Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Tue, 25 Jun 91 9:45:12 CDT From: Will Martin Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: AT&T New Technology Reported in 25 June WSJ Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest 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 491, Message 5 of 8 Lines: 44 Two articles in the {Wall Street Journal} for June 25, '91, will be of interest to Telecom readers. One is a front-page story on new "soliton" technology being developed at Bell Labs for faster fiber-optic transmissions for undersea cables. There's some interesting info that gives outsiders an idea as to how things are done at Bell Labs, what sort of salaries researchers there earn, what the management style is like, etc. The other is on the first page of the "B" section and discusses AT&T's plans to test new six GigaHertz pocket phones; first some technical tests and then user tests in Atlanta, Boston, and Los Angeles in the '92-'93 timeframe. The article states that success in these tests would give AT&T new uses for its existing microwave network of over 3000 towers nationwide, but it doesn't make it clear how this would apply. I thought these "mini-cellular" pocket phones would use tiny cell sites inside buildings or on some sort of streetcorner base-site boxes. I don't understand how this would use the big microwave towers out in the country. Or maybe this is something different than the pocket phones we've heard about in past months/years? An interesting side comment is that AT&T has been gradually taking its microwave network out of service since 1988 when it switched its network to fiber optics & digital switches (that latter recently mentioned in the Digest). Now less than 10% of AT&T traffic travels via microwave or coax cable, but there are still over 3000 microwave towers across the US. The initial user tests appear to involve AT&T employees, but there seem to be plans for a test distribution of 3000 phones to other users in the three cities mentioned later on, described as "giving prototypes". If this really means "giving", as in "free", this might be something Telecom-ers in those cities may want to get in on. There's no info on how the 3000 will be selected; it might help to ask around, make friends with AT&T employees, or get your interest in participating known to the right people ... maybe these will be distributed via the old-boy network to friends and friends of friends. Any AT&T types out there free to comment? Regards, Will