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Message Digest 
Volume 28 : Issue 65 : "text" Format

Messages in this Issue:
  Re: Telex and TWX rates 1970s 
  Re: VoIP and wireless networking 
  Re: VoIP and wireless networking 
  Re: Joint utility poles (was Re: Technical Demo turns political...) 
  Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909  
  Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909 
  Re: Telex and TWX rates 1970s 
  Re: Telex and TWX rates 1970s 


====== 27 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== 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, and other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:09:18 +1100 From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Telex and TWX rates 1970s Message-ID: <pan.2009.03.05.07.09.15.835370@myrealbox.com> On Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:39:34 -0500, hancock4 wrote: ....... > I suspect many Telex users did not have the luxury of interconnecting a > new computer as you did and found the retyping of source documents and > punched tape handling rather tedious, as well as expensive in manpower. ....... When I first got a job with Australia's (then monopoly) telco, Telecom I started in the section that installed Telex machines (I was an audio specialist, so it made sense to put me in that section...... NOT!). This was at the time the first "Glass screen" Telex machines were introduced in Australia, they were Sagem units from Germany with a small CRT screen and - wait for it - the ability to put things on a floppy disk!!! This was back in 1982, and these things had their software in EEPROMS so since I was the closest thing to an "IT geek" way back then (owning an Osborne Executive) I got the job of erasing and then programming all of these massive 8K chips (wow!, a chip that held 8K of data!!!) and installing them in these virtual mini-computers that plugged into the Telex network (which was still quite big back then). There were still many (many!) mechanical Telex units in service, as well as earlier Sagem machines that used punched tape and were just modern equivalents of the fully mechanical devices...... ahhh the memories..... RYRYRYRY...... ;-) The anecdotal reason for the Telex network being so important back then - even with Fax making big inroads - was that a lot of Japanese companies would not do business with anyone without a Telex service, so we just kept installing 'em. -- Regards, David. David Clayton Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a measure of how many questions you have. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:12:01 +0100 From: Tor-Einar Jarnbjo <news@jarnbjo.de> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: VoIP and wireless networking Message-ID: <49AF8951.8060704@jarnbjo.de> 1506 schrieb: > Does anyone know if I should anticipate any issues with this > arrangement? Probably not. I've been using such a setup since I started using VoIP some four years ago and have never had any issues with the WLAN link. Unless you have an extremely fancy ISP service and very old WLAN equipment or use the WLAN extensively for internal high-bandwith data transfers, the ISP link will be the limiting factor and the WLAN link will have more than enough capacity to not cause any problems. If I look at my current setup, the WLAN link adds <1 ms latency to the overall 18ms or 55ms latency all the way to the two VoIP providers I'm using and it's obvious, that it doesn't matter. The 54Mbps WLAN offers "in real" at least 25Mbps, which is also a factor or two more than what most ISPs are able to deliver. Independent of the functionality and VoIP, you should of course consider your WLAN security settings, but if it's important for you that noone listens to your phone conversations, you wouldn't have used a POTS line either. Breaking even the weakest WLAN encryption is probably much harder than to listen into a regular phone line. Tor ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:06:40 +1100 From: Colin <colins@swiftdsl.com.au> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: VoIP and wireless networking Message-ID: <49afc051$1_9@news.peopletelecom.com.au> David Clayton wrote: > On Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:28:20 -0500, 1506 wrote: > >> I am considering running my VoIP system on the far side of a wireless >> link. i.e. My internet service comes thru a cable interface into which >> I plug a router with wireless capability. I plan to use a remote >> wireless bridge into which I will plug my TPAs/ATAs. >> >> Does anyone know if I should anticipate any issues with this >> arrangement? >> > VoIP is very sensitive to latency, and adding Wireless links just makes > this sort of thing worse. > > You may also need to ensure that all your network equipment has QoS > capability to ensure that your voice packets get priority otherwise that > could be another quality issue when you are on calls. > I use Skype via a wireless [802.]11g link to my router, and while the video *sometimes* pixellates, depending on the quality of the line, the speech quality is fine - better with a headset than with the built-in mike and speakers, but still quite OK, negligible latency, unless it's an international call. It's no different with an [802.]11n link. Colin ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:18:08 +1100 From: Colin <colins@swiftdsl.com.au> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Joint utility poles (was Re: Technical Demo turns political...) Message-ID: <49afc301_6@news.peopletelecom.com.au> Neal McLain wrote: > hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > > > Historically around here the lines were--top electric, > > middle phone, lower cable. > > I wrote: > > > Actually, it's top electric, middle cable TV, and phone > > in the lowest position. > > Paul <pssawyer@comcast.net.INVALID> wrote: > > > With municipal fire alarm (and other city communications) > > next under electric, where such systems still exist. > > Or communications and signaling circuits owned by county > governments, state governments, MUDs, IXCs, CLECs, non- > local ILECs, non-local franchised CATVs, power companies, > railroad companies, banks, and who-knows-what-else. > > hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > > > The phone lines were relatively high up, and when new > > cable lines were installed to provide cable TV, the only > > place for them to go was lower. Unless of course the > > whole pole was redone. > > Does "redone" mean rearranging existing cables on the > existing pole, or setting a new pole? > > Typically, power and telephone companies rearrange ("make > ready") their facilities to accommodate CATV above telco. > If they can't make room for CATV on a pole, they replace > the pole. Of course, they charge the entire "fully > allocated cost" to the CATV company. > > What you describe is an unusual situation. I'd like to see > a photo of one of the poles. 'Typically' depends on where you live. Here in Sydney the power is at the top, the phone line below, the first cable company (Telstra or Optus) below that, the second cable company (Optus or Telstra) below that. (I can almost touch some of them where they droop in the middle.) When there was a bush fire the whole lot went, poles and all, then they strung them back just the same :-( Colin ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:38:03 -0800 From: AES <siegman@stanford.edu> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909 Message-ID: <siegman-0583D7.10373305032009@news.stanford.edu> > >In high-density urban areas, the dominant power company and the > >ILEC sometimes have reciprocal agreements: each company can > >attach to the other's poles without cash changing hands. This > >situation seems to be rooted in history, based on informal > >arrangements that have evolved over the years. > > Back in 1960, I was attending new Bell System employee orientation in > the Boston, MA area. We were told that in metro Boston, the power > company and N.E. Telephone paired off similar-sized suburban cities. > In one city, the power comppany owned all the poles, and in the other > city telco owned all the power poles. That way, if a pole got > damaged, the emergency agencies didn't have to figure out who owned > what pole. I assume that this also eliminated paying each other for > pole space. With all these posts about poles (is that a pun?) I have to pass along two long-ago anecdotes from my younger brother, a lifelong very blue-collar lineman for Pacific Bell (and now long deceased; smoking is in fact a bad habit): 1) Official Bell System motto, from line crew training sessions: "No job is so important, and no service is so vital, that we cannot take time to do our work safely." Line crew version, as quoted and practiced in the field: "No job is so important, and no service is so vital, that we cannot take time out for coffee." 2) My brother's crew gets a new young hotshot crew chief, who's going to get more productivity from his crew than any other competing crews, and push himself up the management ladder. A pole replacement is in progress, shifting lines from an old pole to a new one, as described in an earlier post. My brother, wearing climbing belt and spikes, is up near the top of the old pole, shifting over the last wire to the new pole, when the old pole starts to vibrate noticeably. He looks down; the hotshot crew chief is already chainsawing into the base of the pole he's at the top of. As related subsequently, over a beer, the vibration was substantial enough that he very nearly accidentally dropped the heavy tool he was using at the time, straight down the pole -- but he decided not to. He spent the last years of his career down in manholes in the base of the piers for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, below water level in some case, I think, and also in Maiden Lane in San Francisco with the manhole cover back in place, and traffic running overhead, splicing fiber optic cables. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2009 17:51:33 -0800 (PST) From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Technical Demo turns political 2/26/1909 Message-ID: <90554957-ca27-4e1b-839f-69f82e9da45c@w9g2000yqa.googlegroups.com> On Mar 5, 5:17 pm, AES <sieg...@stanford.edu> wrote: > He spent the last years of his career down in manholes in the base of > the piers for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, below water level in > some case, I think, and also in Maiden Lane in San Francisco with the > manhole cover back in place, and traffic running overhead, splicing > fiber optic cables. Thanks for the post. Interesting stuff. After the Second Avenue switching center fire in the 1970s in NYC, they rushed in men to resplice wires to switches rushed into the building. Fortunately one floor was empty so they put in a new ESS to serve, the older switches would be manually cleaned contact to contact. The splicers in the basement worked on planks, very crowded in. Apparently once in, everyone was basically locked in. Undoubtedly not the most pleasant working conditions. In reading newspaper articles of the time, I noticed several things: . Area businessmen were terrified to be without a phone since crime was a problem. NYC had a rough time of it in those days, lot of urban problems, fortunately the city is much safer today. . There had been many fires in switching offices recently, causes unknown but possibly arson. It wouldn't surprise me if that were the case. Once again, the city was not in the best of shape and there were considerable tensions in the air over urban issues; the Bell System definitely got its share of it in those days. (The 1974 version of the film Pelham 1-2-3 somewhat reflects those times.) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:15:28 -0600 From: Jim Haynes <haynes@giganews.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Telex and TWX rates 1970s Message-ID: <slrngr0n8l.5nq.haynes@localhost.localdomain> On 2009-03-05, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote: > > I suspect this slow speed was a reason for WU's decline. For example, > in 1975 GE Timesharing offered its own ASR teleprinter that ran at 300 > speed (ok, today that's slow but then it was three times as fast.) Did G.E. have an ASR? I'm aware of their KSR, the G.E. Datanet 300, but I didn't know they had an ASR model. > > Interesting. Western Union tried the same thing. Their facsimile > service starting in the 1930s and they tried to push it big in the > early 1960s, not just documents, but weather maps and related > material. I have no idea of what their resolution or transmission > speed was. I don't think they ever offered large format like weather maps as a public service. They made a weather map system for the Air Force, and that might have led to contracts for additional system for other customers, but I don't think they ever got to the point where you could regularly send fax messages from one point to another from very many points. > > > Thanks again for your post. > > > I suspect many Telex users did not have the luxury of interconnecting > a new computer as you did and found the retyping of source documents > and punched tape handling rather tedious, as well as expensive in > manpower. > > (IBM offered a punched card to Baudot paper tape converter or > transmitter, but by the 1970s that was still old fashioned and of > course required a mainframe to punch out cards.) > > Now, WU extensively advertised advanced communications. But I don't > know how much that they actually offered or at what cost or quality. > I can't help but suspect that even in the 1970s WU offered mostly 110 > or even slower service and only through paper tape. As mentioned, in > 1960 what you describe would be considered pretty slick for an > overseas transmission, but in 1975 not so much. > > (I seem to recall AT&T laying a major new Atlantic cable in that era > that greatly boosted overseas capacity and resulted in a significant > reduction in rates. Around that time ESS and even No. 5 xbar in NYC > offered IDDD. Anyone recall more?) > -- jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2009 17:38:31 -0800 (PST) From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Telex and TWX rates 1970s Message-ID: <ea8a6222-a9a2-4180-beb6-62e10ee0abd3@d19g2000yqb.googlegroups.com> On Mar 5, 6:56 pm, Jim Haynes <hay...@giganews.com> wrote: > Did G.E. have an ASR?  I'm aware of their KSR, the G.E. Datanet 300, but > I didn't know they had an ASR model. I should qualify what I said because I have may erred on the term "ASR". I believe the machine was called a "GE Terminet". It had a keyboard, printer (a revolving band, I believe), and a paper tape punch and reader. However, it did not have the automatic answer capability. When we used the machine, we had to take the telephone receiver and shove it into the acoustical coupler; there was no direct connection to the line. I get confused--does ASR refer to the paper tape capability, or the ability to automatically answer incoming calls? I thought it meant the paper tape, and the KSR was a unit without paper tape. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom- munications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition 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. 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