31 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981

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The Telecom Digest for April 28, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 91 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Breaking News Is Broken (Gordon Burditt)
Re: The Shame of Boston's Wireless Woes (Julian Thomas)
Re: Why Don't Cell Phones have Dial Tones? (fatkinson.remove-this)

====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:41:38 -0500
From: gordonb.f5j33@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re:  Breaking News Is Broken
Message-ID: <W5mdnbno1OCfyubMnZ2dnUVZ_hWdnZ2d@posted.internetamerica>

> Breaking News Is Broken

Breaking News gives me some important information that I might not
get in a timely matter elsewhere:  Where Not To Be.  Unless the
Breaking News is mobile, say, a car chase, the information on where
the area to stay out of is usually pretty accurate.  Even car chases
usually stay in under a dozen counties.

They got the distinction between "West Texas" and "West, Texas"
right and although the fertilizer plant used to be 75 miles away,
I made sure not to head in that direction.  They tell me the fertilizer
plant in West, Texas has chemicals used in making bombs, but the
fertilizer store in Fort Worth, Texas has chemicals used in making,
among other things, fire extinguishers.

They correctly identified the Boston Bomber manhunt as being limited
to Boston and surrounding areas, which is far enough from Texas
that anyone I find bleeding in my garage is probably a different
bomber.

Although Presidential Traffic Jams (and likely Cellular Phone Traffic
Overloads at the same time) are generally planned in advance, the
news gave good advice on which parts of Dallas to stay out of for
the rare Quintuple Presidential Traffic Jam.  They allowed cell
phones but they prohibited video.  Uh, you guys do know that most
cell phones can take video, right?  Or maybe they just meant no
video cameras big enough to take ISO Standard Bomb Sizes of 35mm
or larger?

If I'm going to a nearby park, I'd like to know that the breaking
news is NOT that they are spraying for West-Nile-infected rabid pit
bulls in that park.  And if I'm going to clean my gutters, I'd like
to know that the breaking news is not a stolen heavily-armed police
helicopter being used to shoot bystanders on or near roofs.




Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:36:31 -0400
From: Julian Thomas <jt@jt-mj.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: The Shame of Boston's Wireless Woes
Message-ID: <C52EDC29-B5D5-4536-96D2-E527E7A1CF6C@jt-mj.net>

On 26Apr  2013, at 12:32 AM, Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Let's be a little bit realistic here.  It's impossible to predict when
> a major event is going to happen whether that's natural disaster such
> as hurricane, tornado, earthquake, "9/11 bombing" or a terrorist
> bombing a public event such as the BAA marathon.  Do they really
> expect telco to provide 500 or 1000% increase in traffic and maintain
> that level of service 100% of the time? I'd say no. It's just not
> practical to provide 100% up time through all kind of events that come
> down the pike (in this case Interstate 90.)

In the 1950's era, when the Bell System / BTL was contemplating line
concentrators, there was mention of the 'fire engine effect'.

Déjà vu all over again - sigh.

--
Sent from my iMac
Julian Thomas
jt@jt-mj.net
http://jt-mj.net




Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:31:13 -0600
From: fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Why Don't Cell Phones have Dial Tones? 
Message-ID: <bd871547b2dc8a85dfea0c9e309b94b8.squirrel@webmail.mishmash.org>

> The point of a dial tone on a landline is to tell the subscriber that
> your line has been connected to the equipment at the central office
> that handles dialed digits.  But that's not how cell phones work.
>
> When you turn on a cell phone, it looks for a tower, registers with
> the tower, and then indicates that it's online, typically by showing a
> signal strength icon or the like.  It pings the tower every once in a
> while and may switch towers if another tower has a stronger signal.
> (Things are a little messier with CDMA, but the principle is the
> same.)
>
> When you make a cell call, the digits you dial are buffered in the
> phone until you hit send, at which point the phone sends them in a
> packet to that tower, which then responds by assigning a channel or
> the CDMA equivalent.  The phone then switches to that channel and I
> believe that all of the call progress tones come from the switch.
>
> So there's no dial tone because there's no point.  If your phone
> weren't already talking to a tower it wouldn't let you make the call.
>
> R's,
> John
>
> PS: I gather there are phones like the Jitterbug which provide a fake
> dialtone for the benefit of users who like that sort of thing.  But
> it's generated in the handset, and tells you nothing useful.

     What is the function of the dial tone anyway?  It is only to tell the
calling party that the telephone system is ready to receive the
number to dial.  It serves no other functional purpose.

     There is no benefit to having a cell phone give a dial tone when it
is displaying system readiness already.  All the calling party has to
do is look at it and see that the system is ready for him/her to
dial.

     Regards,

                                                  Fred






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