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
====== 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.
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 oldest e-zine/mailing list
on the internet in any category!
URL information: http://telecom-digest.org
Copyright (C) 2009 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.
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 The Telecom Digest (5 messages)
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