Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Sat, 13 Apr 91 04:34:22 GMT From: locke@tree.uucp (Alan R. Gross) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: End of the [Party] Line Reply-To: locke@.PacBell.COM (Alan R. Gross) Message-ID: Organization: TREE BBS (916)332-4930 Sacramento, CA Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 289, Message 2 of 8 Lines: 51 In article lars@spectrum.cmc.com (Lars Poulsen) writes: > story submitted by Bill Berbenich Georgia Tech, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 > about the end of party line service in Woodbury, Connecticut. > I enjoyed the story, but would like to make a couple of technical > comments. I wish there were a way to get them back to Ms. Cappiello of > AP. >> By JANET L. CAPPIELLO, Associated Press Writer >> Woodbury Telephone is being allowed to eliminate the service now >> because of a $1.8 million equipment upgrade, Mitchell said. >> Eliminating party lines also became imperative because of computerized >> 911-emergency response systems. >> When a caller dials 911, the caller's address appears on a computer >> screen at the dispatch center. With party lines, there's a risk that >> the address could be that of the other customer, Mitchell said. > This does not ring true to me. If the switch software can provide ANI > for billing, I would expect it to provide ANI for E911 witout > problems. It disturbs me when businesses deliberately tell lies to > regulatory agencies. (It also disturbs me that we set up regulatory > agencies that aren't technically competent to see through such fibs). > While this particular obfuscation is relatively harmless, I bet that > if the company fibs about harmless things they probably lie through > their teeth about facts that have a material impact on the > ratesetting. It is true that you can get ANI from a two party line, but when it comes to four party lines or larger, it doesn't work so well. I speak from experience, not technical knowledge, btw. When I lived in Fairbanks, they had two and four party lines, and the Alascom operator *always* had you state the number you were calling from before she would place the call through when calling from a four party line. This was not the case on two party lines, but some interesting situations did arise in billing from the Goldstream Valley, which is an area a few miles away from Fairbanks with all two-party lines. The switch was in an old beater trailer, and the grounding in the area was extremely poor. Every couple of weeks, someone in Goldstream would get billed their party line's long distance calls, which demonstrates that ANI on two-party lines can get flaky. Randall A. Gross | csusac.ecs.csus.edu!tree!locke @ the UNIX Tree BBS, Sacramento, CA | ucbvax!ucdavis!csusac!tree!locke Sprintmail: A.R.Gross | DISCLAIMER: Ego loquito