From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 18 14:19:20 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4IIJJw08654; Tue, 18 May 2004 14:19:20 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 14:19:20 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405181819.i4IIJJw08654@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 #246 TELECOM Digest Tue, 18 May 2004 14:19:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 246 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Driven to Distraction/Some Complicated Dashboards Take Too Long (Solomon) AT&T To Offer Wireless Services to Consumers and Businesses (Monty Solomon) PalmSource And RIM Introduce Blackberry Connect For Palm OS (Monty Solomon) Oki Network Technologies Launches Two New VoIP Gateways (VOIP News) Re: NANP Numbering (Paul Vader) Re: NANP Numbering (John McHarry) Re: Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills (Gordon S. Hlavenka) Re: With Voice-Over-Internet Bell Tolls, Finally, For Bell (Lisa Hancock) Reporter Asks: Do You, or Did You Recently, Work at Nortel? (Bernard Simon) Re: Looking For Multi-Handset Cordless Phone With Features (SELLCOM Tech) Phone Books and D/A for non-Bell Subscribers? (Lisa Hancock) Neax 2400 Software Question (JaBrIoL) 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: Mon, 17 May 2004 16:41:58 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Driven to Distraction/Some Complicated Dashboards Take Much Time Some complicated dashboards take just too much attention By Craig Fitzgerald, Globe Correspondent So there I am, trundling over the Green Mountains on my way to Nashua from my new home in Shaftsbury, Vt. As I'm hurtling down the mountain, my favorite radio station fades. In the car I'm driving, I first have to select 'radio' from the multifunction screen. A bunch of stations come up. The station I want is nowhere to be found, meaning that it's not coming in at 100 percent strength. But it doesn't stop with the radio. I'm also forced to study a screen with menus for heat, navigation, and even telecommunications, breaking eye contact with the road ahead. It's no wonder that driver inattention is a serious problem. A 2002 study by Canada's transportation bureau found that even when communication and 'infotainment' devices are hands-free, they pose a significant safety risk. Drivers asked to complete simple addition problems while talking on a hands-free phone were 13 to 38 percent more likely to focus their vision on the central 15 degrees of the windshield. Drivers almost completely stopped looking to their left periphery, while right peripheral vision dropped by nearly 50 percent. http://www.boston.com/cars/articles/2004/05/16/driven_to_distraction/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 08:58:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T To Offer Wireless Services to Consumers and Businesses Offered Nationwide Through Agreement with Sprint - May 18, 2004 07:45 AM (PR Newswire) BEDMINSTER, N.J., May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T) today announced that it has taken its first step in re-entering the wireless market by reaching an agreement with Sprint that will allow AT&T to sell AT&T-branded wireless service to its over 30 million business and consumer customers. As a result of the five-year agreement, AT&T expects to significantly expand the wireless services it is currently testing in select U.S. markets with hopes of a launch later this year. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41511984 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 09:07:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: PalmSource And RIM Introduce Blackberry Connect For Palm OS CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2004-- PalmSource to Give Sneak Preview During Keynote PalmSource, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSRC) provider of Palm OS(TM), a leading operating system powering next generation mobile devices and smartphones, and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM) (TSX:RIM), a leading developer of wireless solutions, have completed their distribution agreement to make BlackBerry Connect(TM) available to Palm OS licensees. Together, BlackBerry Connect and Palm OS will extend email and corporate data connectivity to Palm Powered(TM) smart mobile devices, facilitating workforce productivity while away from the office. PalmSource(TM) President and CEO David Nagel will demonstrate the BlackBerry Connect offering for Palm OS during his keynote presentation at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium on Tuesday, May 18 at 9:00 am CDT. The BlackBerry(R) Connect offering for Palm OS is the result of a joint development effort between PalmSource and RIM, announced in December 2003, to provide Palm OS licensees with access to the industry-leading, push-based, BlackBerry wireless infrastructure and to enable seamless connectivity between Palm Powered smart mobile devices and BlackBerry wireless services (including BlackBerry Enterprise Server(TM) and BlackBerry Web Client(TM)), as well as global address list look-up and IT policy support. PalmSource is expected to make the Palm OS Mail Client that supports BlackBerry Connect available to Palm OS licensees in the second half of 2004, as previously announced. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41514577 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 12:08:07 -0400 Subject: Oki Network Technologies Launches Two New VoIP Gateways Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-17-2004/0002175718&EDATE= Oki Network Technologies Launches Two New VoIP Gateways for Service Provider and Enterprise Markets Oki Network Technologies Ships New BV7100 and BV7060 VoIP Gateways SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Oki Network Technologies (Oki NT), a division of Oki America, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. of Japan, today announced the release of two new Voice over IP (VoIP) broadband media gateways -- the Oki BV7100 series, a high-performance high-bandwidth T1/E1 VoIP gateway, and the Oki BV7060 series, an analog FXS and FXO VoIP gateway. Both are geared for service provider and small to medium sized enterprise environments, which require seamless IP telephony integration with existing traditional telephone and PBX equipment. "As VoIP continues to take hold in the enterprise, due to significant savings and vastly improved voice quality, many companies are looking for VoIP gateways that can be quickly and easily integrated into their existing telephony and data systems," said Kenzie Nicoll, Director of Sales at Oki Network Technologies. "These new Oki VoIP gateways satisfy needs for both small enterprises, that require up to 10 voice channels and larger enterprises where 24 VoIP channels or more are needed. The BV7060 and BV7100 are a second-generation platform, utilizing the field-proven reliability and quality of our earlier gateways, adding enhanced manageability, QoS, and connectivity solutions. We are very excited about this new product line and expect our customers will be as well." Both Oki BV7100 and BV7060 VoIP gateways support H.323 v 4, SIP, T.38 fax, and G.711, G.723 and G.729 audio codecs for maximum interoperability. Both gateways are engineered for toll-quality QoS. The BV7100 and BV7060 incorporate advanced jitter buffers, silence suppression, echo cancellation, VLAN tagging, DiffServ, ToS and NAT Traversal features. BV7100 (BV7200 Dual T1/E1) KEY FEATURES Ideal for connecting digital telephony environments to IP networks, the BV7100 series supports either T1 or E1 interfaces, and hosts up to 60 VoIP channels, based upon configuration. For environments that call for dual T1/E1 connectivity, Oki is offering a dual mode version of the BV7100, called the BV7200. Both versions of the BV7100 series can simultaneously connect PBX and PSTN systems to achieve extended flexibility in call routing and seamless configuration options, without disrupting existing equipment configurations. Other highlights include: -- QSIG Feature Transparency (H.323) -- Channel Associated Signaling (CAS) signaling -- Radius Accounting BV7060 (BV7060 FXO and BV7060 HYBRID) KEY FEATURES For analog phone system environments, the BV7060 is a 10-channel, multiport FXO VoIP gateway that can be configured to connect standard analog lines or PBX extensions to an IP network, or route calls from an IP network to the PSTN. The BV7060 HYBRID provides 8 FXS and 2 FXO lines, with a hard-wired bypass feature that enable PSTN calls in the event of a power failure. Pricing and Availability The BV7100 and BV7060 series gateways are available now from select value-added resellers, distributors and service providers, or call Oki direct for additional information at 800-641-8909, Website (http://www.okint.com), fax and e-mail. About Oki Network Technologies Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Oki Network Technologies (http://www.okint.com) is the telecommunications and voice over IP networking division of Oki America, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. -- one of Japan's first and largest telecommunications manufacturers. Oki Network Technologies provides carriers and enterprises throughout North and Latin America with advanced Internet voice gateways and broadband telecommunications products that combine and transform voice and data technologies into powerful, affordable and reliable business solutions. NOTE: All other products, brand names or companies are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. SOURCE Oki Network Technologies Web Site: http://www.okint.com 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: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) Subject: Re: NANP Numbering Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 21:42:30 -0000 Organization: Inline Software Creations Paul Robinson writes: > even a century or more, look at your keyboard and realize the QWERTY > pattern was developed back in the 1880s to *slow people down* on manual > typewriters that would jam. We're still using a system designed to slow This is an urban legend. The intent wasn't to slow down the typist, but to arrange the keyboard so that two letters that commonly appeared together weren't adjacent on the keyboard. If you've ever used a manual, you know that pressing two adjacent keys on the same row results in the key levers getting stuck against the ribbon. Doing this didn't slow the typist, it sped them up, because they didn't have to deal with the stuck keys or wait for the levers to fall back before typing the next letter. * * PV something like badgers--something like lizards--and something like corkscrews. ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: NANP Numbering Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 18:55:06 -0400 Scott Dorsey wrote: > Down here in Williamsburg, I have 7-digit dialing to most of the tidewater > area. > I have friends on the Pembroke Telephone Cooperative (540 area code) with > 5-digit dialing still. > -- scott > "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Scott, how do the users of Pembroke get > out of town when they wish to? There must be some one or more > reserved digits to dial when they wish to call a neighboring community > or some other 'long distance' point. PAT] The little town I grew up in had that, until they upgraded their switch to a DMS-10. The prefix was 543, and all you had to dial was the 3. The only other local exchange was 595, so that cinched it. You did have to dial the full 7 digits for 595. I forget what type of switch this was, but I think it just dumped the 54 if you dialed them. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 00:54:34 -0500 From: Gordon S. Hlavenka Reply-To: nospam@crashelectronics.com Organization: Crash Electronics Subject: Re: Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills Lisa Hancock wrote: > Verizon Wireless (cell phones) has introduced what they call a: > "shorter, simpler, 'streamlined bill' thatt is simpler to understand > while using less paper". > Nonsense. > What they did is remove the detailed billing listings. This statement appeared on my Feb. 13 Verizon Wireless bill: >> Beginning in March 2004, your monthly bill will be a shorter, simpler >> "Streamlined Bill." This new streamlined bill will result in a >> monthly statement that is simpler to understand while using >> significantly less paper. The first page of your bill will show your >> Account Summary, Total Amount Due and Due Date - all on one page for >> quick reference. The details for individual calls will no longer >> appear on your monthly bill, but you can view call details and print >> them at no charge from "My Account" at www.verizonwireless.com. If >> you prefer to continue receiving calt details on your monthly bill at >> no charge, please call 1-800-894-3504 by June 30, 2004. After June >> 30, 2004, you may request Detailed Billing for $1.99 per month for >> each wireless phone number. So, I knew that I had to call in before June 30 to keep my detail billing. But I didn't call right away -- I've got until June 30, fercryinoutloud, and it's only February... Then, I got my March 13 bill, which includes detailed billing PLUS a charge of $5.00 for "Detailed Billing 3/14/04 - 4/13/04" Now, notice that at this point I have not contacted them AT ALL -- they _should_ have simply dropped the detail; instead they charged me $5.00 for it. What about the $1.99??? Anyway, I immediately called 1-800-894-3504 and punched all the buttons to get the no-charge detailed billing. Then I called Customer Disservice and griped. The Nice Lady(TM) reminded me that there had been a notice on my Feb. bill about this change. So I read her the notice, and she agreed it did sound like I had until the end of June to call in. She credited my account for the $5.00, and told me to go ahead and pay the reduced rate on my March bill. April rolls along, my bill is marked "Due Upon Receipt" and shows a $5.00 balance carried forward, plus the promised $5.00 credit (it actually shows up as "Detailed Billing -$5.00" under monthly charges). There's also "Detailed billing - charge for partial month 3/14/04 - 3/29/04 $2.58" so they're still trying to nick me more than the advertised $1.99 for a partial month of a service I never ordered in the first place. My May bill hasn't arrived yet; I can't wait to see what they've got on this one ... > I have no idea what they've billed me for. It's very possible > they made errors; they have made errors in bill calculations in the > past... I don't think _they_ know what they've billed you for, either. Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com "If we imagined he could _find_ the car, we could pretend it might be fixed." - Calvin ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: With Voice-Over-Internet Bell Tolls, Finally, For Bell (Can Date: 18 May 2004 07:31:43 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com VOIP News wrote: > He's talking through his Vonage service during the interview, > and from where I'm sitting on the other end, the quality of the call > nearly matches a traditional phone line. ~~~~~~ So this so-called wonderful new technology gives me LESS quality than what I have now. Why don't they hold off their super hype until they get it to be _superior_ to a traditional phone line? And will the internet connection pay all the taxes (ie 911 fee, deaf relay fee, etc.)? ------------------------------ From: bernard.simon@writeitright.ca (Bernard Simon) Subject: Reporter Asks: Do You, or Did You Recently, Work at Nortel? Date: 18 May 2004 07:53:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm a reporter for The New York Times in Toronto covering recent developments at Nortel. I'd like to make contact with some folks currently working there, or recently departed (within the past six months). Please contact me by email at bernards@nytimes.com or bernard.simon@writeitright.ca. Discretion assured. Thanks, Bernard Simon ------------------------------ From: SELLCOM Tech support Subject: Re: Looking For Multi-Handset Cordless Phone With Several Features Organization: www.sellcom.com Reply-To: support@sellcom.com Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 17:01:24 GMT jsevinsk@yahoo.com (John Sevinsky) posted on that vast internet thingie: > I'm in the market for a multi-handset cordless phone, and I'm having a > hard time finding all the features that I want in one system. I would > like: > * 5.8 ghz, but 2.4 ghz would be OK. > * Must support at least 6 handsets, but 8 or 10 would be better. > * Must support a common phone directory, or at least have the ability > to transfer the directory from one handset to the others. I'm not > typing in names/numbers for each of the handsets. The Siemens 8825 might be the best shot to have most of the features you are looking for. We try to list the phone features on our website to make it easy to "feature shop" Steve at SELLCOM http://www.sellcom.com Discount multihandset cordless phones by Siemens, AT&T, Panasonic, Motorola Vtech 5.8Ghz; TMC ET4000 4line Epic phone, OnHoldPlus, Beamer, Watchguard! Brick wall "non MOV" surge protection. Mini-Splitter log splitter! If you sit at a desk www.ergochair.biz you owe it to yourself. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Phone Books and D/A for non-Bell Subscribers? Date: 18 May 2004 10:26:05 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com With telephone service now available from new independent companies instead of former Bell System companies, how is the issue of listings in the telephone book and directory assistance handled? As part of providing the local loop, is the former Bell company required to provide a listing in its directory and directory assistance bureau? Who provides information to the 911 database? It doesn't seem fair that the Bell company provide listings without compensation since it bears the expense of printing and distributing the phone books. ------------------------------ From: Jabriol@excite.com (JaBrIoL) Subject: Neax 2400 Software Question Date: 18 May 2004 10:28:15 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com All, I am running a Neax 2400 PBX. I have the software for it ICS Generic 6000-IMGx version DE4.10. Of course, I can load the software to run the PBX. What I would like to do is, to make a backup copy of the software; they are about 8 diskettes. I've notice that I can not use Norton Ghost, or any other known OS to duplicate these disks. My question is: can I duplicate these disks on Neax 2400 itself? ------------------------------ 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. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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