From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Feb 23 14:53:00 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i1NJqxh18597; Mon, 23 Feb 2004 14:53:00 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 14:53:00 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200402231953.i1NJqxh18597@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 #88 TELECOM Digest Mon, 23 Feb 2004 14:53:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 88 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #421, February 23, 2004 (Angus TeleManagement) Re: Home Phone System: Talkswitch, KX-TD 308 Alternative (Sellcom Tech) Re: Question About 802.11g Wireless Router/Signal Booster (Tony P.) Multiplexing And Framing? (Shantanu Gupta) Flexion X300 PABX (Bruce Phipps) Papers on Incidence of Quality on Total Traffic (Federico Perpere) Re: Book Review Corrections, Comments (Bill Caughlin) Share Day for February (TELECOM Digest Editor) 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 is 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, 23 Feb 2004 11:36:13 -0500 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #421, February 23, 2004 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 421: February 23, 2004 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca ** CYGCOM INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES: www.cygcom.com ** GROUP TELECOM: www.360.net ** JUNIPER NETWORKS: www.juniper.net ** PRIMUS CANADA: www.primustel.ca ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** TELUS: www.telus.com ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Telus Appeals Arbitration Ruling ** Microcell Raises $450 Million ** Ciena Buys Ottawa Equipment Maker ** Cingular Wins Bidding for AT&T Wireless ** Rogers Links Wireless Messaging to Computers ** Aliant Offers Wi-Fi Hotspots ** Allstream Plans Job Cuts ** Canada Payphone Activates 350 Sites ** Craig Refiles Suit Against Look, UBS ** CRTC Grants Service Improvement Rate Increase ** CRTC Denies Telebec Centrex Changes ** Inukshuk Supports Web-Based Learning ** Telehop Expands Flat-Rate Service ** Microsoft Extends Lindows Suit to Canada ** Primus Sales Increase ** Rogers Raises US$750 Million ** Telecom Suppliers Raise New Equity CSI Wireless Cygnal Infowave SR Telecom ** Charter Offer for Telemanagement Online ============================================================ TELUS APPEALS ARBITRATION RULING: Telus has asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to reconsider its decision directing the company to offer binding arbitration to the Telecommunications Workers Union. Telus has also appealed the CIRB ruling to the Federal Court. (See Telecom Update #418) MICROCELL RAISES $450 MILLION: Microcell Telecom has raised $450 million in bank financing. Microcell plans to use about $100 million of the funds for new capital and general corporate expenses and the rest to repay existing debts. CIENA BUYS OTTAWA EQUIPMENT MAKER: Ciena Corp, a U.S.-based supplier of carrier network equipment, has agreed to buy Catena Networks, which makes gear used by carriers to supply broadband Internet access, for US$486.7 million. Ciena says it will retain Catena's CEO and 230 Ottawa employees. CINGULAR WINS BIDDING FOR AT&T WIRELESS: AT&T Wireless has agreed to its purchase by Cingular Wireless, a joint venture of SBC and BellSouth, for US$41 billion. Cingular beat out Vodaphone, which had bid $38 billion. The merged company, which will be the largest U.S. cellco, will hold AT&T's 33% stake in Rogers Wireless. ROGERS LINKS WIRELESS MESSAGING TO COMPUTERS: Customers of Rogers AT&T Wireless can now download free software that links their cellphones to computer-based text messaging. The software is from Zim, an Ottawa company headed by Michael Cowpland. ALIANT OFFERS WI-FI HOTSPOTS: Aliant has begun a six-month trial of five Wi-Fi LAN Internet access sites, located in Halifax, St. John's, Moncton, and Charlottetown. There is no charge for access. ALLSTREAM PLANS JOB CUTS: According to published reports, Allstream says it will cut 118 of its 4,000 staff positions across Canada in the coming months. CANADA PAYPHONE ACTIVATES 350 SITES: Canada Payphone Corporation has completed purchase of the payphones, payphone sites, and supporting hardware of failed supplier Global Access Communications. CPC has reactivated 350 of these sites during the last three months. CRAIG REFILES SUIT AGAINST LOOK, UBS: Craig Wireless International has asked the Ontario Superior Court to reverse an agreement allowing Unique Broadband Systems to take majority ownership of Look Communications. The action replaces a suit filed and then withdrawn in a Manitoba court. (See Telecom Update #395) CRTC GRANTS SERVICE IMPROVEMENT RATE INCREASE: CRTC Telecom Decision 2004-9 permits Amtelecom to increase local rates in order to cover Service Improvement Plan expenses, and instructs the telco to complete these improvements by year- end 2005. The decision, which varies Decision 2001-756 and Order 2002-230, affects several other small telcos, including NorthernTel and O.N.Telcom. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2004/dt2004-9.htm CRTC DENIES TELEBEC CENTREX CHANGES: The CRTC has denied a Telebec application to add features to its Centrex service and increase discounts based on contract length, because Telebec's tariff notice supplied no costing data. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2004/o2004-53.htm INUKSHUK SUPPORTS WEB-BASED LEARNING: Inukshuk Internet, which holds spectrum licences for MDS-based wireless Internet service, has committed $700,000 for distance learning projects in Quebec. (See Telecom Update #204, 226) TELEHOP EXPANDS FLAT-RATE SERVICE: Customers of Telehop Communi- cations' dial-around flat-rate LD service in Ontario can now call the Montreal area for an additional $10/month. MICROSOFT EXTENDS LINDOWS SUIT TO CANADA: Microsoft has asked an Ottawa court for a trademark injunction against Lindows.com, a distributor of the Linux operating system. Microsoft, which has filed similar suits in the U.S. and elsewhere, says Lindows' name infringes on its Windows trade mark. PRIMUS SALES INCREASE: Primus Telecom Canada reports 2003 revenue of $299 million, a 16.5% increase over the previous year. ROGERS RAISES US$750 MILLION: Rogers Wireless has raised US$750 million in debt, most of which will be used to retire previous debt contracted at higher interest rates. TELECOM SUPPLIERS RAISE NEW EQUITY: ** CSI Wireless, a Calgary-based supplier of phones and GPS products, has raised $16.25 million. ** Cygnal Technologies of Markham, Ontario, has raised $10 million. ** Infowave, a Vancouver-based wireless software developer, is raising $8 million. ** SR Telecom of Montreal, which supplies fixed wireless access gear, has raised $44 million. CHARTER OFFER FOR TELEMANAGEMENT ONLINE: Time is running out. Act now to take advantage of special Charter Subscriber rates for Telemanagement and Telemanagement Online. Download full details (including 107 reasons to subscribe now!) today. ** Subscribe now and start your subscription with the March issue, featuring Part 2 of our in-depth report on IP telephony systems for branch offices, plus uninhibited comments from suppliers on how to improve your RFPs. www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub-online.html ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== 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 on the first business day of the 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 www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2003 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. 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. ------------------------------ From: SELLCOM Tech support Subject: Re: Home Phone System: Talkswitch, KX-TD308 Alternative? Organization: www.sellcom.com Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 19:21:50 GMT Susan posted on that vast internet thingie: > Key needs beyond the usual are: one at home business, simplicity for > family and guests, intercom so you can tell someone to pick up the > phone without yelling, flexibility to mix wired and wireless. > Should I stick with the Talkswitch, reacquire the Panasonic -- or is > there a better option to consider? Well, the Talkswitch does have analog ports which can be "split" so you could have a cordless phone and desk phones. I believe that the Talkswitch desk phones have programmable buttons that might fit your needs. 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, Talkswitch, Watchguard! Brick wall "non MOV" surge protection. Minisplitter log splitter If you sit at a desk www.ergochair.biz you owe it to yourself. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Question About 802.11g Wireless Router/Signal Booster/Antenna Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 07:12:07 GMT In article , scottp4.removethistoreply@mindspring.com says: > O K wrote: >> My current setup is I have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router which >> supports B and G infrastructure. I have a 802.11b Wireless PCI card >> in my PC. In my condo, I can verify that the wireless portion of the >> network between the wireless router and my PC are functioning. I then >> take my PC to another floor in my building, and I get little to no >> signal. I would like to add either a signal booster and/or an antenna >> to make my network functional. > The first thing I'd try is to switch to a G card in your PC. They > have much better range and penetration in buildings. You should have > several options for which channel to use. Try several and see if one > is any better than the others. Also, when you do that, reconfigure > your router to G only. Often when running mixed mode you don't get > the best throughput. Feh -- I've dealt with a, b, and g cards and they all have the same crappy propagation. It's a function of their frequency range. Frequency has an inverse relationship with distance. And at higher frequencies the tendency toward multi-path interference increases. G cards just have slightly better sensitivity, that's all. ------------------------------ From: shantanu_gupta2kplus2@yahoo.co.in (Shantanu Gupta) Subject: Multiplexing And Framing? Date: 23 Feb 2004 01:15:36 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi friends, I'm building a project in which there are 4 channel RS422 data,20 DIPS and one audio channel data coming continously.i.e. I have two separate mux/dmux unit.Audio signal is uses for telephonic conversetion. 1 unit mux unit is connected to dmux of other side and vice versa. Both unit seperated by distance sends data continuously. RS422= 1920bytes/sec/channel DIPS= 800bytes/sec Audio= 8Kbytes/sec Total frame size is 64 bits excluding HDLC frame tags.We are using HDLC protocol for framing and error detection.How i mux & dmux data at a same time so that data can not be missed(bandwidth?).I am using TDM multiplexing. Can I implement MUX by using Micro-controller, i.e by giving chip selects for the inputs on time division basis.DMUX is implemented inside the FPGA. Please give me some idea how to multiplex all these data and how can synchronize the HDLC frames.I'm using 16 MHz clock oscillator for Micro-controller and 64 MHZ for the FPGA. ------------------------------ From: bruce_phipps@my-deja.com (bruce phipps) Subject: Flexion X300 PABX Date: 23 Feb 2004 03:29:48 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Anyone encountered the Flexion X300 BusinessGuardian unified messaging voice/data PABX? The firm went bust a couple of years ago, but I think there are still units in the field in UK and USA. Anyone supplying support for these? Bruce ------------------------------ From: federico@highconnection.com.ar (Federico Perpere) Subject: Papers on Incidence of Quality on Total Traffic Date: 23 Feb 2004 08:56:01 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hola! I'm looking for papers on how voice quality incides on average/total duration of calls. I'm looking for guides on doing the tradeoff between cheapness of routes and quality, to get the better profit. Can somebody refer me to that? Thanks, Federico ------------------------------ From: William D. Caughlin Subject: Author's Feedback on Book Review Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 11:13:49 -0600 Dear Patrick: Many thanks for your splendid review. It should spur a lot of interest in the book published in September 1999. We had already received five prior orders because of your earlier mass e-mail. I have two minor quibbles, though, about your review: (1) the book's primary title is 'Snapshots in Time,' while the subtitle is 'A Photographic History of Ameritech;' and (2) the official name of Ameritech between 1983 and 1991 was American Information Technologies Corporation. There was no "Inc." in it. Ameritech Corporation (the official name beginning in 1991) merged in October 1999 with SBC Communications Inc. (the holding company formerly known until 1995 as Southwestern Bell Corporation, or simply SBC). Southwestern Bell Telephone Company was just one of the many subsidiaries of parent SBC. Today, the former is called SBC Southwest. As part of the process to create a unified national brand, in December 2002, Ameritech became known as SBC Midwest and the former Illinois Bell (a.k.a. Ameritech Illinois) was rebranded as SBC Illinois. At the same time, the holding company Pacific Telesis Group (acquired by SBC in April 1997) became SBC West. And later, Southern New England Telecommunications Corporation (acquired in October 1998), parent of SNET, was simply renamed SBC East in January 2004. In fact, the former Bell Operating Companies in the 13 SBC states are now doing business as: SBC California, SBC Connecticut, SBC Indiana, SBC Missouri, SBC Texas, and so on. Ours is a very complicated industry, and so all the mergers and name changes tend to make things unclear. Finally, I was the manager of the *former* Ameritech Corporate Archives. That entity moved in June 2002 from Chicago to San Antonio, and is but one collection (out of five) in the present SBC Archives and History Center. Thank you again for sharing my book with your readers. I hope they will like it as much as you. About your request (in private email), there is no unified source regarding the history of exchange names in Chicago. It would take hours of painstaking research to piece the whole story together. I offered you photocopies of the exchange histories for NW Indiana to answer some of your questions. We have similar histories for the Chicago exchanges -- Chicago-Edgewater, Chicago-Pullman, Chicago-Yards, etc. But these amount to hundreds of pages of information from the 19th Century to roughly 1967 or so. Do you want me to photocopy these for you, so you can do the research? Regarding our archival photos, we have digitized about 250 images (out of 200,000), which are currently mounted on the SBC Archives and History Center Intranet website, launched in December. Pending legal approval, we hope to make the site accessible to SBC retirees through the retiree portal. But reproduction of individual photos outside SBC requires license agreements approved by the Legal Dept. SBC doesn't want its copyrighted photos ending up in uncontrolled ventures without its permission. William D. Caughlin Corporate Archivist SBC Archives and History Center 7990 IH-10 West, Floor 1 San Antonio, Texas 78230 Tel: (210) 524-6192 Fax: (210) 321-5577 E-mail: wc2942@sbc.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My thanks to Bill Caughlin for his corrections as needed. And by copy of this note in his email, I am advising him that **anything** he wants to share about the history of the 'telephone company' in general, or SBC/Ameritech's role in such will be a welcome addition to our archives in the history files at http://telecom-digest.org . And Bill, it won't be just me doing research from whatever you send; it will be all the people who rely on our archives here as an FAQ on telephony or who search our archives; on average, about eight thousand viewers day read the web-based version of this Digest or explore our web site; many additional thousands read the comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup on Usenet. Readers, if you missed the last edition of the Digest and the review of Caughlin's fine book and the order form which was included to get a personal copy, please see issue 87 from late Sunday night/early Monday morning. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 14:09:01 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Share Day for February We are at that time again -- once per month here, regardless of the amount of message traffic coming through -- where I pause to ask for your kind and generous financial assistance in the costs of producing and distributing the TELECOM Digest around the internet. The biggest part of my job each month is weeding through the spam and viruses which arrive relentlessly day after day. That part alone requires two to three hours daily, mainly I suppose since the spammers are getting wiser about the spam filters and traps we have set up all over to catch them. The virus spreaders are still clinging to the 'Microsoft Update' line; all that can be simply junked as is, but the spammers are getting trickier, for sure. Well none of what I say on that is anything you have not heard before many times, so let me say no more about it except that where Digests such as this one used to be able to be produced with a few key clicks most days, now it is very, very dangerous not to give at least a cursory glance at the items as they are being edited for publication. Entire Digests (of various genres) have been killed off for lack of interest among other things when one or two or three people took them over and began abusing them. Ditto Usenet newsgroups. Unlike public radio or public television, where the idea seems to be to take one or two 'fund raising' periods each year and then do literally nothing but sit on air and raise money for two or three weeks until they have met their budget for the year, I prefer to spread it out with a few messages each month over the same period of time. Five to six hundred -- or even a thousand -- messages of general interest over a month's time, then three or four fund raising reminders. My editing is far from perfect, and things slip in that some of you do not approve of, but I think TELECOM Digest is a little better than most of the text/email-based Digests on the net these days. If you want to do your part to help, as always it is greatly appreciated. You are the best person to decide what this Digest and newsgroup is worth financially, and how much you can afford to keep it going in its present form. Two ways to help: go to our web site http://telecom-digest.org and there on the front page, near the bottom, is a PayPal donation button. Click it and fill in the details. You can use any credit card of your choice. Or, if you prefer to send a check or money order to get a better record, that is fine also, in which case you would direct it to: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Post Office Box 50, Independence, KS 67301-0050. Thanks in advance for your usual fine, generous help. ------------------------------ 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. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 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 second 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) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * 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 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. 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 V23 #88 *****************************