29 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981

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The Telecom Digest for August 14, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 203 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Verizon strike(Steve Stone)
Extensions to pay phones?(Lisa or Jeff)
Re: Extensions to pay phones?(danny burstein)
Re: Google residential Gb fiber installation v1(John F. Morse)
Telecom Digest FAQ(Telecom Digest Moderator)

====== 29 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 Bill Horne 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, 11 Aug 2011 17:13:22 -0400 From: Steve Stone <spfleck@citlink.net> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Verizon strike Message-ID: <%BX0q.120658$8G4.64018@newsfe17.iad> On 8/10/2011 9:45 PM, Lisa or Jeff wrote: > In my own humble opinion, as a Vz customer, I think Vz has cut back > service quality too much in its landline operations and that is a > factor in their loss of landline subscribers. The company I work for is telling employees who work from home offices that they should keep their total cost for a work voice telephone line under $40 per month. The preferred solution is a company VoIP system which does not require POTS. This supports the thought that Verizon and other wireline telcos might be losing business to alternate lower cost providers. Steve
Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:07:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Extensions to pay phones? Message-ID: <8ba2d3ea-859f-405a-a1f0-119d593728bd@t9g2000vbs.googlegroups.com> At an old-phone show today, someone had a sign tellings callers of a pay phone to listen first before depositing money; this was to ensure the line wasn't in use. Years ago, it was common for a small business, such as a luncheonette, gas station, barbershop, etc. to have a pay phone with an extension attached to it. The extension did not have a dial. In this way the pay phone could serve both customers and the business. If the phone rang, the business could answer it on the extension if desired. Would anyone know more about that arrangement? Is it still in use? (I checked a lunchonette that had it and they got rid of their pay phone.) P.S. At the hotel hosting the phone show, there was a bank of alcoves along a wall obviously once containing pay phones. All gone. The only pay phones there were on sale at the show, and they weren't cheap. (I picked up an AE 40 and an AE Touch Tone for myself--AE did their own designs and didn't license W/E patents the way SC and ITT did.) ***** Moderator's Note ***** My dad used to take me to a barbershop in South Boston when I was a kid, and the owner had an extension phone like that. It was an ordinary wall set, and the barber used to keep a calendar beside it: whenever he wanted to make a call, he would hit the calendar and then dial the call. When I looked behind the calendar, I saw wires going into the phone: each with bare ends, and one almost touching the other. It wasn't until I had been at N.E.T. for a few years that I realized that the barber was slapping the calendar to short the ring lead to ground and draw dialtone, so he could make calls without putting a dime in the pay phone. Bill Horne Moderator
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2011 05:34:43 +0000 (UTC) From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Extensions to pay phones? Message-ID: <j27mpj$p7k$1@reader1.panix.com> In <8ba2d3ea-859f-405a-a1f0-119d593728bd@t9g2000vbs.googlegroups.com> Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> writes: >At an old-phone show today, someone had a sign tellings callers of a >pay phone to listen first before depositing money; this was to ensure >the line wasn't in use. >Years ago, it was common for a small business, such as a luncheonette, >gas station, barbershop, etc. to have a pay phone with an extension >attached to it. The extension did not have a dial. In this way the >pay phone could serve both customers and the business. If the phone >rang, the business could answer it on the extension if desired. >Would anyone know more about that arrangement? Is it still in use? >(I checked a lunchonette that had it and they got rid of their pay >phone.) We had that at a garage I worked in. The phone did, in fact, have a Touch Tone keypad but, since the line was an actual coin line, you couldn't make a phone call as the CO didn't give you dial tone until the pay phone had a coin dropped into it. - In roughly 1980 the line was switched to "dial tone first", but restricted to "911" and (probably) "operator". (this was part of the whole nationwide transition for 911 service). But again, you couldn't make calls to other numbers. Trying to do so got you a "please deposit ten cents and redial". - Somewhere or another I read of ways to get around these restrictions. Might even have seen it in a movie... Not that I'd even have known about the details... -- _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ***** Moderator's Note ***** The older models of payphone were manufactured so that the coin-chute relay was only connected when there was a coin in the slot, so that the CO could easily detect if a coin had been deposited. They could not, however, detect the denomination(s) or the number of coins in the slot. Early attempts to detect red box fraud were focused on checking for the presence of a coin after the CO received coin-deposit signalling tones: the avoidance mechanism is obvious. Bill Horne Moderator
Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:38:06 -0500 From: "John F. Morse" <john@invalid.telecom-digest.org> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Google residential Gb fiber installation v1 Message-ID: <pan.2011.08.13.22.38.06.332043@example.invalid> On Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:48:27 -0700 AES wrote: > In article <pan.2011.08.10.00.36.06.678454@example.invalid>, > "John F. Morse" <john@example.invalid> wrote: > >> But I've never seen underground fiber inside a manhole. >> >> How is the maintenance slack loop ran? Around the manhole wall a couple >> of times, or is there some kind of rack used to hold the extra length? > > Not exactly what you where asking, in a separate thread, but the following > may be of interest . . . Not exactly, but as you say, very interesting. Thanks. Please return with the description of the remaining work. -- John When a person has -- whether they knew it or not -- already rejected the Truth, by what means do they discern a lie?
Date: 13 Aug 2011 23:02:08 -0400 From: Telecom Digest Moderator <telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.remove.telecom-digest.org> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Telecom Digest FAQ Message-ID: <20110813230208.1.28085.qmail@gal.iecc.com> This is the list of frequently-asked questions for The Telecom Digest. It is posted whenever the contents change, and once per quarter even if the contents have not changed. Q. What is The Telecom Digest? A. The Telecom Digest is the oldest continuously published mailing list on the Internet. It was started before Usenet existed, but is now available via the Usenet group comp.dcom.telecom. Q. Who's in charge? A. The current Moderator is Bill Horne, and you may reach him by sending an email to telecomdigestmoderator.atsign.telecom-digest.org. Q. How do I subscribe? A. If you want to receive The Telecom Digest via email, Send an "plain text" email message to majordomo.atsign.telecom-digest.org, with the command "subscribe telecom" in the BODY of the message. (The subject line will be ignored.) You may choose to receive posts in a daily digest, with all the posts for the day included in a single email, or you may choose to have each post sent to your email address as soon as it is approved: digest mode is the default, but if you prefer individual email, use the command "subscribe-set telecom each" instead. If you want to subscribe an address OTHER THAN the one you are sending the subscription request from, then place the email address to be subscribed at the end of the command, e.g., "subscribe telecom president@whitehouse.gov" or "subscribe-set telecom each president-pro-tempore@senate.gov" You may also receive and post to The Telecom Digest via the Usenet group comp.dcom.telecom, either using NNTP or through portals such as Google or Yahoo. Q. What topics does The Telecom Digest cover? A. The Telecom Digest is primarily, but not exclusively, focused on the world's telephone systems, networks, and companies. Our readers talk about regulations, technical matters, rates, numbering plans, tariffs, the prices changed for various services, alternatives to the traditional telephone network (such as VoIP), and related issues. Q. How do I get something published in The Telecom Digest? A. There are three ways to contribute original posts or to reply to posts made by others. They are - 1. Send an email to telecomdigestsubmissions.atsign.telecom-digest.org. 2. Use an NNTP client, such as pine, or a combined email/nntp program, such as Mozilla Thunderbird, to send posts to the Telecom Digest via a Usenet server. If your ISP doesn't have a Usenet server, there are free one available, such as the one at eternal-september.org. 3. Use a commercial portal, such as Google or Yahoo, to access the Usenet group comp.dcom.telecom. You will have to have an account with the portal's owner in order to do this, but they're usually issued without charge. No matter which way you send a message to The Telecom Digest, each message's "Subject" line must contain one of the following glyphs in order to be excepted from our spam-prevention process. There is no guarantee that a message without one of these glyphs will ever be read. The brackets around each glyph must be included, but the quotes are not required. 1. "[telecom]" if your post can be published verbatim. 2. "[nfp]" (Not For Publication) if your email is only for the Moderator's eyes. 3. "[obfuscate]" if you want the Moderator to modify your email address before publishing your post so that it cannot be used without being changed, i.e., so that it can't be copied by a spambot and used to send you spam. If you are a frequent Digest contributor, you may request that your email address be automatically obfuscated anytime you sent a post, so that you may send in contributions without the need for the "[obfuscate]" glyph. 4. "[Anonymous]" if you want all traces of your identity removed from the post before it is published. (See rules about anonymous postings, shown below.) For example: Subject: Re: FCC refuses to take action on cramming [Anonymous] Subject: Eleven-digit phone numbers are coming Subject: Cell phone SMS spam is getting worse [Obfuscate] Subject: I haven't seen my post yet [nfp] Please note the keywords in the glyphs are not case sensitive. Q. How does the Moderator decide what to accept? A. In general, the moderator makes decisions about what should be published after reading a submission, and approves posts which meet the guidelines shown here. The moderator's decisions are binding, but readers are always welcome to argue their case for an exception or for special treatment: in other words, if a post is rejected, a contributor may ask the moderator to reconsider. The moderator, in turn, may ask that potential posts be modified so as to make them acceptable, or may refuse to reconsider a decision to reject. The Moderator's decision is not subject to appeal, and The Telecom Digest does not allow "Meta" discussions about moderation policies or decisions. Q. What are the rules about content? A. There are very few rules. The most important are listed here: 1. Basic Netiquette is both encouraged and enforced. The Telecom Digest does not allow ad hominem attacks, unwarranted sarcasm, foul language, undocumented allegations of illegal or improper conduct, or other kinds of viciousness. The moderator reserves the right to be completely arbitrary and capricious when making decisions about posts which, in the moderator's sole and exclusive judgement, are inappropriate for publication. 2. Posts must concern telecommunications using telephones, either wired or wireless, i.e., they should be about the ways, instruments, equipment, inventions, costs, history, and regulations that bear on spoken conversations between human beings who are out of earshot. 3. Posts which bear on the history of telecommunications are allowed if they are germane to discussion about the worldwide telephone network in some way: e.g., a post about the Western Union company's TELEX network would be allowed if it served to illustrate the underpinnings of the PSTN and/or the regulatory framework within which Western Union and the Bell System competed with each other, and a post about the traffic loads caused by dial-up data users would also be appropriate. 4. The moderator enjoys the privilege of modifying both spelling and grammar when, in the Moderator's judgement, a post is not clear enough to read without changes. Posts which require extensive rewriting are usually rejected and returned to their authors for rework, but in cases where the author cannot be contacted (e.g., when a poster does not use a valid email address), then the Moderator may choose to step in and modify a post rather than delete it. Q. Does The Telecom Digest accept anonymous posts? A. Sometimes, but reluctantly. Posters who request anonymity must add the "[anonymous]" glyph to the subject line of their posts, and the Moderator makes a judgement on a case-by-case basis. Posters whom request anonymity will please provide a brief reason for the request in a clearly-separated section of the email, e.g., ****************************************************************** * Please publish this anonymously. My country is arresting those * * who discuss this subject publicly. * ****************************************************************** Q. Can we write about things that came before telephones? A. Posts about things like semaphore signalling, Morse Code, The Pony Express, and Carrier Pigeons are discouraged. Such subjects may, however, be mentioned by posters who choose to illustrate the history, technology, regulations, and social forces which formed the PSTN we use today, but posts may not focus exclusively on them. Q. Can I post a story about things which might come after telephones? A. Not unless you are speculating in a believable way about the future direction the PSTN will take. The Telecom Digest is not a venue for Science Fiction, so if you want to post about phones on other planets, or other ways of communication which haven't been discovered yet, then you'll need to find a more appropriate venue for your posts. Q. Since the line between "Data" and "Telephone" gets more blurry every day, how do you draw the line between VoIP services such as Vonage and Skype, and the more traditional telephone network? A. If it concerns people using the PSTN to talk to each other, it's fair game. When there is room for doubt, each post is judged on its own merits. Q. If I can sign up to receive each post separately, why is it called "The Telecom Digest"? A. The original Telecom Digest was a compilation of emails that were received by the Moderator each day. The Moderator assembled each day's digest by hand, and sent it out manually, so there was no other subscription option besides the "digest" version. When The Telecom Digest was made available to Usenet readers, that changed, but the original title of the publication remained, so it is still called "The Telecom Digest". Up until 2007, the email version of The Telecom Digest was still assembled by hand each day, and was thus available only in digest form, even though it was, by that time, sent out using an automated email robot located at John Levine's server in New York. The email robot in use is "Majordomo", which allows subscribers to choose either digest or individual emails, and since Usenet readers already enjoyed the option of seeing individual posts, Majordomo was reprogrammed to give email readers the same choice. Q. What are the options available to subscribers using the Majordomo robot? A. There are too many to list here: to get started on them, send a "plain text" email to majordomo.atsign.telecom-digest.org with the word "help" in the BODY of the message (the subject line is ignored). Q. How do I unsubscribe? A. Send an email to majordomo.atsign.telecom-digest.org, with the command "unsubscribe telecom" in the BODY of the message. If you no longer have access to the email account from which you subscribed, but still know the password for it, use the command "approve <password> unsubscribe telecom <old.email.address>". (The subject line will be ignored.) If you don't have the password for an old account, and no longer have access to it to send emails to the Majordomo robot, then you may ask the Moderator to intercede and unsubscribe an old address on your behalf. Such requests are always verified. ***** Moderator's Note ***** This is the first time I've published a FAQ for the Digest. Suggestions for improvement, corrections, and clarifications are welcome: you need only reply to this message. Your replies will NOT be published. Bill Horne Moderator
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 Bill Horne. 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. The Telecom Digest is moderated by Bill Horne.
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