From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Apr 16 14:04:57 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3GI4vr14837; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 14:04:57 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 14:04:57 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404161804.i3GI4vr14837@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V23 #189 TELECOM Digest Fri, 16 Apr 2004 14:05:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 189 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: AOL Quietly Opens its Mail System to Outside World (Barry Margolin) Re: AT&T Wireless Announces Aggressive New Offer (John Levine) NYS Attorney General Spitzer on CALEA (Danny Burstein) Pushing VoIP Through The Door (Eric Friedebach) Re: Some Marketers Finding Ways Around Do Not Call list (jmayson) Subscriber Line Measurement and SLAC Settings (Bond) Re: Receiving Faxes via the Internet? (Sid Zafran) Re: Overseas Crooks Abuse Phone Service For Deaf (Stanley Cline) Measured Phone Service (John) Re: Calif. Lawmaker Moves to Block Google's Gmail (Brad Houser) VoIP Will Dominate Telecom, Former FCCer Says (VOIP News) Telecoms Struggle With Impact of Internet Calls (VOIP News) Pushing VoIP Through The Door (VOIP News) Canada VOIP Concerns From Telcos (VOIP News) Re: New York Panel Explores Phone 'Crisis' (VOIP News) EFFector 17.13: Action Alert - Don't Subsidize Surveillance (Solomon) Public Interest Groups Open New Front in Media Reform (Monty Solomon) Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Monty Solomon) Re: Phone Gateways, was Re: VoIP is Just Phone Service (Justin Time) Selling a Comverse Trilogue 6500 (Bryant) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: AOL Quietly Opens its Mail System to Outside World Organization: Looking for work Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 16:35:34 -0400 In article , Wesrock@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated Wed, 14 Apr 2004 00:33:26 -0400, Barry Margolin < > barmar@alum.mit.edu> writes: >>> Error : AOL email accounts are not POP3 or IMAP4 compatible. >>> You must have POP3 or IMAP4 compatible email account to use mail2web. >>> Is this because they haven't updated their auto-response to AOL mail >>> requests? >> It looks like it to me. If this message were due to an actual error >> that they encountered trying to access the AOL mail server, I doubt it >> would be so well customized. Since AOL users are likely to be >> computer-illiterate, it looks like they put in a special case for it >> so that they could generate a message that's relatively >> understandable. > "Relatively understandable"? If you really think AOL users are > likely to be computer illiterate, why would you think they would be > able to assign any meaning to "POP3" or "IMAP4"? That's why I said "relatively understandable" rather than "understandable". Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ Date: 15 Apr 2004 21:14:00 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: AT&T Wireless Announces Aggressive New Offer Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > The question is how good AT&T's GSM coverage and that of their > roaming partners actually is. If you believe the maps on their web site, it's not bad. Once they're absorbed by Cingular, which has lots of GSM either directly or via agreements with T-Mobile, it should be quite good. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com, Mayor, http://johnlevine.com, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: NYS Attorney General Spitzer on CALEA Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 19:04:08 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC (from his press release) "Spitzer's comments came in an official filing with the FCC on Monday. Spitzer joined the Department of Justice and FBI in arguing for stronger enforcement of the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which was enacted in 1994. The law was designed to ensure that new digital technology would be tappable under exactly the same conditions as old analog technology. However, the telecom industry has taken advantage of loopholes and regulatory gridlock for the past 10 years and failed to make certain new technologies tappable. As a result, sophisticated criminals are now able to obtain untappable communications equipment. "To prove this point, investigators from Spitzer's office recently conducted an experiment to see whether they could set up a communications system that was impossible for law enforcement to monitor. In a matter of days, and for a few hundred dollars, they were able to buy wireless telephones and set up a system that was both untappable and untraceable. http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2004/apr/apr13a_04.html - make sure to check the entire PDF filing ... lots of good stuff in it, including the various rates the different telcos charge his office for authorized wiretaps. _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One way you can tell if your phone is being tapped 'secretly' is by checking the amount of the tax on it. Telco charges you the usual amount for your phone, but the cost of the tap is charged to the government; it is basically treated like another extension on your line. However, even though you pay *your* part of the bill and the *government* pays its part of your bill (for the tap), the various taxes are not pro-rated. So although you won't see any reference on your bill to the tap, your total *tax due* on the bill will increase slightly. If your phone service has not changed in many years, and the tax has remained the same, then all of a sudden your tax goes up a couple cents, you know something has happened. You can ask the business office for an explanation; you'll get all these stories about 'federally mandated service fees and taxes, etc' but they usually will not tell you that you are paying the tax on a government mandated tap on your line. PAT] ------------------------------ From: friedebach@yahoo.com (Eric Friedebach) Subject: Pushing VoIP Through The Door Date: 15 Apr 2004 16:57:29 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Aude Lagorce, 04.15.04, Forbes.com NEW YORK - Portals like Yahoo! and MSN let you shop for cars, check your stocks and manage your love life. Now some folks think they should handle your phone calls too. Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), the process of making a phone call over the Internet, has been making steady inroads against traditional phone technology. Its proponents, who see that progress as too slow, are touting an idea they say could turn that pace into a rout: bundle the technology into an Internet portal. The idea is not too far-fetched -- the portals already offer e-mail and broadband. But it may be a case of putting the cart too far ahead of the horse. http://www.forbes.com/technology/2004/04/15/cx_al_0415voip.html Eric Friedebach /Old enough to remember when MTV played music videos/ ------------------------------ From: jmayson@nyx.net Reply-To: jmayson@austin.rr.com Subject: Re: Some Marketers Finding Ways Around Do Not Call list Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 02:02:55 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com > Hole #3 -- Non Profits: They are exempt. Some non-profits are "non" > profit in name/charter only, but just a cover for a profitable > enterprise. Some marketing companies make deal with a non-profit > group or claim they're one themselves. "Hi, we're calling from the > Firefighter's Fund ..." Hole #4 -- Politicians exempted themselves. I really wished they had called during the day when I was home. Not only did they call my house, they spoofed their caller ID information (999-999-9999). I would've explained to them ... * I signed up for the state and national DNC lists because I don't like being bothered at home. * I understand the law says they can call me, but common sense says they should not. * I will now *NEVER* vote for them. Ever! Period! I don't care if their opponent is Osama bin Laden, I'm voting for their opponent. * Ask why they find it necessary to block their caller ID information? Do they not want me knowing who they are? John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You should have filed a *limited appearance -- returned their call -- only for the purpose of protesting their tactics; stated your case, then disconnected. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bond_jays@hotmail.com (Bond) Subject: Subscriber Line Measurement and SLAC Settings Date: 15 Apr 2004 19:47:29 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi, I am working on POTS line card with Quad ISLAC and ISLIC on it. I need to set the SLAC parameters based on the Subscriber Loop Length for which I use WinSlac software provided by Legerity for calculating the SLAC parameters. 1. Is there any guidelines ( country specific standards ) on how to go about it like how the parameters are to be set for Short Loop or Long Loop?. 2. For certain short loop length I am operating in constant current region and then in resistive feed. On what basis we should go about deciding the region till when to maintain constant current feed?. Right now if my loop resistance becomes more than 650 Ohms (an approx value) it operate in resistive feed. If anyone have worked on these guide me on this regard. 3. The Loop Resistance of a subscriber line is a combination of Cable resistance and Station resistance (i.e Phone Resistance ) . From POTS side we can only determine the Loop resistance as a whole, how to know that the station resistance is so much and the Cable resistance is so much?. How this is been done in real senario?. If you guys know any Books or standards which tells how to do Line measurements on POTS subscriber line can you refer it. Regards, BOND ------------------------------ From: Sid Zafran Subject: Re: Receiving Faxes via the Internet? Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 05:12:52 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 19:17:24 -0700, AES/newspost wrote: > I'm told there are Internet services where anyone can send a fax from > a standard fax machine to some special telephone number that's listed > as my fax number, and the fax is then transmitted to me over the > Internet as an email attachment or a temporary web page? > Anyone had direct experience with any such service? (and some idea of > the monthly or per fax cost?) I've been using uReach for this service. I have been with them for several years. Rate information may be found on their web site: www.ureach.com ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: Overseas Crooks Abuse Phone Service For Deaf Organization: Roamer1 Communications - Dunwoody, GA, USA Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 06:38:34 GMT On Sat, 10 Apr 2004 03:21:04 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > Operators at Tucson's Communication Service for the Deaf call center > used to spend their shifts helping hearing- and speech-impaired > Americans make calls. But since January their workdays are dominated > by Internet calls from Nigeria and elsewhere. I've heard from some relay service CAs that "IP Relay" is getting heavily abused by people making harassing phone calls as well. As a rather frequent (and legitimate) user of relay services, I am *very* concerned. One would think that the Feds would let CAs hang up on clearly harassing or fraudulent calls, but NO... :( Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune ------------------------------ From: John Subject: Measured Phone Service Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 23:58:46 -0700 I am thinking about getting Vonage, but I would like to keep my POTS line as a backup. I was thinking about downgrading my POTS service from unlimited local calling to measured service. I live in SBC territory and I already called them asking this question, but I'm not sure the rep I spoke to is correct. My question is: with measured service are all *incoming* calls unlimited? Is the measure only placed on dialed/outgoing calls? Do they count your usage on both incoming and outgoing calls? Thanks to all who reply. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: SBC claims that all incoming calls are unmeasured, or 'free'. That's one thing I have never caught them lying about. Not so with their subsidiary, Cingular Wireless, where you are charged in both directions. If you want an e-coupon for the second month of Vonage totally free, just ask me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Brad Houser Subject: Re: Calif. Lawmaker Moves to Block Google's Gmail Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 12:20:29 -0700 Organization: Intel Corporation Dr. Joel M. Hoffman wrote in message news:telecom23.187.10@telecom-digest.org: >> SAN FRANCISCO, April 12 (Reuters) - A California state senator on >> Monday said she was drafting legislation to block Google Inc.'s free >> e-mail service "Gmail" because it would place advertising in personal >> messages after searching them for key words. > I must say -- I don't understand either the motivation behind this > attempt or its legality. Google is offering a service, making it > clear what it is. There are lots of people who would be happy to put > up with targeted ads in return for free e-mail, just as there are lots > of people who put up with targeted ads in return for lower prices at > the supermarked (with "bonus" or "discount" cards). I agree. You should have a choice. Free email with robot spies that look for keywords or pay extra for no spies and no ads. > Where's the problem? > -Joel > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have to wonder why Yahoo is not > getting the wrath of this silly legislator as well. Yahoo has placed > ads around its free email and groups things for a long time now as > well. PAT: Yahoo ads are generic. They have nothing to do with the content of the email. Google wants to use software to read the message, and let's say there is the word VOIP, it might insert an ad from Vonage. ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:37:30 -0400 Subject: VoIP Will Dominate Telecom, Former FCCer Says Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.wtonline.com/news/1_1/daily_news/23264-1.html By Roseanne Gerin Staff Writer Voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, services will dominate the telecommunications industry and alter telecom policy in the United States over the next few years, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday. Richard Wiley, who served as the regulatory agency's chairman from 1970-77, addressed members of the federal sector about the future of telecom policy and regulation, at an event hosted by Denver-based communications firm Qwest Communications International Inc. Wiley is managing partner and head of the communications practice at Washington law firm Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP. Qwest is one of the firm's clients. Full story at: http://www.wtonline.com/news/1_1/daily_news/23264-1.html How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:46:08 -0400 Subject: Telecom's Struggle with Impact of Internet Calls Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=4841045§ion=news By Justin Hyde WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With Internet phone services signing up thousands of new customers a day, telecom industry observers are beginning to question how well the old local phone companies will defend themselves against a growing throng of competitors. So far, cable companies and firms like Vonage have only nibbled at the edges of the local telephone market with voice over Internet Protocol service, or VOIP, winning about 250,000 customers. But as more households sign up for broadband Internet service, and larger players such as AT&T Corp. unveil their VOIP service, executives and analysts see the threat to the Baby Bells rising. Full story at: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=4841045§ion=news ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:56:05 -0400 Subject: Pushing VoIP Through The Door Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.forbes.com/technology/networks/2004/04/15/cx_al_0415voip.html Aude Lagorce, 04.15.04, 4:05 PM ET NEW YORK - Portals like Yahoo! and MSN let you shop for cars, check your stocks and manage your love life. Now some folks think they should handle your phone calls too. Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), the process of making a phone call over the Internet, has been making steady inroads against traditional phone technology. Its proponents, who see that progress as too slow, are touting an idea they say could turn that pace into a rout: bundle the technology into an Internet portal. The idea is not too far-fetched -- the portals already offer e-mail and broadband. But it may be a case of putting the cart too far ahead of the horse. To some extent, the partnerships between the Internet portals and the network providers already exist. SBC Communications has been working closely with Yahoo! to promote its broadband digital-subscriber-line service since September 2002 and now boasts 3.5 million subscribers. Qwest Communications customers have access to premium Microsoft MSN content as part of their broadband subscription. To VoIP visionaries, these agreements are a good start, but their potential is far from being fully exploited. "There's really a need for these partnerships to go deeper, because the portal providers have the eyeballs and own the addresses," says David Illing, the operations chief strategy officer for Sylantro Systems, a software company specialized in VoIP. Full story at: http://www.forbes.com/technology/networks/2004/04/15/cx_al_0415voip.html ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 11:42:41 -0400 Subject: Canada VOIP Concerns From Telcos Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.cfra.com/headlines/index.asp?cat=3&nid=13465 Canada's largest phone companies are calling for a slower pace in assessing federal policy for voice-over-Internet services. In a joint submission, the companies say the CRTC is in too much of a hurry to decide on how the policy will be applied. Full story at: http://www.cfra.com/headlines/index.asp?cat=3&nid=13465 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 11:45:21 -0400 Subject: Re: New York Panel Explores Phone 'Crisis' Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com From: John Levine Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > (April 15, 2004) ALBANY New York's hard-wired telephone service is > entering a 'crisis' facing intense competition from wireless > companies and a burgeoning Internet telephone service which may > radically alter the telecommunications landscape, said an > Assemblyman who held hearings Wednesday. This bit of political theater is actually about Verizon, the largest ILEC in the state which has said it wants to sell off all of its upstate territory, and Citizens/Frontier, the second biggest ILEC which has put itself up for sale outright. Both seem more likely to be sold to financiers than to other telcos, and non-phone people who try to make a quick buck from telcos have an unfortunate tendency to drive over a cliff like Qwest did. VoIP gets headlines but it's not even a blip on the charts compared to cellular and PCS and, to some extent, conventional CLECs. Regards, John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Mayor "I shook hands with Senators Dole and Inouye," said Tom, disarmingly. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 08:55:31 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 17.13: Action Alert - Don't Subsidize the Surveillance EFFector Vol. 17, No. 13 April 15, 2004 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 285th Issue of EFFector: * Action Alert: Don't Subsidize the Surveillance State! * Google's Gmail: A Rough Guide to Protecting Your Privacy * Let the Sun Set on PATRIOT - Sections 202 and 217 * EFF @ the 2004 Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conference * EFF Seeks Socially Responsible Technical Director * MiniLinks (19): American Airlines: 1.2 Million Passengers Served to Gov't Contractors * Staff Calendar: 04.17.04 - 04.18.04 - Wendy Seltzer speaks at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL; 04.20.04 - 04.23.04 - Kevin Bankston, Cindy Cohn, Chris Palmer, Fred von Lohmann, Wendy Seltzer, Seth Schoen and Lee Tien speak at CFP, Berkeley, CA * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/17/13.php ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 10:13:50 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Public Interest Groups Open New Front in Media Reform Movement National coalition calls on FCC to set forth public interest guidelines before they give away billions of dollars' worth of publicly-owned airwaves to commercial broadcasters. April 15, 2004 -- The Public Airwaves, Public Interest Coalition, an alliance of public interest groups, media activists and grassroots organizers, will announce on Tuesday, April 20 a broad-based campaign urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to hold the nation's commercial broadcasters to a more responsible standard of public service. The announcement will be made with FCC Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps at a 1:00pm press conference during the National Association of Broadcasters annual gathering in Las Vegas. http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert180.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 10:25:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 By Brooks Boliek WASHINGTON -- Federal television regulators are circulating a plan that would turn off the analog TV signal the nation has used since electronic TV was first broadcast in the late 1930s before the end of the 21st century's inaugural decade. Under the plan, broadcasters would be required by 2009 to return the analog frequencies they use and switch to digital television because the FCC will have certified that at least 85% of the nation's television audience is receiving digital TV signals, commission officials said Wednesday. Broadcasters are supposed to give back the analog frequencies at the end of 2006 or when the audience capable of receiving a digital TV signal reaches 85%, whichever comes first. Congress and the FCC, however, never determined exactly how to measure that 85%. FCC mass media bureau chief Ken Ferree said the plan is a way to make the switch as painless as possible but still get broadcasters to give up the analog frequencies. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000487387 ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: Phone Gateways, was Re: VoIP is Just Phone Service Date: 16 Apr 2004 06:19:23 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com John Levine wrote in message news:: >> I guess that basically any private system can be connected to the PSTN >> at various points. I remember that back in the 1960's (and probably >> still today) the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad (then recently merged >> with the B&O railroad) had their own private phone system. The >> interesting thing was that by dialing various codes you could route >> your calls yourself(!) and you could get to C&O or B&O company >> switchboards in various parts of the country, where you could jump off >> onto the PSTN and make a local call. It worked in reverse, too -- I >> once placed a call to the train depot in my home town by calling the >> C&O switchboard in Detroit. I'm not sure what the phone company >> thought about that, or if they even knew that it was taking place. > That's known as PBX leakage and it at least used to be a tariff issue. > If you had a tieline from one PBX to another, the phone company > charged you one rate if it was a pure tieline used only for calls from > one PBX to the other, and a higher rate if calls could "leak" out to > the PSTN. As you can imagine, a lot of the leakage was inadvertent > and there were cat and mouse games with "you leak", "no we don't", > "yes you do", "we don't any more", etc. > Given how cheap POTS calls have become, I get the impression that > dedicated tie lines for voice calls rarely make sense any more and > it's more common to use virtual tie lines where one PBX dials out over > the PSTN to a DID or DISA number on the remote PBX. > To address an obvious question, companies still do have dedicated data > tie lines. I have no idea what the rules are when you use VoIP to > make a voice tie lines over a data line and I doubt that anyone else > does, either. > Regards, > John Levine johnl@iecc.com For as long as I was with Datapoint (almost 10 years) they ran their own private network for voice and low-speed data. The company manufactured what was known at the time as a "WATS Box" or Long Distance Control System (LDCS). The system was intended to tie together their various sales and service offices around the country by allowing them to dial into the system, enter their passcode and then receive dial tone. You could dial anywhere in the country and the system would route you through dedicated tie lines to the box closest to your destination where you would hop off the network and rejoin the PSTN. The entire system was run out of the San Antonio headquarters. I don't remember when the network was dismantled, it was toward the end of the '80s (I left in '88) as the cost of long distance began to plummet. The cost of operating the system was pretty much written off for tax purposes if I remember correctly. It was touted as a "demo system" to demonstrate the equipment's capabilities to potential customers. And Datapoint did have a lot of customers for its telephony products before selling the division off to Technicron. Their ACD was considered one of the best, the Rockwell Galaxy being the better - only because of its larger capacity. Back in the 70's and 80's controlling the cost of long distance was a major problem with many companies. The Bell companies began to introduce WATS calling, at that time a WATS line gave you both in and outbound service on the same line. Companies were looking for ways to maximize their investment in those services and, as least-cost routing wasn't really a feature in PBXs at the time, a new industry was born. Datapoint designed their LDCS to sit behind a PBX (but any ground start line could be used) and route outbound calls according to the least cost route available. As WATS lines were purchased in bands - a band being roughly the diameter of a service area circle - sending a call over a 3,000 mile circuit when it had to go only 200 miles was a significant cost difference. And that didn't include what we now term as intra-LATA dialing. If you could route your local toll calls over a cheaper long distance circuit -- one you were paying a bulk rate for rather than by the minute -- there was a savings there also. Some of the bigger customers Datapoint had for the system included the airlines which used systems in major cities to consolidate calls from various local numbers and aggregate them onto the tie trunks back to the main call center. There the inbound hi-cap trunks were broken out and routed to various agents -- call takers -- who would take the information from the caller and make their flight reservations. Rodgers Platt [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When I worked for Amoco Credit Card back in the 1960-70's, they had a huge number of 'outwats' lines for employees to use. We had to access then with a three digit code, from 181 through 188 where the final digit was the proper 'band' to use. The smallest or most close in band was '1' for the states on either side of Illinois. Band 6 was the largest band, taking in the entire country except for Hawaii and Alaska (in those days). Band 8 was *intrastate* for Illinois only. Beehive lamps, mounted on the wall told us (when they were illuminated) when the group of trunks for a given Band were all in use (and returning busy signal if you dialed '18x' to reach them. We were supposed to consult a flip chart map showing the appropriate Band to be used. We were *never* to use Band 6 (totally national) if a smaller Band would suffice and all the trunks assigned to it were not busy. The idea was to keep those WATS lines loaded all the time ideally, since the company paid for them by the hour as I recall. But we were NOT to use the WATS bands for calls to 800 numbers or to anyarecode-555-1212 since those calls were free if dialed directly, but *would be charged against WATS* if dialed on a WATS line. Some of the 'lesser bands' (like 1,2,3) were always in use, the beehive lamps never went out on those, and you could use a Band 5 or 6 if your call was 'important'. There were lots of 'tie lines' also, which could be reached by dialing '131' through '179' as I recall. These were not the OUTWATS bands, they were direct connections to other company facilities, and on *some* of those, dialing 1xx-9-seven digits you could get an 'outside, local line* in those communities. But not usually. When the phone lines were busier than usual, people would sit and stare at those beehive lamps, watching for one to go dark, and if it was a sufficient band (or ideally a '6') then you would see folks jump on their phone and try to dial into the WATS line before someone else got it first. PAT] ------------------------------ From: shofear1994@hotmail.com (bryant) Subject: Selling a Comverse Trilogue 6500 Date: 15 Apr 2004 23:00:23 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm selling a Voice Mail System its a Comverse Trilogue 6500 if you or anybody is interested please contact : Bryant Dawson - Total TeleCom @ 812-376-9224 ext: 31 cell: 812-457-7200. Thanks. ------------------------------ 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 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. 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