Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!brl-bmd!Telecom-Request@usc-eclc From: Telecom-Request%usc-eclc@brl-bmd.UUCP (Telecom-Request@usc-eclc) Newsgroups: fa.telecom Subject: TELECOM Digest V3 #78 Message-ID: <675@brl-bmd.UUCP> Date: Wed, 19-Oct-83 00:42:02 EDT Article-I.D.: brl-bmd.675 Posted: Wed Oct 19 00:42:02 1983 Date-Received: Fri, 21-Oct-83 06:29:43 EDT Lines: 265 TELECOM Digest Wednesday, 19 Oct 1983 Volume 3 : Issue 78 Today's Topics: Telephone Company Unplugged. Re: Ringing my phone WWV toll free Md. FX ringing your own phone Re: Dialing arrangements installation of service DC area code Trade Unions and Competition in the U.K. Telephones in the PRC help with cheap 1200 baud modem ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 17 Oct 1983 21:13-PDT Subject: Telephone Company Unplugged. From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow Reply-to: Geoff@SRI-CSL Tiny Phone Firm Closed by State with Customers 15 Years on Hold FRUITDALE, Ala. (AP) - This tiny town's telephone company has been told to hang it up because state officials say some would-be callers have been put on hold as long as 15 years waiting for a dial tone. ''This is the sorriest phone system I ever saw in my life,'' said Billy Coaker, a Fruitdale resident who has complained for years about the poor service. ''They ran a line to my house in September of '79. It was four years ago, and they haven't put a phone in my house yet.'' Last Friday the Alabama Public Service Commission ordered the Fruitdale Telephone Co. to shut down and let somebody take over the phone business in the southwest Alabama community. The 200 customers of the Fruitdale system live about one hour's drive north of Mobile in a sparsely populated area where you can go for five miles without seeing a house. The company never fully recovered from damage inflicted by Hurricane Frederic in 1979, and unsuccessfully sought federal loans for repairs. The owner of the independent phone company, A. B. Miller of Leakesville, Miss., was unavailable for comment Monday. His secretary said he was out of town. In Montgomery, PSC Commissioner Lynn Greer said he expects Miller to appeal the order. It was the first time the PSC has ever voted to shut down one of the state's 38 telephone companies. Greer said Fruitdale's equipment was outdated, with some telephone lines ''strung on fence posts.'' ''It's been going on for years,'' Greer said. ''We've had hearing after hearing, trying to give him a chance. Some of those people have been waiting 15 years to get a telephone.'' Miller, who also operates the tiny Mississippi Telephone Corp., had about 200 customers in Alabama. He did not attend Friday's PSC hearing. About 700 people had signed petitions calling on the PSC and Gov. George C. Wallace to help them get phones. ''I am most distressed at the news,'' said Robert Richard of Montgomery, Miller's attorney. He said a decision on what action to follow would likely be made this week after he has had a chance to read the PSC order carefully. The company had applied unsuccessfully for ''loan after loan'' and was unable to serve the approximately 600 potential customers in Washington County and northern Mobile County, Greer said. Presumably, another independent, Millry Telephone Co., will take over. The PSC two years ago declared the area ''open territory,'' allowing any phone company to apply for servicing the area. ''I don't know whether we have any competition or not,'' said Millry business manager Ed Williams. Millry serves about 4,000 customers. Two years ago, the Mississippi Public Service Commission suspended Miller's certificate to operate in that state. The case was appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which overturned the suspension after ruling the PSC did not give proper due process to Miller. Recently, the Mississippi PSC suspended Miller's certificate a second time, and Miller again has appealed the decision. Miller has a ''few hundred'' customers in the Mississippi Telephone Corp., which was also accused of ''poor service,'' said Brian Ray, a Mississippi PSC spokesman. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Oct 83 2:32:47 EDT From: Ron Natalie Subject: Re: Ringing my phone They way it works around here (C&P Telephone of MD) is that there are "ring back" exchanges. There are a few exchanges that are reserved for these numbers, but the one that works varies from exchange to exchange and is changed periodically. What you do is dial the speical exchange followed by the last four digits of your telephone number. You will get a dial tone back immediately. Hang up your telephone momentarily and you will get a higher pitched tone. Hang up again and the phone will ring. Exchanges that have worked in the past are (446, 958, 998, and 999). Perhaps Carl Moore can tell you which one your exchange uses. -Ron ------------------------------ Date: 17 Oct 1983 14:18:31-PDT (Monday) From: David Palmer Subject: WWV toll free Frank: In response to your query of some days ago, WWV can be reached toll free at 800-957-9999. This info came from net.ham-radio on the USENET. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Oct 83 8:57:26 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: Md. FX Is that the 621 exchange you have in Baltimore to provide DC area local service? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Oct 83 12:01:43 EDT From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) Subject: ringing your own phone I think dialing 959-xxxx from my (Delaware area 302) phone yielded one ring after I hung up. (I do not recall seeing 959 in use as an exchange in the normal sense of the word in any area code.) ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 83 9:28:02 PDT (Tuesday) From: Lynn.es@PARC-MAXC.ARPA Subject: Re: Dialing arrangements I have a phone with a dial of the 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 variety (matches Covert's NZ dial). I was told it was European when I bought it. The only identification on the outside is "Telegrafverket", which I guessed to be German. Inside, the parts are marked with a script EB, sort of run together. I also have a phone made by Telefonfabrik Automatic in Copenhagen that has the US order of digits on the dial. /Don Lynn ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Oct 83 14:38:05 EDT From: cmoore@brl-vld Subject: installation of service Recently, I moved my phone (individual line, along with secretarial line running from central office to answering service switchboard), and asked that the secretarial line remain connected so I could still receive phone messages. However, I had to spend the night without any phone service; calling my own number from another phone yielded "At the customer's request, has been temporarily disconnected." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Oct 83 14:41:32 EDT From: cmoore@brl-vld Subject: DC area code Someone was wondering a while ago why DC (202 area) is not among the easiest-to-dial area codes. Notice that if a state or province has only 1 1 area code, it is N0X; except for 201 in northern NJ, 202 is the easiest-to-dial N0X code. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 1983 1629-EDT From: John R. Covert Subject: Trade Unions and Competition in the U.K. Background: Up until recently, British Telecom (currently government owned, formerly part of the post office, separate for the last few years, due to be sold (51%) on the London Stock Exchange soon) had a 100% monopoly on telecommunications of all types in the U.K. Now, all of the changes that have happened in the U.S. since 1964 until now (but not including what's happening next January) will happen in the U.K. Mercury is a private long distance carrier, ala MCI. Engineer is the term used in the U.K. where we would use installer, repairman, or craftsperson. >From an article in the October issue of Telecommunications: British Telecom engineers have begun a campaign of industrial action against the parent comanies of Mercury, the private telephone network. The Post Office Engineering Union said its members would "black" all maintenance and installation work at British Petroeum's Britannic House headquarters, four buildings belonging to Cable and Wireless, and the Barclays Bank computer center, all in London. The union is opposed to the interconnection of Mercury and the public network. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 1983 1836-EDT From: John R. Covert Subject: Telephones in the PRC The following are a few excerpts from an article entitled "China Improving Communications Services" by Liu Hua in Beijing (Peking), which appeared in the October 1983 issue of Telecommunications: China still has limited communications facilities... In the 30 or so major Chinese cities, the supply of telephones now averages 2.1 for every 100 persons; phone calls in these cities have only a 50 percent chance of immediate service. Approximately 400,000 subscribers were added in the cities during the past two years... Shanghai alone installed more than 20,000 telephones, equalling the total added in the city during the previous 30 years. In 1982, the southeastern province of Fujian bought a program-controlled automated telephone exchange from Japan that can simultaneously handle 10,000 telephone calls. Waiting time for a telephone call from Fuzhou [the provincial capital] to Hongkong is now nine minutes, compared to more than 20 in 1980. Fujian will soon establish telephone communications with 41 countries and regions. China intends to give priority to the expansion of the telephone service in 12 big cities. This will provide service for government offices and industrial and business establishments, expand the public telephone service, and increase the number of private telephones. The number of telephones for every 100 residents in the major cities will rise from only four to 20 by the year 2000. In the rural areas, the aim is to provide facilities for at least one subscriber in every village. By the year 2000, the development plan of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications seeks to achieve a total of 20 million telephone subscribers, compared with 4.2 million in 1980. Cities above the county-seat level will gradually get automatic dialling of long-distance calls, and in big cities, such advanced technologies as program-controlled digital electronic exchanges, digital transmission, and optical-fiber transmission will be used. "We'll strive for immediate placement of international telephone calls," said Wen Minsheng, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. ------------------------------ From: vortex!lauren at RAND-UNIX Date: Monday, 17-Oct-83 14:18:43-PDT Subject: help with cheap 1200 baud modem When you get things very cheaply, there's usually a good reason. Unless you have another one of those same bizarre modems around, you are probably out of luck. That unit runs a half-duplex protocol... it expects a true 4-wire connection for communications in a "full-duplex" sort of mode. It is (as far as I know) not compatible with Vadic 3400, Bell 212A, or any other 1200bps true FULL-duplex protocols. Sorry about that. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest *********************