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The Telecom Digest for March 25, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 76 : "text" Format
====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== |
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
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Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:19:09 -0700
From: Steven <diespammers@killspammers.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Regarding that proposed ATT takeover of TM
Message-ID: <imegnt$pu4$1@dont-email.me>
On 3/23/11 6:29 PM, Steven wrote:
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> We've gotten lost in the technology here. The point I was trying to
> make is that Sprint's PCS phones aren't compatible with the "CDMA"
> phones used by Verizon, i.e., that even if that both use CDMA, they
> are not inter-operable.
> In other words, I don't think that the issue of AT&T/T-Mobile having
> one island of users, stranded by their GSM technology, and
> Verizon/Sprint having another, is as significant as some of the
> readers have opined. While it's true that if Verizon Mobile merges
> with Sprint, and if AT&T merges with T-Mobile, users wouldn't be able
> to just plug in a SIM card and switch from one to the other, that
> isn't the important factor in my way of thinking.
> Handsets are disposable, and cost (generally) less than three month's
> worth of cellular billing fees, so the most important thing to me is
> that the merged companies would be much more likely to raise rates and
> (as someone else pointed out) to sell "their" customers as digital
> cattle in each company's data corral.
>
> Bill Horne
> Moderator
I believe they are just registered to use the network you subscribe to.
I get up to the foothills north of Sacramento and I believe I'm roaming
on Verizon and I have Sprint, so they must have Roaming agreements. GSM
phone have all of the data as to where your service is located on the
chip. My knowledge is in the switch with some tower work changing out
batterues.
--
The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2011 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co.
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 04:37:24 -0400
From: "Bob Goudreau" <BobGoudreau@nc.rr.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Regarding that proposed ATT takeover of TM
Message-ID: <4A6BEFE7B3D24DF5A84D96A9ED3E8777@meng.lab.emc.com>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> We've gotten lost in the technology here. The point I was trying to
> make is that Sprint's PCS phones aren't compatible with the "CDMA"
> phones used by Verizon, i.e., that even if that both use CDMA, they
> are not inter-operable.
They sure as heck are! Otherwise, Sprint customers could not roam on
Verizon, and vice versa. Yet they do. (And likewise with US Cellular and
other CDMA/EVDO carriers.) Q.E.D. A Verizon CDMA phone is just as much of a
"PCS" device as a Sprint CDMA phone is.
It's true that Sprint (with WiMax) and Verizon (LTE) are going in different
directions with their 4G technologies. But at least they CAN technically
interoperate all the way up through the 3G level (EVDO), though in practice
each company seems to limit the other's data-roaming customers to 1xRTT.
AT&T and T-Mobile use such different frequencies for 3G (HSPA) that
data-roaming between them generally has to drop all the way down to the 2G
technology level of EDGE/GPRS.
Perhaps your confusion has its genesis in Sprint's ill-starred acquisition
of Nextel several years ago. Nextel phones use an entirely different
technology called iDEN, which is now a dead-end. Sprint-Nextel stores have a
selection of CDMA phones on one side and a (generally smaller) selection of
iDEN devices on the other side. No word yet on when the iDEN network will be
phased out.
Bob Goudreau
Cary, NC
Date: 24 Mar 2011 04:54:48 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Regarding that proposed ATT takeover of TM
Message-ID: <20110324045448.41506.qmail@joyce.lan>
>We've gotten lost in the technology here. The point I was trying to
>make is that Sprint's PCS phones aren't compatible with the "CDMA"
>phones used by Verizon, i.e., that even if that both use CDMA, they
>are not inter-operable.
Yes and no. You can't sign up for Sprint service and use a VZ
handset, but they could enable roaming between networks to fill in the
gaps.
R's,
John
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 04:30:52 +0000 (UTC)
From: wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Regarding that proposed ATT takeover of TM
Message-ID: <imehds$qcf$1@grapevine.csail.mit.edu>
In article <ime6qn$c3r$1@dont-email.me>, the moderator wrote:
>We've gotten lost in the technology here. The point I was trying to
>make is that Sprint's PCS phones aren't compatible with the "CDMA"
>phones used by Verizon, i.e., that even if that both use CDMA, they
>are not inter-operable.
Not so, at least at the hardware level. Since there's no such thing
as a SIM card for CDMA, phones are delivered by the manufacturer
locked to the carrier that is selling them, but Verizon's, at least,
all have multi-band radios and all it would take is a PRL update for
VZW phones to use the Sprint network. (But Sprint probably doesn't
own spectrum in any place that would be advantageous for VZW to
acquire, which would explain why no merger has been proposed between
those two companies.) I would not be surprised if Sprint's phones
were also multi-band, as that would make it cheaper for the
manufacturer. I don't know what US Cellular's and metroPCS's spectrum
footprints look like (and thus how much they're reselling from Sprint
or Verizon), but those companies' phones are even more likely to
support both cellular and PCS bands.
And of course everyone in the US is deploying the same 4G technology,
LTE, which is a GSM standard and will require some sort of SIM
(although possibly not customer-replaceable). Each carrier will be
doing it on a different chunk of spectrum.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wollman@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 01:36:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Regarding that proposed ATT takeover of TM
Message-ID: <651220.31800.qm@web52701.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:29:59 -0700 CDT/Telecom Digest moderator Bill Horne wrote:
> We've gotten lost in the technology here. The point I was trying to
> make is that Sprint's PCS phones aren't compatible with the "CDMA"
> phones used by Verizon, i.e., that even if that both use CDMA, they
> are not inter-operable.
First of all let's get a little technical stuff out of the way. In
the US mobile operators use for voice for their 2G networks either the
GSM standard or the CDMA standard. They operate on either the
"cellular" frequency band which formerly people said was on 800 Mhz
but which is closer to 850 Mhz. The other band used for 2G mobile is
PCS at 1900 Mhz. Both CDMA and GSM operate at these frequencies.
Verizon Wireless uses both 850 and 1900 Mhz frequencies depending on
what they are allowed to use wherever they are. Verizon does not use
cellular in some markets and only uses PCS. Sprint started with PCS
which is why the company before merging with Nextel was known as
Sprint PCS. When they acquired Nextel and its 800 Mhz SMR
(Specialized Mobile Radio) service the company simply used the name
Sprint. From what I recall reading Sprint was asked to vacate the SMR
service at 800 Mhz because of interference with emergency service
radio.
Technically Verizon and Sprint's service is compatible since they both
use a form of 2G CDMA. The incompatibility likely is in adopting 4G
service since Verizon Wireless is going for LTE and I believe Sprint
is going with Wimax.
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 09:53:57 +0000
From: Richard Powderhill <telmecom@hotmail.co.uk>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: What to do with a switchboard
Message-ID: <DUB102-ds14BE0D36D828575E4F1E2C86B60@phx.gbl>
You might find interested party(ies) in Great Britain, try
Telecommunications Heritage Group, tel #44(0)20 8099 1699,
e-mail journal@thg.org.uk .
Richard Powdehill,
Birmingham,
England
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 09:58:21 -0600
From: fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com (Fred Atkinson)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject:Annoyance Calls
Message-ID: <505f883a881879ee1616f91374697a05.squirrel@webmail.mishmash.com>
Well,
After FAXing Texas Governor Rick Perry's office last night, I got a
phone call from the Texas PUC this morning. The caller's name was
Amanda.
She suggested I use the DNC list or the Colorado, correction South
Carolina, correction New Mexico Attorney General's office (I can
download the wave file of the message from my provider's Web site to
prove it). When I called her back and explained to them that it was
not telemarketing but calls that were not giving any live or
recorded telemarketing message and just hanging up, then they told
me to contact the New Mexico Attorney General as they would not
investigate this for me if I didn't live in Texas. I told her I
would be contacting Governor Perry's office by FAX again.
Nevertheless, I called the New Mexico Attorney General. At first,
she thought I meant telemarketing calls but listened and heard me
when I explained about the calls with no live or voice message.
She asked for the specific numbers but I am at work and the numbers
are on my PC at home. I got her name (Melba) and FAX number and
told her I would FAX the information to her when I got home tonight.
At least she isn't blowing me off like the Texas PUC is. But she
said she'd likely just be handing it off to the Texas Attorney
General's Office.
I'm going to write Rick Perry another letter tonight and tell him
about this.
Regards,
Fred
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:24:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: What to do with a switchboard
Message-ID: <d0377bf6-b7d1-4aff-b060-a3b294cadd99@r19g2000prm.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 23, 10:51 pm, Lisa or Jeff <hanco...@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
> --551--cords arranged in two rows, front and back, with two rows of
> little levers plus lights; manual service-- station jacks had lights
>
> -- 552--cords arranged in two rows, front and back, with two rows of
> little levers plus lights; dial service-station jacks did not have
> lights and there was an attendant strip.
>
> --555-- cords arranged in one row, a row of knobs, and a row of push
> buttons plus lights; manual service-- station jacks had lights
>
> --556-- cords arranged in one row, a row of knobs, and a row of push
> buttons plus lights--dial service--station jacks did not have lights
> and there was an attendant strip
>
> --608 beige instead of black background, push buttons.
Some amplification of the above:
A PBX ("private branch exchange") serving a subscriber's organization
may be classified as _internally_ dial or manual. That is, within the
organization, dial service meant extensions could dial each other and
optionally outside calls without going through the PBX switchboard
attendant. Manual service meant extensions were always served by the
PBX attendant at the switchboard. (This was completely independent of
whether the central office serving the PBX was dial or manual.
Indeed, there were many dial PBX's served by a manual C.O.)
PBX switchboards serving manual systems had a lamp above each
extension jack to signal the extension needed service. Switchboards
serving dial systems did not have such a lamp. If an extension wanted
the attendant, they would dial 0 and the call would come up on a
special jack strip "attendant and intercept".
Switchboards serving dial systems also were equipped with a "click
test" to check for a busy line. The operator touched the tip of the
plug against the rim of the jack. If she heard a loud click she knew
the extension was busy. This was also used on large multiple
switchboards.
Manual PBXs were cheaper to rent since there was no dial equipment.
However, the subscriber's attendant may have had to handle more
calls. Also, extenstion-to-extension calls required an attendant be
on duty to handle them. Depending on the nature of a subscriber's
business this may not have been a problem. For instance, in a small
motel/hotel, an extension seeking service would go through the front
desk where the switchboard usually was, and the front desk clerk would
be handling most requests anyway. Also in a small motel/hotel there
were usually very little room-to-room calls.
Around 1970 Bell Labs developed a new manual console PBX to replace
the 555. Presumably it was inexpensive. However, by then dial PBXs
and more sophisticated key systems were desired by subscribers so I
don't think many were made.
Manual PBX systems today are extremely rare if they exist at all. But
some PBXs still have a few manual (dial blank) extensions in the
facility, such as a house phone in a building lobby, a customer
service phone in a waiting area, etc. Naturally the system should be
set up so that a human answers calls from such phones and is equipped
to provide the necessary service.
The 555/556 design came out just after WW II (the war delayed their
introduction). Certain levers were replaced by push buttons, and
internally the board used modular plug-in units. However, the older
style remained in service for many years. From a functional point of
view, I don't think they offered anything the older models offered.
There was also a 600 line of cord boards intended for larger
installations but functionally they were similar to the 551/552.
There were special boards for certain applications.
The 608 came out in the late 1950s and was the last Bell System cord
PBX switchboard. It had a more modern appearance and automated
certain functions (for example, ringing started automatically when the
plug was inserted into a jack, rather than the attendant manually
pushing the ringing key.)
Almost always ringing power was supplied by a power supply. But if
commercial power failed, the attendant could ring extensions by
turning the ringing crank (rather tiring after a short use.)
In the late 1950s the Bell System came out with a new line of cordless
switchboards that appeared similar to a Call Director. These were
generally used with newer dial systems and could have new features,
such as "camp on". They had the advantage of not needing the
attendant to take down the cords after a call was completed which
improved accuracy and productivity.
Years ago the organization's PBX attendant was seen as a greeter to
callers and customers. The Bell System provided attendant training
and literature that constantly stressed the importance of high quality
PBX service. Many of the customer service functions performed by PBX
attendants in the past are now automated. There are far fewer
attendants who can page someone for an urgent call or provide other
specialized assistance. If the desired party doesn't answer or their
line is busy the call gets dumped to voice mail and that's it. Today,
it's not uncommon to be placed in a queue just to reach an attendant,
too bad if the caller is on long distance, a cell phone during peak
hours, or making a quick call during their coffee break from work.
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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