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The Telecom Digest for June 21, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 134 : "text" Format
====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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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.
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Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 02:02:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Number, Please! Comment Deadlines Set in Telephone Numbering Proceeding
Message-ID: <ade6bb9c-9994-4acf-832f-dadbc18553c8@n5g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>
Posted on June 19, 2013 by FHH Law
> In April we reported on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and
> Notice of Inquiry (NPRM/NOI) in which the FCC has proposed
> changes in how telephone numbers are obtained by certain types
> of providers. The ultimate upshot of the Commission's
> proceeding could eventually mean serious changes in what we
> understand a telephone number to represent. The NPRM/NOI has
> now been published in the Federal Register, which (as loyal
> readers should know by now) sets the deadlines for comments
> and reply comments. Anyone interested in commenting has until
> July 19, 2013; reply comments are due by August 19.
Source:
http://tinyurl.com/jvo87sb
Neal McLain
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:29:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: History--1968 telephone credit card verification
Message-ID: <aaefa039-5290-4123-8b72-e98dbff41ffd@j2g2000yqo.googlegroups.com>
An article in the August 1968 Computers & Automation describes using a
card-dialer telephone to verify credit card transactions.
(Note that in the 1970s AT&T developed a special telephone set and
corresponding network specifically to give economical fast credit card
verification. It was not necessary to dial up each time a
verification was needed, but the cost was far less than a normal
private line. However, I don't think the system found wide
acceptance.)
"WAR ON CREDIT CARD FRAUD ASSISTED BY COMPUTER
At American Express Credit Card Division headquarters in New York, a
computer is combating fraudulent and abusive use of credit cards by
automatically answering telephone inquiries from airlines restaurants,
hotels, shops, and other businesses. An IBM System/360 Model 40
computer 'remembers' details on over two million credit card accounts
- including account numbers of lost, stolen and cancelled cards - and
can supply information on a specific account in seconds.
Under this new systern, when credit authorization is required or
desirabIe, the firm contacts the computer in New York by means of a
Touch-Tone Card Dialer telephone. An employee first inserts special
dialing cards which signal the computer and identify his place of
business. Then, using the push buttons on the phone, he transmits the
credit card account number and the amount of the transaction. The
computer either gives verbal credit approval immediately or, in
doubtful cases, transfers the call to a "credit authorizer," at the
same time displaying the account record for him on a display screen.
The new system protects the cardmember, the business establishment and
the Company. In addition to being a major weapon against fraud, the
new system gives American Express much better control over delinquent
accounts. Businesses which do not have the Card Dialer phones
installed can relay their queries to the computer through an American
Express telephone operator."
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/computersAndAutomation/196808.pdf
this issue also has ads from Digital for their PDP-9 and PDP-10
systems;
There is an article on computer communications and time sharing:
"Some strong arguments why the requirements of most on-line commercial
(and military) computer applications can best be satisfied with a
communications data processing system rather than a time-shared
system." pg 34.
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:50:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Telegram not dead. Stop.
Message-ID: <cccec389-e30d-4c2e-97ef-e94cd455b633@n5g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>
Despite end of India's national telegraph service, telegraphy lives
on.
by Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica, June 19 2013, 9:38am CST
> The Christian Science Monitor recently reported what many
> people may have assumed had already happened years ago: the
> death of the telegram. With the pending closure of Indian
> national telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam
> Limited's telegraph service offices, the Monitor reported
> that "the world's last telegram message will be sent
> somewhere in India on July 14."
>
> But news of the death of the telegram has been greatly
> exaggerated. "Somehow they got the impression that this meant
> the end of telegrams worldwide," Colin Stone, Director of
> Operations for International Telegram, a telegraphy service
> based in Canada, said in a phone conversation with Ars. "We'll
> still offer services in India, even though the state-run
> service is closing."
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/kputz6w
The Monitor has since posted the following clarification on its
website:
> Editor's Note: The original story incorrectly heralded the
> worldwide demise of the telegram. In fact, some telegram
> services live on, including an international telegram service
> that will continue to operate in India even as the state-run
> service is shutting down.)
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/o4efy6x
Neal McLain
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:26:30 -0500
From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Access Recovery Charge
Message-ID: <kptsfu$25g$1@dont-email.me>
Having just received a bill in which CenturyLink (motto: "proving
Qwest wasn't so bad after all") raises my Access Recovery Charge, I
started to wonder. The bill says the charges are "to recover costs
of providing access to the telephone network". Since I do not receive
any telephone service from CenturyLink (only DSL, a non-regulated
service), or the "telephone network" (aside from the copper from my
house back to the pedestal 2 blocks away) should I be subject to this
charge?
Google finds FCC filings and rulings regarding the Access Recovery
Charge, so is this actually a federally regulated thing (and not just
another BS "extra charge for being alive")? And if so, should I be
charged it, since I'm not using the switched telephone network?
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