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

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The Telecom Digest for June 21, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 134 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Number, Please! Comment Deadlines Set in Telephone Numbering Proceeding (Neal McLain)
History--1968 telephone credit card verification (HAncock4)
Telegram not dead. Stop. (Neal McLain)
Access Recovery Charge (Dave Garland)

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

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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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