and any other line conditioning. The legacy of this can be seen in the Hayes command set under the AT&G option, which provides options of 550 or 1800Hz for the guard tone. -Paul. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 21:07:45 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk> Subject: Re: Back to the Future in 845-268 Land > I do know that when you get a busy signal, as often as not the signal > you hear is generated by the switch at your end and the circuit is > dropped as soon as the remote switch can tell your switch to give you > a busy. (This is why calls to Europe produce US busy signals rather > than the local European busy signal.) And vice versa. First time I called to the U.S. and got a British busy signal it really made me sit up and take notice. Getting an EET (equipment engaged tone) from the U.K. end when all overseas trunks were busy was quite normal in the past, but not a regular busy tone. The same arrangement appears to be used for spare numbers on some circuits now -- Instead of the North American recording we get dumped to our standard local recording ("The number you have dialed has not been recognized."). It's rather off-putting, because one is never quite sure whether the call actually made it across the Atlantic or whether a BT switch has not been programmed with a new area code and is rejecting the call at this end (which results in the same recording). Fortunately, this implementation is still fairly unusual, and redialing immediately will often route a different way and give an American recording followed by reorder instead, which is rather more comforting.. It also seems to be very rare to get this digital signaling followed by a U.K. tone/recording when using many of the alternate carriers. -Paul. ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard <sacredpoet@sacredpoet.com> Subject: Re: Back to the Future in 845-268 Land Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 16:59:46 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com John Levine wrote: >> I tried it a few more times and at one point even came up with a >> 1960's style ring tone with no answer. Is it possible the old gear is >> still in the little brick telco building by Rockland Lake and taking >> overload calls ? >> 845-268-xxxx. > Rather unlikely. The switch is a nice modern DMS-100 with vastly more > capacity than whatever electromechanical thing it replaced. I can > think of a variety of possible explanations, none terribly plausible. Just tried a few numbers as well. I was getting some modern style rings. What COULD have happened is that perhaps one or more of those numbers is connecting to an antiquated PBX with old fashioned tones. E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. 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. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #423 ****************************** | |