TELECOM Digest     Fri, 16 Sep 94 15:39:00 CDT    Volume 14 : Issue 368

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    UCLA Short Course on Adv Comm Sys Using DSP (William R. Goodin)
    UCLA Short Course on Optical Fiber Communications (William R. Goodin)
    The Industry of the Future? (Sid Shniad)
    Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Daniel E. Ganek)
    Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Fred Goldstein)
    Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Paul A. Lee)
    Some Bell Canada International Rates Change (Dave Leibold)
    Bell Canada Goes A-Trashing (Dave Leibold)
    Re: Cellphones and Smoke Detectors (Douglas Reuben)
    Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Nick Sayer) 

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----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: BGOODIN@unex.ucla.edu (William R. Goodin)
Subject: UCLA Short Course on Adv Comm Sys Using DSP
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 12:42:02
Organization: UCLA Extension


UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Advanced Communication
Systems Using Digital Signal Processing", November 14-18, 1994, on the
UCLA campus in Los Angeles.

The instructors will be Bernard Sklar, Communications Engineering
Services, and Frederick Harris, Professor, Electrical and Computer
Engineering, San Diego State University.

This course provides comprehensive coverage of advanced digital
communications.  It differs from other communications courses in its
emphasis on applying modern digital signal processing techniques to
the implementation of communication systems.  This makes the course
essential for practitioners in the rapidly changing field.
Error-correction coding, spread spectrum techniques, and
bandwidth-efficient signalling are all discussed in detail.  Basic
digital signaling methods and the newest modulation-with -memory
techniques are presented, along with trellis-coded modulation.

Topics that are covered include: signal processing overview and
baseband transmission, bandpass modulation and demodulation, digital
signal processing tools and technology, non-recursive filters, channel
coding: error detection and correction, modulation and coding
trade-offs and bandwith-efficient signaling, signal conditioning,
adaptive algorithms for communication systems, spread spectrum
techniques, and multiple access and cryptographic techniques.

Each participant receives a copy of the text, "Digital
Communications-Fundamentals and Applications", by Bernard Sklar.

                 ___________________________

For additional information and a complete course description, please
contact Marcus Hennessy at:

(310) 825-1047
(310) 206-2815  fax
mhenness@unex.ucla.edu

------------------------------

From: BGOODIN@unex.ucla.edu (William R. Goodin)
Subject: UCLA Short Course on Optical Fiber Communications
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 18:29:45
Organization: UCLA Extension


On October 25-28, 1994, UCLA Extension will present the short course,
"Optical Fiber Communications: Techniques and Applications", on the
UCLA campus in Los Angeles.

The instructors are Tran V. Muoi, Optical Communication Products, Del
Hanson, Hewlett-Packard, and Richard E. Wagner, Bellcore.

This course offers a review of optical fiber communications
fundamentals, then focuses on state-of-the-art technology and its
applications in present and future communication networks.

The course begins with the major building blocks of optical fiber
communications systems ( fiber and passive components, sources and
transmitters, detectors and receivers).  Actual design examples of
fiber optic links for short-haul and long-haul applications are
studied, and recent technological advances in addressing problems due
to fiber loss and dispersion are presented.

Recent developments in local and metropolitan area networks to support
multimedia traffic and their evolving architectures and standards are
fully covered.  The treatment on telecommunications systems includes
various technological options for subscriber networks, exchange
networks, and the global undersea networks.  Network architectures
evolving from the traditional telephone and CATV networks are
contrasted.  Technology trends and directions for realizing the
so-called information superhighway are examined as well.  Finally,
optical networks using wavelength routing and multi-wavelength
cross-connects are presented.

For additional information and a complete course description, please
contact Marcus Hennessy at:

(310) 825-1047
(310) 206-2815  fax
mhenness@unex.ucla.edu

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 08:58:15 -0700
Reply-To: pen-l@ecst.csuchico.edu
From: D Shniad <shniad@sfu.ca>
Subject: The Industry of the Future?


Turmoil in de-regulated phone industry -- 
 
  "On the eve of divestiture [in 1984], AT&T was the world's largest
private employer with over one million employees ... Since divestiture
AT&T has eliminated some 140,000 bargaining unit jobs, while it has
established and purchased major nonunion subsidiaries ... Since October
1993, major corporate restructurings accelerated [among the Regional
Bell Operating Companies or RBOCs, the companies that were created as
a result of the AT&T divestiture] ... US West announced the elimination
of 9,400 jobs ... Bell South said it was eliminating 10,800 jobs ... GTE
announced the elimination of 17,000 jobs ... Pacific Telesis said it
would downsize by 10,000 jobs at Pacific Bell ... AT&T declared it
would eliminate another 15,000 jobs on top of already scheduled force
reductions of 6,000 operator and call servicing positions and 7,500
jobs at Global Information Solutions, formerly NCR ... Ameritech said it
would reduce its workforce by 6,000 ... NYNEX ... scaled back its plans to
eliminate 22,500 jobs to 16,800 positions ...
   
  "From the standpoint of labor-management relations, this massive
industrial restructuring is in jeopardy of severing the traditional
link between high productivity growth through rapid technological
change and rising employee incomes with employment security.  When
compared to the decade prior to divestiture, post-divestiture
productivity growth has fallen by one-half as networks are duplicated
and many of the one million employees in the industry now face chronic
insecurity, displacement, and stagnating incomes.  Breaking the
industry's social contract through this uncoupling may have serious
long term consequences for productivity, service quality, and stable
labor-management relations."
   
  "Telecommunications Labor-Management Relations One Decade After the
AT&T Divestiture," a paper presented by Jeffrey Keefe, Institute of
Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, and Karen Boroff,
Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, at the conference
on "International Developments in Workplace Innovation: Implications
for Canadian Competitiveness," Park Plaza Hotel, Toronto, June 15 and
16, 1995, pages 1-5.


Sid Shniad


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Sid, there is absolutely no doubt
in my mind that the changes in the telephone industry over the past
decade have never been seen before and will never be seen again. Even
with the massive reductions in work force over the past decade, telco
still remains the largest employer anywhere. Trying to simply grasp the
numbers involved is difficult. Where do you think it will go from here?
Will there still be further cutbacks, or 'downsizing'?  Will it finally
get to the point all the telcos in the world eventually employ only
a dozen or so people among them with the computers doing all the rest
of the work?   PAT]

------------------------------

From: ganek@apollo.hp.com (Daniel E. Ganek)
Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 14:34:31 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA


In article <telecom14.367.4@eecs.nwu.edu> Sanjiv Narayan <narayan@thoth.
ICS.UCI.EDU> writes:

> Here's my question: If the NYNEX switching equipment is smart enough
> to figure out that I need to dial a '1', why does it not go ahead and
> complete the call anyway. I am willing to pay for the call regardless
> of whether I redial with a '1' prefix or they complete it for me,
> right !!?

In NE dialing "1" first means it's a toll call, i.e. it'll cost you
something extra. Be glad they now tell you exactly what they're
looking for.  Less than a year ago the message was "Your call can not
be completed as dialed, please try again". Of course, I would I'd get
flustered and would forget whether I had dialed a "1" or not. It would
usually take me three tries to get it right. :-)


dan

------------------------------

From: Fred Goldstein <fgoldste@BBN.COM>
Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls 
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 94 12:18:23 EDT


> However if I call a number outside my local calling area (but still **
> within ** my 508 area-code), a recording asks you to redial with a '1'
> prefixed before the seven-digit number I am calling.

> Here's my question: If the NYNEX switching equipment is smart enough
> to figure out that I need to dial a '1', why does it not go ahead and
> complete the call anyway. I am willing to pay for the call regardless
> of whether I redial with a '1' prefix or they complete it for me,
> right !!?

> Anybody know why NYNEX will not complete a call outside my local
> calling area (but within the same area code), unless I dial a '1'.

You're dealing with the intersection of two issues.  The more
important one is the North American Numbering Plan, which changes at
year-end.  In the past, area codes could not have "0" or "1" in the
middle, so the phone company could usually tel by the second digit
whether you were calling in-area or out-of- area.  IF your local area
had "interchangeable" (0/1 in middle) prefix codes, this didn't work,
but neither Massachusetts 508 nor some northern California areas did
this.

As of 1/1/95, area codes can "look like" prefix codes.  Thus Alabama
will get 334, Colorado 970, etc.  Thus it is NECESSARY for area code
calls to be preceded by a "1", so that "334" is interpreted as "local
area 334" and "1334" is interpreted as "area code 334".  What is
PROHIBITED is the use of "1+prefix" for in-area long distance.  Thus
1334 now means, in Mass., "a toll call to prefix 334 in my home area",
but as of 10/15 that's verboten.

There are two practical ways to implement this.  One is to use "1+"
for area code calls only, while in-area toll never dials 1.  The other
is to use "1+area code" for all TOLL calls and all OUT OF AREA calls
(even local, as in 508 to 617 near the border), and 7-digit for LOCAL
in-area only.  NYNEX wanted to do the former but got pressured into
the latter.  Thus you will dial 1-508-369 to dial Concord 369 from
Marlboro, rather than today's 1-369.

Given this new numbering plan, NYNEX' switching systems will no longer
be able to tell you "you need to dial 1" when it's unambiguous what
you mean.  Today, the dial-1 restriction is simply an artifact to
prevent people from making toll calls without knowing it. Soon, it'll
be that OR, at times, a way of indicating that the next three digits are
an area code, local or not.


Fred R. Goldstein   k1io     fgoldstein@bbn.com  <- note new address!
Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 15:31:55 -0400
Subject: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls
From: Paul A. Lee </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>
Organization: Woolworth Corporation
Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls


In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 Issue 367, Sanjiv Narayan <narayan@thoth.ICS.
UCI.EDU> wrote (in part):
 
> ...if I call a number outside my local calling area (but still **
> within ** my 508 area-code), a recording asks you to redial with a '1'
> prefixed before the seven-digit number I am calling.
 
> Here's my question: If the NYNEX switching equipment is smart enough
> to figure out that I need to dial a '1', why does it not go ahead and
> complete the call anyway. I am willing to pay for the call regardless
> of whether I redial with a '1' prefix or they complete it for me,
> right !!?
 
> It becomes very cumbersome when you have to redial the number with the
> '1' prefixed. I never had a similar problem with Pacific Bell in So.
> California. The only time a '1' was required was when I dialed a
> number in another area code. If a number was outside your local
> calling area, Pacific Bell simply billed you for it.  No redialing was
> ever required.
 
The use of a '1' as a dialing prefix varies, depending on LEC
practice, local calling area layout, and regulatory requirements. In
many parts of the country, prepending long distance dialed numbers
with a '1' has always been required as an indication to the caller
that toll charges would be incurred. However, the practical use of the
initial '1' has been to flag the three-digit string that follows it as
an area code.
 
In many instances, until recently, the pattern of area code numbers
(NPAs) and exchange numbers (COCs) has made it possible to keep '1+'
dialing as an indication to the caller that a given call is either
local or toll. Originally, NPAs all had a first digit of 2-9, a second
digit of 0 or 1, and a third digit of 0-9. COCs had 2-9 for the first
AND second digit, and 0-9 for the third. In the early 1970s, areas
that were then running short of available phone numbers started
assigning COCs with a second digit of 0-9 -- overlapping the pattern
used for NPAs. In some metropolitan areas, careful coordination of
number assignments makes 10-digit local calls to adjoining area codes
possible.
 
The proliferation of phone numbers for "new technology" services has
brought about geographically smaller NPAs and overlay NPAs, and has
accelerated the upcoming deployment of interchangeable NPAs (no longer
requiring that the second digit be '0' or '1'). With the distinction
between NPAs and COCs gone, the use of an initial '1' to flag an area
code in the dial string becomes crucial. Conversely, *absence* of the
initial '1' denotes a seven-digit phone number.
 
With the imminent revisions to the North American Numbering Plan, the
use of the initial '1' as a toll call flag had to be reconsidered by
telcos and by state regulators. Number assignments and patterns were
determined by Bellcore under the auspices of the FCC, but the means of
dialing those numbers was left up to each LEC, subject to state
regulatory requirements. Some state PUC/PSCs relented and dropped the
requirement that a toll call begin with a '1', while others continued
to require the distinction, and still others allowed either means.
 
The regulatory requirements then have to be addressed by the telcos,
based on the numbers assigned in their service area. Here in
Wisconsin, for instance, the '1' is held to indicate a toll call AND
an area code, so toll calls within a given area code must be dialed
with '1' plus all 10 digits, and local calls to a different area code
must also use 1+10. In Pennsylvania, the option was left to the
telcos, so there are parts of the state where a toll call within the
same area code can be made with just the seven-digit number, and other
parts where 1+10 digit dialing is required for toll calls within the
same area.
 
Throughout World Zone 1 (Canada, the U.S., and most Caribbean
islands), you should be able to minimize dialing frustrations and
wrong numbers by trying your call according to the following:
 
If the call you wish to make is to a number in the same area code,
dial seven digits. If the area code is different, or if seven digits
doesn't work, dial 1+10 digits. If your call gets intercepted and the
intercept message does not give dialing instructions, try dialing 10
digits.
 
And, if all this seems complicated or frustrating, just remember that
this is STILL the world's least complicated numbering plan and dialing
plan for the size of the phone network and the geographic area
involved.
 
 
Paul A. Lee                           Voice  414 357-1409
Telecommunications Analyst              FAX  414 357-1450
Woolworth Corporation            CompuServe  70353,566
   INTERNET  </DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@SMX.sprint.com>  <=PREFERRED ADDRESS*

------------------------------

From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold)
Date: 16 Sep 94 07:18:58 -0500
Subject: Some Bell Canada International Rates Change
Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada 


[from Bell News, 12 Sept 94]

Overseas rates revised --
Some went up, some went down.

We're talking overseas rates to six destinations that took effect on
September 1, following interim approval from the CRTC.

Rates decreased by 13 per cent on calls to Hong Kong, one of Canada's
most frequently called overseas destinations. Rates to Ireland
decreased by 16 per cent.

Rates increased for calls to: Vietnam (9 per cent), Iran (14 per
cent), Saudi Arabia (22 per cent), and Cuba (36 per cent).

We're advising customers to minimize the impact of the increases by
calling during discount periods and by using our long distance
savings plans such as Teleplus Overseas[tm] or Advantage
Preferred[tm].

The changes reflect Teleglobe Canada's recent rate revisions to its
International Globeaccess Service Tariff (GAT). The GAT represents
the wholesale rates charged by Teleglobe to Canadian carriers,
including Bell, for carrying overseas traffic.

------------------------------

From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold)
Date: 16 Sep 94 00:31:38 -0500
Subject: Bell Canada Goes A-Trashing
Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada 


[from Bell News, 12 Sept 94 - content is Bell Canada's]

Knowing our competitors can be a trash-act --
One person's trash is another person's treasure.

And we're recycling our competitors' trash into 'gold'.

That's right, the sales team, MCSs, associates and other employees in
the 905 area code now have a systematic way of sharing competitive
information gathered from customers, friends and other sources.

It's called the Competitive Trash-Bin.

"The information will be collected locally and funneled to your FMS
(Field Marketing Specialist) team who, in turn, will feed the
information up into the company to departments like product management
who can then better support our people with superior sales tools and
realistic pricing," says Bruce Simpson, of the 905 FMS team.

And so far, more than 200 pieces of paper with competitor information
have been collected.

"Along the way we are building a district library of competitive
knowledge, initiating local marketing campaigns and developing
training which is both focused and relevant," says Bruce.

The team is looking for any kind of information, from proposals,
contracts, competitors propaganda, letters, advertisements,
brochures, bills and even newspaper clippings.

"Terminal or network, business or residential, big or small, we want
it all," says Bruce.

Employees in the 905 area can pick up a Competitive Trash-Bin label
(bright red) in any one of six sales offices. All they have to do is
fill it out, attach it to the 'trash', and drop it in the bin. You can
block-out the customer's name or add any comments regarding the
situation or your approach.

There are also trash-person-of-the-month awards, with cash prizes
rewarded to frequent contributors.

"We are really going to be able to help everyone keep current with
what's happening behind enemy lines," says Bruce.

------------------------------

From: dreuben@netcom.com (Cid Technologies)
Subject: Re: Cellphones and Smoke Detectors
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 02:24:43 PDT


On Thu Sep 15 14:41:56 1994, covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert)
wrote:

> So here I am, sitting in a waiting room, and my pocket rings.
 [...]
> Fire alarm goes off and I head for the door.  While I'm outside,
> various doctors come out to look and see if they can see smoke, and
> ask me if I've seen any.  Not many people come out; apparently the
> building has a lot of trouble with false alarms.

> I take a look at the alarm annunciator, and it indicates the hallway I
> was in when the alarm went off.  Hmmmmm.

> Concord firemen arrive, and I ask them, as they're getting out of the
> truck, if they have ever known a cellular phone to set off a smoke
> detector.  They say, "No, but it's an interesting theory."  

Happens to me all the time at Brown University. They used to have a
detector very low, near a payphone. While I was on the payphone, I got
a call, and the alarm went off.

This happened a few times; we finally figured out it was the .6 watt
cellphone. They have since moved the detector elsewhere, generally to
high ceilings where the signal is so attenuated so that it will not
set the detectors off.

It also happens near "safety outlets" in bathrooms, which have a trip
in case you drop an AC appliance into water. Interrogations, incoming,
and outgoing calls (especially on the three watt models) tend to set
these off.


Doug      dreuben@netcom.com / CID Technologies / (203) 499 - 5221

------------------------------

From: nsayer@quack.kfu.com (Nick Sayer)
Subject: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice
Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'.
Date: 16 Sep 1994 03:43:30 GMT


AT&T's latest "True Fraud^H^H^H^H^HVoice" ad has reached a new low in
deceptive practices. The add features a rediculous sort of "control
room" full of CRTs showing silly waterfall displays of a lady singing
their "True Voice" song, though the audio of her singing is quite low
in level and has the bass attenuated slightly. This is supposed to be
characteristic of a telephone call.

They then engage in a before and after. At the point of change, the
following all happen:

   The volume jumps up by probably 20-30 dB.
   A choir jumps in and starts accompanying the singer.
   The singer hits a high point in the song.
   The attenuated bass is put back.

The result is a beautiful, broadcast-quality stereo sound.

If they're trying to imply that that is what a long distance phone
call sounds like (which _despite_ truevoice is _still_ constrained to
roughly 300-3000 Hz), then it's nothing short of outright fraud.

Business as usual, eh AT&T?


Nick Sayer <nsayer@quack.kfu.com>   N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM  
+1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'  URL: http://www.kfu.com/~nsayer/  

------------------------------

End of TELECOM Digest V14 #368
******************************

