privateline.v2n4 ELECTRONIC VERSION OF PRIVATE LINE NUMBER 7: JULY/AUGUST 1995 Tom Farley, Editor and Publisher privateline@delphi.com Damien Thorn, Technical Editor damien @ prcomm.com private line is published six times a year by Tom Farley. Copyright (C) 1995 private line. (916) 488-4231 VOICE (916) 978-0810 FAX ISSN No.1077-3487 5150 Fair Oaks Blvd. #101-348, Carmichael, CA 95608 USA Subscriptions are $27 a year for US addresses. It's $34 a year in US funds to Canadian or Mexican residents. $44 overseas. A sample of the current issue is $4.00. All copies mailed first class or air mail. Text of back issues are at the ETEXT archive at Michigan. Gopher or ftp to: etext.archive.umich.edu /pub/Zines/PrivateLine Another useful URL is: gopher://gopher.etext.org:70/11/Zines/PrivateLine I EDITORIAL PAGE II LETTERS III UPDATES AND CORRECTIONS Magazine List Text of Cloning Regulation 47 C.F.R. 22.919 Misc. Stuff IV. A QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDE TO EIA/TIA STANDARDS V. CLASS OF SERVICE AND PAYPHONES VI. THE PAYPHONE CORNER VII. PAYPHONE STATISTICS VIII. OUTSIDE PLANT, PART 1 IX. A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE TELECOM DIGEST X. BOOK REVIEWS Old Time Telephones The Straight Scoop ISDN: A User's Guide To Services, Applications and Resources in California XI. DEBIT CARDS: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE XII. TELEPHONE REPAIR COLUMN XIII. CAPTIONS TO THE OUTSIDE PLANT ARTICLE I. EDITORIAL PAGE The Second Year; A Price Increase?; Def Con III Welcome to the July/August edition. private line is now a year old. Things are looking up. Reader submitted articles and letters are coming in and I am grateful for this. It takes pressure off me to write every single word in every single issue. And it makes the magazine more informative. This issue contains quite a bit of information that did not originate with me: reader letters, a subscriber written product review and a transcript of a speech given by an expert on debit cards by an industry expert. Please know that your contributions are always welcome and that article writers get free subscriptions. The deadline for the September/October issue is August 8th and October 8th for the November/December. Try to get your submissions in well before dead line. The last year has been very instructive for me, in particular, the last 6 months since newsstand distribution began with the January/February issue. I had less than 12 subscribers at that point and I was very nervous about printing up 750 copies. What would happen? I could envision UPS trucks heading back to Carmichael, filled to top with returned issues of private line. And especially since Number 4 was on patents. A good issue, I thought, but a bit dry. Who would buy it? 600 went to the magazine racks. The first feedback came from the Tower chain. They sold 97 of the l 00 copies I had sent them. 85% of the total news copies eventually sold. And all the extras that I had sold as well, in fact, I've been forced to make up a photocopy version to sell as a back issue. That patent issue found a home. I'm now up to 102 subscribers with a newsstand circulation of around l,000 copies. Current press run is 1,500. Newsstand copies, back issue orders and subscriptions now equal the cost of printing. This is good. So why the price increase? People liked the increased page count last issue. So I'm staying with it. Adding four pages, though, increases costs about 14%. Printing costs go down as the number of copies produced goes up. But increasing page count always drives the cost of each copy up. The cover price has been now been increased by 12% to $4.50. Subs are now $27.00. (Existing subscribers, however, will be allowed to subscribe at the old rate for as long as they wish.) This increase keeps me somewhat even, while I wait for bigger press runs that will bring down per unit costs. I had hoped that advertising could cover the costs of printing and not sales. Three or four pages of the magazine could go into ads and that would pay the printing bills. Sales would cover the other costs of production. But that's not realistic for a number of reasons. This current issue cost about $1800 to print. That's for 1500 copies. I'd need to charge $450 a page for four pages to cover that. What advertiser would want that? You can buy a lot of ads in Nuts and Volts for that price and reach 80,000 plus instead. Besides, Nuts and Volts is set up for that sort of thing and they do it well. I don't have enough time to write, let alone sell ad space. So, the cover price will have to do more. I'll still welcome any electronic related advertiser but I won't bother looking for them right now. By the way, subscribers still get free classifieds of 25 words or less. And ad rates are still $100 for a full page, $50 for a half and $25 for a quarter. In addition, only CONSUMERTRONICS pays me any money -- the other ads are favors or bartered. Like Damien's ad. He answers my questions from time to time so I run his ad. Dark Tangent has a cool convention so I run an ad for him. DT didn't even know that I placed an ad for him last issue. I just went ahead and did it. This is the way that a lot of 'zines work. Speaking of how things work, let me explain how distribution and subscriptions work for a little magazine. Let's start with the big picture. National distribution costs. A national distributor like Fine Print, Desert Moon or the Tower chain take from 50% to 60% of a magazine's cover price. The printer takes $1.20. Distro takes about $2.47. Leaves me with 83 cents for each copy sold. 15% to 20% of the newsstand copies aren't sold. You don't get returns anymore so you have to eat the printing and shipping costs on those. Newsstand circulation is about 950 this issue. Do the math. Remember, too, that the 83 cents I get is before expenses. Subscription copies are different. No middleman to pay except for the post office. $1.20 a copy to print and $1.01 to mail. This is one reason, by the way, that the magazine can't get much bigger -- the weight will push the postage up to $1.23 if I add another four pages. In any case, this leaves me with $2.29 before expenses on the 100 or so subscribers that I have. Money from subs goes to paying the printer. There is no float or reserve or interest accrued from these subscriptions. In fact, I was recently owed $1700 by a major distributor. They did not pay me a dime for over six months. I can't get interest on that either. Money goes out as soon as it comes in. I have nothing to apologize for by increasing the price. Just wanted to explain. This magazine is about the honest exchange of information. It should begin with me. Let me know if you are interested in the back issues and I will price all that out. The bottom line? I am very happy with what I am doing and the response to the magazine has been very good. Breaking even on printing is a good first step. The magazine is growing more slowly than I wanted but I can work with that. What are the plans for the future? I'd like to have a BBS that connects to the Internet. I'd post the text of all the back issues as well as all the strange files I find that I can't put in the magazines. Like FCC and patent files. I'd ideally like to scan in all the articles and product information I reference so that you could read further without driving 60 miles to find, say, the Bell Laboratories Record. Def Con III is coming to Las Vegas. Are you? It's on August 4th, 5th and 6th at the Tropicana Hotel. They're at (800) 468-9494 for reservations. Dark Tangent's number is (700) 826-4368; 2709 E. Madison #102, Seattle WA 98112. See you there! ----------------------------------------------------------------- II LETTERS Dear private line: Just received my first issue of private line. Nice little publication you have there. I think I shall be enjoying it very much in the months ahead. A few comments, if I may. They regard the note about the step by-step switch on page 44 of issue number 5. Rather than being "the" step-by-step switch, there are also connectors, frequency selecting connectors, reverting call connectors and toll selectors; the mechanical structure below the relays being the common denominator construction. Actually the switch shown is a line finder as evidenced by the single horizontal wiper just below the ticket tag and the tenth level overrun spring assembly in front of the A and C relays. Depending on sub scriber activity, 10 to 20 line finders are mounted on a "shelf". The shelf, along with other "shelves" are mounted on a "bay" or common hardware framework which is 72" wide. The shelf is actually the "bank" multiples at the bottom of the switch (they don't show well in the photo) and the wiring. This is all factory pre-wired and shipped as a unit. It is not unusual to see bays with partially equipped shelves which allow for lower initial capital investment and facilities to accommodate increased future traffic activity. The can cover at the left of the photo contains supervisory relays used for assigning the next finder to answer a call for dial tone. An interesting feature to me over the years has been that each type of switching system (machine) has had its own distinct characteristic sound signature. In a small rural office step-by- step is characterized by intermittent bursts of staccato reports, 20 or more per second if line finders, several groups of 10 per second as a call is dialed through, followed by silence broken only by soft pulsing of interrupter relays and occasional clicking of manually operated toll ringing relays as an operator in the toll switchboard works a call. It also is interesting to listen to call activity. There will be silence broken by switching of a call. This invites a second call which immediately begets a third call, followed by silence again. And so it goes, sporadic outbursts followed by silence. A crossbar office on the other hand is a different experience. Listening to a working crossbar office is like being shaken up inside a can of loose bolts. It actually can be deafening, especially in the vicinity of the sender groups or the markers. The crossbar aisles are less noisy, punctuated occasionally by operation of trunk block connector relays at bay tops and occasional soft "tink" sounds as cross-points release. However, the granddaddy of all bedlam was created by a room full of mechanical foreign area card translators, especially on Mothers' Day! And a very different sound was heard by those privileged to witness call-through tests of a No.4 Toll Crossbar machine. These were tests performed by the installation departments on completion of wiring a machine and prior to turning it over to the operating company. Every number that could ever possibly be placed in the machine was called using groups of call test "tea wagons". Any call that failed to complete properly was traced out and corrected immediately. Each tea wagon would present twenty simultaneous calls to the senders. The re lay activity through the office, a city block square in size, had a never to-be-forgotten sound that was like an echo as trunk block relays operated in sequence trailing away to more distant link frame aisles. There would be silence while the tea wagons did their thinking. Then every call would be simultaneously dropped with a gigantic "thud" and then the whole sequence would repeat. My favorite switching machine sound however was the panel office. If ever there was a machine with (if it can be called that), a "comfortable" sound, it was a panel office. To me, a panel machine was a collection of simply delightful "clinking", "whirring" and "squeak, squeak, squeak" noises. It was by far, the quietest of all the machines. The only noisy areas, like crossbar, were those near sender, marker and decoder bays. Unfortunately, today's generation of central office technicians have never had the privilege of hearing these old machines doing their thing. It's a part of the art that has come and gone. I'm glad I was privileged to have heard them. With reference to your "Lost In Space" column, attached is a recent copy of the Bell Labs News. In it are phone numbers and points of contact. Hope it is of some help to you. On the back cover you show views of the old "500 Sub Set". Mr. Bill Brander, a retired close friend who lives not too far from here, did the first die drawings for the 500 model when he worked at BTL in Murray Hill NJ. John W. Sponsler Hampton, NH Thank you for the informative letter. I've added a few illustrations and comments; I hope my explanation of a card translator is accurate enough. (Sidebars) (The hardcopy magazine contains illustrations of both a card translator and a tea wagon. The text of their captions are as follows: What is a Card Translator? Large machines called card translators helped route long distance calls before computer assisted switching. They were very complex internally. Punch card technology was used, somewhat analogous to a loom. Steel cards were covered with 118 holes, each enlarged a certain amount to represent different area codes and prefixes. Cards with foreign country codes contained the most information. One translator mechanism might hold 1200 cards in a single stack. A particular card was selected by shooting a light beam through the stack and then lifting and dropping the cards with solenoids. Read more by looking up 'Operation of the Card Translator" in the March, 1955 Bell Laboratories Record. Tea wagons are portable test equipment mounted on two wheels like the one shown above. They are used in switching offices. Very old models were made of wood and all tea wagons are specific to the switch they service. The one above was used to test a No. 4 toll cross bar.) Dear private line, Thank you for promptly mailing me my sample issue of private line. I Number 51 Your cellular article gave me some lucid insights into the system; as a novice to this technology, I was waiting for such an article for a long time. Being originally from Germany, the debit card article was in some ways interesting as well. In the latest issue of 2600 you can find an article on European debit cards that was reprinted from an older issue of Hack-Tic. As you can clearly see, this system is close to being utterly defeated the weak point of an EEPROM chip-based debit card system is emulating the card with a little homemade device hooked up to a notebook computer. In Germany, this was and is impossible because the payphone completely swallows the card while you are using the phone (ATM-style) Even running thin wires through the steel latch does not work; if it does not completely close the phone does not recognize the card (just thought you'd like to know) I say-bring 'em on! We'll be well able to put the experience we gained in Europe to work and try to emulate their measly cards ! Warm up the notebook and the soldering iron, I am sure we're going to see some interesting stuff right here in the US shortly- as greed drives the telcos to new inventions, we shouldn't lag be hind. However, did you notice that the address and 800 numbers for both Public Communications and TeleCard World, as printed in the back of number 5 are completely identical? I'll give it a shot and see if I can parasite a sample copy for both publications out of them. Overall I am impressed with private line; it is not as novice as 2600 and Factsheet 5 made it look like. IMHO, it's a magazine for phreaks. For me being a phreak by definition, this is what I was waiting for. You'll see my order for a subscription and back issues shortly. Keep up the good work! Onkel Dittmeyer onkeld@planet.net My readers are certainly a creative lot. I also worry about them. Mr. Dittmeyer further informs me that he is interested in the "exploration of switching systems, digital switches themselves, PBX's and their de faults/backdoors, and programming phreaking tools for the PC using Turbo Pascal, Assembler and C++. " His program, 'BlueBEEP' is a blueboxing tool that he has made available to the H/P community as public domain. (Now you know who to thank.) The 1-800 number is indeed the same as both publications are published by Multimedia. A free sub to Public Communications is easy to get, however, a free one for TeleCard World is not. I think they make most of their money from that magazine. Sub scribe to Premier Telecard instead. It's worth $30 a year if cards are your interest. I explore some of the chip card possibilities Mr. Dittmeyer mentions on page 94. Dear private line, Your article on digital cellular was a good attempt at a high level summary. Your carousel analogy is interesting. I would like to see you ex tend it to Digital Speech Interpolation! However, there are a few corrections and additions. I would like to point out: 1. All TDMA phones can handle AMPS calls as well, not 'most'. TDMA phones used for PCS ( 1.8-2.2 GHz) will not support analog, and eventually some cellular TDMA phones may also be digital only. 2. E-TDMA has been trialed in Mobile, but is not in commercial service. One other form of TDMA, that you allude to, is half-rate coding (e.g. each of the six slots assigned to only one call, not two slots as occurs with basic full-rate TDMA). E-TDMA gets about a 10 times capacity increase due to a combination of half-rate coding and digital speech interpolation. The reason why these systems are not in commercial service is because most systems don't need the capacity right now, and the reduced bandwidth assigned to each conversation reduces voice quality. Improved voice coding technology is expected to allow these systems to be used commercially in a few years. 3. Digital Speech Interpolation (DSI) has nothing to do with signal level, at least not in E-TDMA. You would be assigned a time slot in either or both directions as long as there was voice to transmit at all signal strengths. 4. I do not know of any CDMA digital systems that are in commercial service. There may be some confusion in Los Angeles because one of the carriers is a joint venture between McCaw (a TDMA proponent) and AirTouch (a CDMA proponent). Their system is TDMA, however. Regards, David Crowe, Cellular Networking Perspectives 71574.3157@compuserve.com ( 1-800-633-5514) DSI or digital speech interpolation is a specialized form of multiplexing. All conversations on all channels get digitized. Just like TDMA or T-I. Half of your conversation, though, may be spent in silence as you listen and pause to speak. Your voice channel is still open, though, and still carrying data. Just not very much. DSI fills in those silent periods with the conversation of someone else. T-l and normal TDMA, by comparison, are multiplexing schemes that assign each call a discrete, non- volatile channel. DSI increases system capacity by maximizing the use of each channel. Speech may sound clipped as a result. It's not good for sending data. The analog predecessor of DSI was TASI: Time Assigned Speech Interpolation, developed back in the 1950's. It was used for trunks with a small number of circuits. Like cable undersea between California and Hawaii. It's probably still being used in some places. That digital article was tough. It's difficult explaining a subject to others when I am not completely sure of the topic myself. Every non technical writer, though, faces this same problem in explaining technology. I just hope that people can learn as they go along and as each issue comes out. I'm convinced that discussing an issue, even if it means going back and forth, will result in a better grasp of the subject for those who do follow it. Dear private line, I thought you might want a photostatic copy of the famous (infamous) cover of the Boston Phone Book. A friend of mine sent it to me; I can not believe almost 20 years have past. The phone book was quickly recalled. I heard, but I have no facts, that the artist was taken to court by Ma Bell but that Ma Bell lost the case. Turn the picture right and left. Maurice Onraet P.O. Box 605 Newton, Pennsylvania 18940 Decorum and printing limitations prohibit Your Editor from publishing the cover of the 1977-1978 North Boston Phone Book, however, Mr. Onraet has agreed to send you a copy for three dollars. Makes a nice conversation piece. Dear private line, Great magazine! I picked up my first sample at a bookstore here in Cleveland. A section that would be interesting is one that covers schematics for telephones, old supply catalogs from Western Electric North Electric, Stromberg, Automatic Electric, etc. I have several that I use to repair phones with but no one has a complete selection. Thank you for your time and attention. Charles Augustine Cleveland, Ohio Thank you for the subscription and the suggestion. I can easily incorporate schematics within the context of a telephone repair column. See page 111 for the start of this feature. I know of no one who has a complete selection -- joining the Antique Telephone Collector's Association seems to be the best bet at this point. Their newsletter will point to dozens of resources. Anyone up to publishing a book of schematics? Best Message Left on The Answering Machine: "Hey, Tom, this is Chris Thornton. When I sent you my fax [His letter on page 62 in No.6] I didn't realize that the system would send you all capital letters like I was shouting at you -- I didn't mean it that way. Damien Thorn was talking about The Source, well, there's a bio- computer at UC Berkeley that handles security for the government out that way. It's quite interesting. It supposed to be half human and halt bio-chemical, that's what I understand. Sounds like it threw a fit tantrum in Oklahoma. That's just a comeback to tell you to check it out. They're using their people to cover it up with that Tim McVeigh dude. You all have a good one and take care of your self." The private line haiku . . . Dear private line, I want to elevate myself to a higher plane of consciousness so I am sending $4.00 for a sample. Eric Camp San Francisco Dear Eric: No consciousness raising going on here, unless you mean arming yourself intellectually against the dreaded telco. That's something private line can help you with. Okay, okay, here's my stab at consciousness raising; this is now the official haiku of my 'zine -- created just for you: Cherry blossoms fall I brush them off my mailbox Inside -- private line! Regards, Tom Farley ------------------------------------------------------------- III UPDATES AND CORRECTIONS More Magazines! The telecom related magazine and newsletter list is out of control. The following is in rough alphabetical order. GS means that Greg Schumacher submitted the information. See the end of the article for more details regarding the list: --------------------------- A T& T Technology AT&T Technology Room 3C-441 600 Mountain Ave. PO Box 636 Murray Hill, NJ 07974-0636 $40 a year, $72 for 2 years, and $102for3. (GS) ---------------------------- American Hacker "Cable and Satellite --Television -- Technology "Gray Areas says that they are "Carrying the baton passed on to them from their predecessor Scrambling News." Sounds interesting but I haven't been able to contact them before press time. American Hacker 3494 Delaware Ave., Suite #111 Buffalo, NY 14217-0123 10 pages. $29.95 for 12 issues. Add $5.00 for Canada/Mexico and an additional $20 for other countries. ---------------------------- The Antique Telephone Collectors Association Newsletter The monthly publication of ATCA. It contains their organization's news as well as interesting articles on the history of telephony. It also has classified ads, some with pictures, from members looking to buy and sell old phones, phone parts, books, phone memorabilia and other collector items. Fascinating reading. The newsletter comes free with your membership but you can get a sample by writing to: ATCA Ann Manning, Office Manager P.O. Box 94 Abilene, KS 67410 (913) 263-1757 The newsletter is monthly. Dues are $30 a year to U.S. members, paid on a calendar basis. People joining mid year pay pro-rated dues of $2.50 a year. There is a one time charge of $5.00 for new members. please see page 110 ------------------------------ Bell Labs News Nicely done tabloid sized, 6 page newspaper that's published biweekly. Closed subscriber list. Limited to employees of AT&T . I got a copy from a subscriber but you may want to try the person below: Linda Crockett, Editor Room 3C-420 A AT&T Bell Laboratories 600 Mountain Avenue P.O. Box 636 Murray Hill, NJ 07974-0636 (908) 582-4739 attmail!crockett ----------------------------- The Bellcore Exchange "The Bellcore Exchange provides timely insights into evolving information technologies and issues that impact the participation and success of Bellcore's clients in an increasingly diverse and competitive marketplace." Bellcore Bellcore Exchange Circulation Manager 8 Corporate Place, Room 3A184B Piscataway, NJ 08854-4156 1-800-521-2673 $35. Five issues a year (GS) ------------------------- Communications Day "A daily 2-page fax newsletter focusing on communication issues in Australia and the world. E mail version available soon." Decisive Publishing P.O. Box 1200 Haymarket, NSW Australia 612.261.5436 Voice 612.261.5434 FAX gly@decisive.com.au (Grahame Lynch) Daily. Annual cost: A$997 ----------------------------- Communication Systems Design "Exclusively for design engineers building communications equipment and systems. The content is all practical and hands on. It is put out monthly and it is free to all engineers designing the communication infrastructure." Communication Systems Design Miller Freeman 600 Harrison St. San Francisco, CA 94107 (415) 905-2200 1-800 829-9832 (Editor's note -- great magazine!) -------------------------- Crown Jewels of The Wire "The only internationally circulated magazine devoted exclusively to insulator collecting, telephone/telegraph history and related collectibles." A directory of members is available. Crown Jewels Of The Wire Box 1003 St. Charles, IL 60174-1003 (708) 513-1544 U.S. /Canada Subscriptions: First class: $25.00, with no directory, $29.00 with a directory. Second class subs also available. ------------------------- Mobile News and Analysis Newsletter. Reporting on cellular and wireless. "E-mail version available soon." Decisive Publishing P.O. Box 1200 Haymarket, NSW Australia 612. 261. 5436 Voice 612.261.5434 FAX gly@decisive.com.au --------------------- Mobile Radio Technology A monthly magazine dedicated to non-cellular radio communication technologies including paging, SMR, 2 way, etc. The magazine has very good technical coverage of these "traditional" radio industries. Includes a lot of coverage of RF issues such as antenna interference, simulcast systems, pager internals, bandpass filters, cavities, splitters, etc. Oriented to the radio technician and service folk, so explains a lot of the RF issues without excessive math found in some microwave and RF design magazines. May be useful for the ham operator, but does not cover ham products or frequencies. Also only covers US radio. Intertec Publishing Corporation PO Box 12937 Overland Park, KS 66282-2960 $30/yr. US & Canada, free to qualified subscribers, $40/yr. surface mail, $105/yr. airmail int'l rates. (GS) --------------------- Rolm Customer A bi-monthly magazine for ROLM customers produced by ROLM/Siemens. Definitely not a technical magazine. This marketing magazine covers ROLM success stories and introduces new ROLM products and technologies to their customer base. Worthwhile if you are following the PBX vendors in terms of the new product directions they are rolling out, or you are working on competing or cooperating telephony products. Since this is a corporate magazine, you obtain it by contacting your ROLM sales rep, finding a copy and filling out a subscription card. ROLM can be contacted at 4900 Old Ironsides Drive, Santa Clara, CA 95054 408-492-6850 (GS) --------------------------- Premier Telecard Magazine "The first U.S. Telecard Magazine." A beautiful publication. I think it caters more to the collector than to the corporate user, however, it does cover every aspect of the telecard world. They're nice people, too. Premier Telecard Magazine B.J.E. Graphics and Publishing, Inc. P.O. Box 2297 Paso Robles, CA 93447 (805) 547-8500 $30 a year for six issues. Make checks to B.J.E. They offer a variety of rates and promotions. Write for a free sample. They'll send you a back issue and all the information you need. ---------------------- Telecoms Heritage Journal Magazine of the Telecoms Heritage Group (UK), once or twice a year. 48 or 96 pages. Members also receive an 8-page newsletter four times a year. "Mainly for telephone collectors and historians." A wonderful collection of arcane trivia and serious research about telephone history and practice. 'Subscriber Loop Signaling Systems' by Graeme Marett in Issue 24 , was to me, a better introduction to the UK angle than anything Welch ever wrote. That issue also had a history of UK telephone poles as well as at least 20 other interesting articles. Apply for membership or inquire to: THG Unit, Travellers Close Welham Green, Herts. AL9 7LE England +44 1-707-287294 +44 1-707-287209 FAX midshires@cix.compulink.co.uk Membership is $25 for U.S. residents. Send international bank order made out in pounds sterling or send $25 in US bills. ------------------- Telecom History The Journal of the Telephone History Institute. More great information on early telephony. Stanley Swihart's lead article in the first edition of Telecom History (1994-1) is entitled 'Earliest telephone service: The genesis and early development of telephone exchange service.' It is a monumental piece of research, worldwide in scope and running almost 90 full sized pages. With a complete bibliography. Amazing. The Telephone History Institute Box 2818 Dublin, CA 94568-0818 (510) 829-2728 Published occasionally. Charter memberships are $25 for American members. Write for more info. Please Note: I can't list all the titles I am being told about. I should have a new hardcopy list of telecom related magazines and newsletters out by July 15th. Send me an S.A.S.E and $2.00 if you want it. Thanks especially to: Greg Schumacher, Director of Systems Engineering & Advanced Research Priority Call Management, 226 Lowell St., MS A-2, Wilmington, MA 01887 gregs@world.std.com I didn't have space in Number 6 to give you the text of the regulation prohibiting cloning. It was revised as of the first of the year and is now found in 47 C.F.R. Section 22.919 and not 22.915. Anyway: "Section 22.91 9 Electronic Serial Numbers. The purpose of this new section is to deter cellular fraud by requiring that the Electronic Serial Number (ESN) unique to each cellular phone be factory set, inalterable, non-transferable, and otherwise tamper-proof and free of fraudulent manipulation in the field. This subject received substantial attention from commenters and is discussed in the Report and Order. 22.91 9 Electronic Serial Numbers. The Electronic Serial Number (ESN) is a 32 bit binary number that uniquely identifies a cellular mobile transmitter to any cellular system. (a) Each mobile transmitter in service must have a unique ESN. (b) The ESN host component must be permanently attached to a main circuit board of the mobile transmitter and the integrity of the unit's operating software must not be alterable. The ESN must be isolated from fraudulent contact and tampering. If the ESN host component does not contain other information, that component must not be removable, and its electrical connections must not be accessible. If the ESN host component contains other information, the ESN must be encoded using one or more of the following techniques: ( I ) Multiplication or division by a polynomial; (2) Cyclic coding; (3) The spreading of ESN bits over various non sequential memory locations. (c) Cellular mobile equipment must be designed such that any attempt to remove, tamper with, or change the ESN chip, its logic system, or firmware originally programmed by the manufacturer will render the mobile transmitter inoperative. (d) The ESN must be factory set and must not be alterable, transferable, removable or otherwise able to be manipulated in the field. Cellular equipment must be designed such that any attempt to remove, tamper with, or change the ESN chip, its logic system, or firmware originally programmed by the manufacturer will render the mobile transmitter inoperative. Questions concerning this Public Notice should be addressed to Steve Markendorff at 202-653-5560 or Andrew Nachby at 202-632- 6450." The person who posted this to CompuServe is Robert Keller, P.C., Federal Telecommunications Law, 4200 Wisconsin Ave NW #106- 261, Washington, DC 20016-2143. Or rjk@telcomlaw.com. The entire file that he posted is very interesting as it contains the FCC's comments on extension phones and how the new rule relates to them. Altering an ESN to produce a clone is illegal, although some companies maintain that they have the right to effectively clone a phone through software. Less Buster mailed in an article on cellular extensions written by Patricia Staino in the May Teleconnect. I'll modify her example of "software cloning" a little by describing the following: a company has 10 salespeople with 10 phones and 10 ESNs but one phone number. The phones are all kept off. The company pages a per son when they want them to call the office for instructions. They only call in after getting beeped. The company saves on 9 monthly flat charges but still pays for all calls. You can read ads for these companies in the classifieds of Nuts and Volts. The CTIA contends that such phones are illegal but I 'm not sure they'll have much of a case with the current law. There have been a number of raids in the southwest lately, but they seem to deal with hardware based cloning. Page 67 in the last issue was not my best writing. Too many errors. I redid that page and sent subscribers a copy. Send me an S.A.S.E. if you want the revised page. l had been doing my own proofreading be fore. Not good. Little Sheeba will now help me proof. And I will now delay each issue until I get the mistakes out, rather than obeying my deadline and leaving the mistakes in. In addition, the index was a bit of a mess. The next will be better. Thought that the "Internet Bridge" column last issue was a bit irrelevant? The one that focused on Bell 829 Loopback Devices? There may be far more of these left in service than we suspect. I note that the current Jensen tool catalog features a tester called the "Brown Box", more specifically known as a Model 91 Analog Test Set. It does channel measurements of "any 2 or 4 wire voice grade telephone line" and it can "activate Bell Telephone remote loopback equipment." The Jensen catalogs are always nice. Call (602) 968-6231 to get one. I talked about PINs in the last issue but I said that I didn't know how they got delivered as hookflash. David Crowe says that IS-53 de scribes the actual process. The practice for the customer seems very cumbersome. NYNEX requires that you 1) dial your number, 2) press send, 3) wait for two rings, 4) enter your PIN number and 5) press the send button again. It's my understanding that an operator comes up on frequency to have you set a code if you don't have a PIN number al ready. But wouldn't some reprogramming of the phone be needed? It all sounds like a nightmare and Crowe says that it might be cutting down on normal calling volume and revenue because of the inconvenience. Want to know more about plans and authentication? Here's the full quote from David, "They are standardized in IS-53 Rev. A. True authentication, as defined in IS-54, IS-91, IS-95 and IS-136, and as supported by IS-41 Rev. B (plus TSB-51) and IS-41 Rev. C is much more complex, but with less user involvement. The user starts the process by entering a 26 digit key, and the phone then generates a temporary key that is used for most operation. The temporary key can be updated by the system, and the " A " key by manual entry in the phone and in the Authentication Center. Confused? Time to read the sidebar on this page and to get a free sub from Cellular Business. I was not able to get a copyright release for the Numismatic News article that ImOkey sent in a while back. It's entitled "Telephone Tokens: The forerunner of the phone card" and it appeared in the January 10, 1995 issue. That's Volume 44, No. 2. Let me mention three articles in the last few months that I thought were very good. The first was Jack Rickard's "Editor' s Notes: The Security Paradox" in April's Boardwatch. It brings some reasoned, rational, and humorous thinking into the debate about Mitnick. (1-800-993-6038 is the number for subs.) Another great article was "Toll Fraud: Debunking Popular Myths" by Stan Tyo in May's TeleProfessional. Tyo admits that disgruntled employees may contribute to toll fraud. He also described how current employees might be contributing. A very honest article. The MCI switch technician, for example, who helped steal over $50,000,000 worth of calls last December was certainly no outsider. MCI tried to paint him as a hacker but that was just a cover for their failed security. The guy was an MCI employee first. They had the means and the methods to control his activities but they did not do so. In the February 27, 1995 Bell Labs News, an article on security mentioned hackers as a source of problems for business but they also included corporate competitors, industrial espionage and "problems caused by poorly administered systems and inadequate employee awareness." Exactly. Toll fraud and abuse is a big problem. But I'm not convinced that hackers are a big part of it. Why do I mention all of this? Mike Moss recently became a subscriber to private line. He's a reporter with New York Newsday. (Two Park Avenue, NY, NY 10016) He writes a great deal about phone fraud but it's not the kind you might suspect. Most of his recent articles deal with long distance companies who switch a customer's carrier without telling them. Slamming. The subscriber often gets a huge bill after being switched illegally to one of these high priced carriers. He details how hard it is to get your bill fixed and the bureaucratic nightmare that awaits most who are victimized. His articles remind me of how much toll fraud is sponsored by industry types such as Oncor and Sonic. Throw in telemarketing scams and the damage caused is enormous. You have to look at the entire picture of fraud and not just the lone hacker. Mitnick's real crime is probably electronic vandalism and should be treated as such. But individuals are always easier to target than corporations. A group of hackers is a gang or a ring. A group of corporate thieves, however, can call themselves a Board of Directors. I know that sounds naive but that's really the way it is. IV. THE PAYPHONE CORNER Let's continue with some points that Onkel Dittmeyer raised in his letter on page 94. I'm not comfortable discussing card technology because it takes us away from telephony, however, telephone cards will be a major part of public communications in the near future. So, lets roll around in some terms and speculate. For purposes of this article, I assume that you all have read "The Gold Card" article in the Spring, I 995 2600. First things first. A normal telephone calling card is one issued by your local exchange carrier or a long distance company. Like an AT&T calling card. These are really not part of our discussion. Eric Stebel, managing editor of both TeleCard World and Public Communications, now uses the term remote memory card to identify a prepaid calling card. A remote memory card accesses a distant switch by an 800 number to connect the call. The majority of calling cards sold in America uses this technology. Talk and toss. The phone does not require any intelligence or memory on the part of the calling card. Just an 800 number and an access code. The card itself could be plastic, steel, wood or paper. Anything printed that contains the two numbers. Some simple remote memory cards, though, may have a magnetic stripe used by a retailer to activate the card once it's sold. Don't confuse this with a magnetic stripe card that requires a payphone with a reader. Like the ones that NYNEX uses. Those are true swipe reader phones . By comparison, Stebel now refers to debit cards as phone- based cards. This implies that a true debit card must contain some intelligence or memory within the card itself. That could be a magnetic or optical striped card which you swipe or a chip card that you insert. In either case, the phone must be sufficiently complex to accept such a card and then inter act with it. Ameritech, NYNEX Bell South and US West have all run trials or experimented with phone based cards. These are now all magnetic stripe cards. Only International Telecom Incorporated (ITI) of Alaska, a private payphone operator, has had any real, lengthy experience with chip based cards. The trend in the next four or five years, though is toward re mote memory cards/ pre-paid calling cards. You will notice, however, that David Stubbs of Teltrust used the word debit card to refer to remote memory cards throughout the length of his speech that begins on page 110. A debit card in banking has usually referred to an instrument which transfers funds automatically from your account to the account of someone else. So, you have industry leaders using some these terms interchangeably. The bottom line? Ask. Inquire. Write in and get people to define their terms. There will be a built-in amount of confusion until everybody gets on the same page. Back to Dittmeyer's comments. Installing a magnetic reader card phone has been fairly simple. Kits are made to retrofit an existing COCOT with a normal DTMF keypad to one with a keypad and a reader. A reader is attached underneath the keypad. This keypad connects to the phone's circuit board with a ribbon cable. Put in the card and pull it out. Altering the magnetic stripe alters the balance on the card. No need for a laptop or wires hanging out of a phone. I understand, though, that most of the information is encrypted in such a way that defeat is impractical; the methods used by a NYNEX phone card parallel the sophisticated methods used by a VISA card, a gas card or an ATM card. This is very different from a phone that can read chip cards and magnetic cards. These machines hold the card in place while it reads the in formation The trend is not toward access to the card while this happens -- Protel's new 100, 8505 and 8600 Series payphone all seem to swallow the card completely, much like an ATM machine. They've learned their lessons in Europe, in part, because they are already there. IV. QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDE TO THE RELEVANT EIA/TIA STANDARDS (Prices are from Global) I S-41: "Intersystem Operations" A patched together set of rules designed to handle roamers: validation, hand-off from one system to another, location tracking and so on. It's been revised many times. It has not been implemented everywhere nor with equal uniformity where it has been. Some carriers may comply and some might not. There are at least five parts of IS-41, with each part costing from $36.00 to $100. IS-53: The features or services interim standard. Describes how things like call forwarding, PIN numbers, calling name identification, incoming call screening and law enforcement intercepts should be handled. Revised many times and over laps with IS-41 in some areas. $49 IS-54: TDMA. $227 IS-91: 800 MHz Analog Cellular. $126 IS-95: CDMA. $260 IS-136 Revision of IS-54 (U.S. Digital TDMA) $? The electronics and telecom industry develops standards, interim standards (IS) and telecommunications system bulletins (TSBs) for many reasons. Chiefly uniformity. The Electronic Industry Association and The Telecommunications Industry Association are the chief players in developing cellular standards in the US. Even after a decade, most of the cellular trade is still governed by interim standards, many of which have undergone countless revisions with no end in sight. Global Engineering has the monopoly on publishing the EIA/TIA standards. It's quite a racket. For them. The standards are printed on plain paper with no covers. They are stapled once on the top left corner and the documents are three hole punched. They can be 50 pages or 500 pages long depending on the standard. Call or write for a free catalog and price list. l find the catalog helpful in deciphering all the acronyms. Global publishes for over 400 standard developing bodies! Global Engineering 15 Inverness Way East Englewood, CO 80112-5776 303-792-2181 or 800-854-7179 303-397-7935 (FAX) V CLASS OF SERVICE AND PAYPHONES We haven't discussed classes of services before. A business line and a residential line may use the same kind of twisted pair but they are treated differently by the telco. A residential line usually gets an unlimited amount of calls for a flat rate while business lines are charged on a per minute basis. Similarly, COCOT lines and telco coin lines also get treated differently. COCOTs are not controlled by the local exchange carrier but the payphone operator must apply for a special class of service. The LEC keeps track and tags each call from a COCOT with an identifying marker. John Higdon points out that COCOTs are a special class of service that provides the following: 1. 900/976 blocked; 2. Billed number screening (no collect or third party can be billed to them); 3. LEC operator will complete no calls, or provide call assistance to caller; 4. Show up as COCOT class of service on real-time ANI applications; 5. Get special local rates from the LEC. VI. THE PAYPHONE CORNER Let's continue with some points that Onkel Dittmeyer raised in his letter on page 94. I'm not comfortable discussing card technology because it takes us away from telephony, however, telephone cards will be a major part of public communications in the near future. So, lets roll around in some terms and speculate. For purposes of this article, I assume that you all have read "The Gold Card" article in the Spring, I 995 2600. First things first. A normal telephone calling card is one issued by your local exchange carrier or a long distance company. Like an AT&T calling card. These are really not part of our discussion. Eric Stebel, managing editor of both TeleCard World and Public Communications, now uses the term remote memory card to identify a prepaid calling card. A remote memory card accesses a distant switch by an 800 to connect a call. The majority of calling cards sold in America uses this technology. Talk and toss. The phone does not require any intelligence or memory on the part of the calling card. Just an 800 number and an access code. The card itself could be plastic, steel, wood or paper. Anything printed that contains the two numbers. Some simple remote memory cards, though, may have a magnetic stripe used by a retailer to activate the card once it's sold. Don't confuse this with a magnetic stripe card that requires a payphone with a reader. Like the ones that NYNEX uses. Those are true swipe reader phones . By comparison, Stebel now refers to debit cards as phone- based cards. This implies that a true debit card must contain some intelligence or memory within the card itself. That could be a magnetic or optical striped card which you swipe or a chip card that you insert. In either case, the phone must be sufficiently complex to accept such a card and then inter act with it. Ameritech, NYNEX Bell South and US West have all run trials or experimented with phone based cards. These are now all magnetic stripe cards. Only International Telecom Incorporated (ITI) of Alaska, a private payphone operator, has had any real, lengthy experience with chip based cards. The trend in the next four or five years, though is toward re mote memory cards/ pre-paid calling cards. You will notice, however, that David Stubbs of Teltrust used the word debit card to refer to remote memory cards throughout the length of his speech that begins on page 110. A debit card in banking has usually referred to an instrument which transfers funds automatically from your account to the account of someone else. So, you have industry leaders using some these terms interchangeably. The bottom line? Ask. Inquire. Write in and get people to define their terms. There will be a built-in amount of confusion until everybody gets on the same page. Back to Dittmeyer's comments. Installing a magnetic reader card phone has been fairly simple. Kits are made to retrofit an existing COCOT with a normal DTMF keypad to one with a keypad and a reader. A reader is attached underneath the keypad. This keypad connects to the phone's circuit board with a ribbon cable. Put in the card and pull it out. Altering the magnetic stripe alters the balance on the card. No need for a laptop or wires hanging out of a phone. I understand, though, that most of the in formation is encrypted in such a way that defeat is impractical; the methods used by a NYNEX phone card parallel the sophisticated methods used by a VISA card, a gas card or an ATM card. This is very different from a phone that can read chip cards and magnetic cards. These machines hold the card in place while it reads the in formation The trend is not toward access to the card while this happens -- Protel's new 100, 8505 and 8600 Series payphone all seem to swallow the card completely, much like an ATM machine. They've learned their lessons in Europe, in part, because they are already there. Stebel reports that "All of the major payphone manufacturers in the United States are selling smart card payphones to foreign countries. Some international payphone companies are even selling smart card payphones to the RBOCs." So, the payphone companies have learned their lessons and are already learning more. Much of this ties into the standards that The Gold Card article mentions. AFNOR. ISO. Who are these groups and where can you read these standards? AFNOR stands for Association Francaise de Normalisation (of course). Only ITI, as I understand it, has used their standards with their cards. Let's concentrate on the ISO. The ISO or International Standards Organisation is a body composed of many nations. They try to get together to settle on the ways that things work What does the ISO itself say about standards? "Standards are documented agreements containing technical specifications or other precise criteria to be used consistently as rules guidelines, or definitions of characteristics, to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their purpose. For example, the format of the credit cards, phone cards, and " smart" cards that have become commonplace is derived from an ISO International Standard. Adhering to the standard, which defines such features as an optimal thickness (0,76 mm), means that the cards can be used worldwide. International Standards thus contribute to making life simpler, in creasing the reliability and effectiveness of the goods and services we use. " "What does an ISO standard look like? It can be anything from a four-page document to a 1000-page tome, including twice the weight of the standard itself in informative annexes. It may specify the tasks that a certain range of equipment must be able to perform, or describe in detail an apparatus and its safety features. It may contain symbols, definitions, diagrams, codes, test methods, etc." Okay, okay you say, so what are the ISO standards regarding chip cards? It's not that simple. The ISO is currently producing draft industry standards (DIS) that have not been finalized. Here are the ones that seem to apply most to chip cards: 1) ISO 9992- 1: 1990 Financial transaction cards -- Messages between the integrated circuit card and the card accepting device -- Part 1: Concepts and structures; 2) ISO 10202-1:1991 Financial transaction cards -- Security architecture of financial transaction systems using integrated circuit cards -- Part 1: Card life cycle; 3) ISO/DIS 10202-2 Financial transaction cards -- Security architecture of financial transaction systems using integrated circuit cards -- Part 2: Transaction process; 4) ISO/DIS 10202-3 Financial transaction cards -- Security ISO architecture of financial transaction systems using integrated circuit cards -- Part 3: Cryptographic key relationships; 5) ISO/DIS 10202-4 Financial transaction cards -- Security architecture of financial transaction systems using integrated circuit cards -- Part 4: Secure application modules; 6) ISO/DIS 10202-5 Financial transaction cards -- Security architecture of financial transaction systems using integrated circuit cards -- Part 5: Use of algorithms; 7) ISO 10202-6: 1994 Financial transaction cards -- Security architecture of financial transaction systems using integrated circuit cards -- Part 6: Cardholder verification. The ISO is represented in America by the American National Standards Institute. ANSI. I asked for a price list on the above interim standards and for their free brochure explaining the ISO but after a month and a half they still haven't responded: American National Standards Institute, l West 42nd Street, 13th floor New York, N.Y. 10036 (212) 642-4900. FAX is (212) 398-0023. VII. PAYPHONE STATISTICS -- Payphone Trivia Courtesy of New York Newsday, Michael Moss, Raymond James and Asso ciates, Industry Analysts, John Richard Associates and private line magazine!-- (New York Newsday, Sunday, May 1 4, 1 995) Number of payphones in the United States: 2 million Number of payphones in New York State owned by NYNEX: 160,000 Number of payphones in New York State owned by others: 40,000 Commission paid to site owner: Up to 50 percent of gross revenue Money a pay phone can hold: $150 in quarters, $250 in dimes Cost to buy a payphone: $935 to $1,295 Average monthly income of payphone: $250 Portion of payphone income from coins: Two-thirds Top Five Payphone Locations Nationwide: Bars: 131,000 Grocery Stores: 116,000 Hotels and Motels: 80,000 Colleges: 60,000 Prisons: 50,000 VIII OUTSIDE PLANT, PART 1 Outside plant or OSP refers to telco-owned equipment and facilities that are outside the main central office that serves local customers. Cables, manholes, utility poles, equipment cabinets and remote switching modules are all outside plant facilities. Everything from the cable vault at the central office to the demarcation point at your house or office. I'm doing two things in this article: I) introducing the subject of outside plant and 2) looking at buried facilities or buried plant. I'll look at aerial plant and rural OSP in more detail in the next issue. Let's look at the big picture first and then define outside plant a little more. This quote is nearly fifty years old but it still manages to put the entire public telephone switched network (PTSN) into perspective: "The term 'telephone plant' includes (I) the telephone ap paratus and wiring at the subscribers' premises; (2) the central office switching equipment (with the buildings that contain it) for interconnecting subscribers' lines; and (3) the aerial and underground wires and cables with their pole lines and con duits, which connect the subscribers' stations with the central offices and the latter with each other whether they be in the same city or in different cities. This piant makes it possible, at the present time, for any user of the telephone service to be connected promptly with any other station of the telephone system, and to converse easily, by electrical means, with the person called, after the connection is established, regardless of distance. The systems which enable this nation-wide service to be rendered are necessarily complex and intricate and they in clude a multitude of auxiliary devices and appurtenances.''l 11 Complex and intricate indeed. But the layout of outside plant is fairly straightforward, even though the technology has been getting more complex. Let's define outside plant more specifically before showing how the different elements come together. Lee says that "The outside plant of a telephone company encompasses all telephone fa cilities from the main distributing frame (MDF) in the central office to the protector at the customer's residence or business location." Besides the many forms of buried and aerial cable involved, Lee also maintains that OSP includes "electronic carrier systems, microwave, or some form of subscriber or concentrator arrangement.''l2l That's practically everything in the local loop. There are some problems with that definition. Remote switches confuse the outside plant definition somewhat. They are tied to the main central office by trunks but they generally provide their own dial tone and switching. They are part of today's distributed switching, with a little central office possible nearly every where. The remote 5ESS pictured on page 107 is an example. That switch is the termination for the entire local loop distribution plant in its area. It has its own backup power supply, ringing generator distribution frame and multiplexing equipment. Among other things. Everything outside of this facility is outside plant as well, but possibly not the switch itself. That's because switching equipment has usually been considered the province of central office plant, things within the building proper. But many remotes are housed in underground vaults. That makes them buried plant. And that means outside plant to me. I'd argue that out sidc plant includes any equipment or facilities that are connected to a particular central office. That means remotes and anything else that helps provide local service. Sound pedantic? Not really. The last census I saw showed that there were 8 663 central offices in the United States but 10,584 remote switches.(3) Seems like a good dcfinition is in order. Yet industry itself does not agree on terms. The best selling telecom dictionary today says that outside plant does nol include micro wave towers, antennas and cable system repeaters. (4) This directly contradicts Lee. And although he is no longer with us, I think I will stick with his older but more authoritative opinion. Now that we've somewhat defined what outside plant is, let us look at how it is arranged. Again, the focus is on an urban setting. I'll leave rural areas for the next issue. (Gives me an excuse for a road trip.) Lee mentions five kinds of plans for outside plant. But only the serving area concept and the modified serving area concept seem to be in favor. I'll let another expert describe it, " In order to standardize the way loop distribution plants are set up in the U.S. (and to prevent chaos) the Bell System created a standard reference design. For urban and suburban areas, this plan was called the Serving Areas Concept (SAC) plan. Basically, in the SAC plan, each city is divided into one or more Wire Centers which are each handled by a local central office switch. A typical WC will handle 41,000 subscriber lines. Each WC is divided into about 10 or so Serving Areas (depending on the size and population of the city), with an average size of 12 square miles . . . each Serving Area may handle around 500 to 1,000 lines or more for maybe 200 to 400 housing units, typically a tract of homes." Feeder cable (F1) goes out to each serving area managed by the central office. "This cable can contain from 600 to over 2,000 pairs, and often more than one physical F1 cable is needed to service a single Serving Area (at an SAI). The F1 is almost always located underground because the size, weight and number of feeders makes it impossible to put them on normal telephone poles. Since it is also impractical to use one single piece of cable, the F1 usually consists of several pieces of large, pressurized or armored cable spliced together underground into a single cable."[6] One or more F1s terminate or are wired into the back of a Serving Area Interface. This could be a small or large terminal board or block. Local twisted pairs connect to the other side of these boards and go out to the local neighborhood. The idealized map presented on page 102 is just that: idealized. Where the SAI is and how many of them are tied to a particular central office is all dependent on population, the switch that exists at the C.O., the facilities available to the local telco, future plans and so on. You can make a more realistic map yourself by noting the SAIs in your neighborhood in relation to the end office that serves you. In addition, F1 may first terminate at a multiplexer or a pair gain facility like a SLC-96. These systems put many, many conversations over a single pair of wires. That helps if, say, a large apartment complex gets built in an already developed area. The existing feeder cables and ducts may already be at capacity. Multiplexing takes the analog traffic of the local loop and digitizes it over the existing F1 cable. An SAI is usually nearby to provide a connection to the local loop's twisted pairs. The SAI is most commonly housed in the kind of cabinet shown on page 103. There are smaller and larger cabinets, however, so it is often tough to tell. But most have doors and those labeled with a street address are almost certainly an SAI. Automatic Electric cabinets often had simulated wood grain siding. (No, I'm not kidding.) What then, are in the rest of the smaller green boxes that dot the landscape? Most of these are called pedestals and most of them don't have doors. Most relate to buried plant and a neighborhood that has its utilities underground. They serve as splice housings and service terminals for buried drop wires to connect to the local distribution cable. The most common "are the PC4, PC 6 and PC 12; these are around 50" tall by 4", 6" or 12" respectively, and are painted gray-green like SAI cabinets. These are the smallest pedestals in the distribution plant and they don't have doors (they look like waist-high square poles). [T]hese pedestal closures are often used for other purposes, such as splicing points in underground distribution, loading coil mounting, and even used as temporary wire storage containers."[7] We've now looked a bit at what is on the surface. What's down below? Buried plant is an underground system. It depends on conduits or ducts, manholes, cables, and vaults. Conduit or ducts are simply empty pipes, often made of plastic or structural foam. These are laid into trenches, filled or capped with concrete and backfilled over. Spare conduits get put in at the same time. This makes it possible to pull out an old cable or to put a new one in. Directly plowing a cable into the earth is done only for buried distribution cable or rural trunks. The F1 cable usually runs in conduit all the way from the C.O. to the SAI. Cables are then accessed and pulled from manholes or vaults. Many conduits have become filled over the years, especially in downtown areas. Happily, fiber optic cable recovers space in old, crowded quarters. Conduits that were crowded with bulky copper cable are now giving way to fiber optic cables that take far less space yet provide far more capac ity. Much of what you'd see in a manhole is represented in the photographs on page 105 albeit, in the more spacious, well lit surroundings of the cable vault. In addi tion, certain areas have concrete tunnels between manholes and not conduit, with telephone cables racked to the sides of the tunnels. Lee says that manholes should not be further than 750 feet apart. I'm not sure if that works out in practive, however, I have noticed something about the covers. There seems to be two types: the round ones and the kind that have two hinged steel plates. The ones with the steel plates seem easier to lift and they provide a bigger entrance. But I see them only on sidewalks and not out in the middle of the street. They must be limited to areas without traffic. The round, iron manhole cover may be the only kind that stands up well to 40,000 pound trucks running over them all day. I hope to look at aerial plant and rural OSP in more detail next issue. I had hoped to include some photos of various oddities in this issue but I wasn't able to get on the road to take black and white photos of them. The nearest post-pay phones, for ex ample, that I know are in Idaho. And I'm no longer certain that they can be considered outside plant equiyment. In any case, l hope you enjoyed this introduction to the subject and feel free to send me copies of any interesting photographs that you may wish to share. Notes: [1.] Encyclopedia Britanica, Volume 21, (1946) 895 [2.] Lee, Frank. Outside Plant. Geneva, abc TeleTraining, Inc. (1987) 7 This book is getting pretty long in the tooth. Now revised by E.J. Leonard, this is one of the first four manuals that Lee wrote. It's illus trated with very limited pen and ink drawings and some charts. No photographs of any kind. Still, it's the only thing in print on OSP. Available through Telecom Books (1-800-LIBARY) or through abc TeleTraining, Inc., Box 537, Geneva,111,60134 (312) 879-9000. [3] Semi-annual Report on Telephone Trends in Telephone Service May 1994. Industry Analysis Division, Federal Communications Commission. Downloadable through their BBS at (202) 418-0241 (BBS file name is TREND295.ZIP. "Copies may be purchased by calling International Transcription Services at (202) 857-3800." [4 ]Newton, Harry. Ne~vton's Telecom Dictionary, 8th edition. New York City. Flatiron Publishing, Inc. (1995) 751 A very good, very idio syncratic telecom dictionary. 1170 pages. $24.95. Yes, it's worth it, despite my reservations about the publishers themselves. [5] Phucked Agent. "Outside Loop Distribution Plant." Legion of Doom Technical Journal: File #8 of 12 (1987) I pulled this file off the Internet about two years ago. A great read and about the only resource available on the Internet about outside plant. Not in print which is really too bad. The old LOD people could do everyone a great service by putting their material into hardcopy. I'll make room in private line if they want. [6] Ibid. [7] Ibid. [8] Kurtz, Edwin B. The Lineman's and Cableman's Handbook, 7th edition. New York City. McGraw Hill (1986) 31-10. Not telco but helpful. Other: Outside Plant Magazine does deal with OSP, of course, but they have not been helpful to me at all. Still, it is a good magazine. $30 a year. Practical Communications, Inc., Outside Plant Magazine, P.O. Box 183, Cary, IL 60013. Cabling Business Magazine does not deal with OSP as much as Outside Plant but it is a very friendly magazine run by nice people. Free subs. Cabling Business Magazine, P.O. Box 496177, Garland, TX 754049-6177 (213) 328-1717. ----------------------------------- THE INTERNET (Sidebar) Getting on line? Check out these unmoderated groups. They're open to all. Post to alt.test first to experiment if you are new to USENET. 1) alt.2600 2) alt.dcom.telecom 3) alt.cellular-phone-tech 4) comp.dcom.telecom.tech IX. A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE TELECOM DIGEST Pat Townsend moderates a discussion group about telecommunications on the Internet. Look for comp.dcom.telecom if you have USENET access. He's been moderating this group for over ten years. People submit hundreds of questions to the digest each week. Pat selects which ones to post. He sometimes edits the question for clarity and he often adds his own opinions. Replies to a question are not automatically put up by Pat. He controls them as well. You have, in effect, a kind of daily telecom newspaper under strict editorial control. I do not subscribe to this group but I do look it over from time to time. Here's a list of topics selected at random to show what's discussed: 134 Telematic Sculpture 4 135 National Information Infrastructure Course 136 Experience Switching Canadian Cellular Service? 137 NTI and Peer to Peer Connection 138 Question on ATT Pub 41450 139 Information Wanted on American Communication Services, Inc. 140 Caller-ID With Name From Centrex 141 TSPS Operator Boards 142 Cord Board Toll and Assistance 143 Least Cost Routing Question 144 CD Changer For Music on Hold (2 msgs) 145 ANI vs Caller-ID 146 History of TSPS/TOPS/OSPS 147 HumanNets and WorldNet - Are Earliest Posts Archived Anywhere? 148 Johnny Mnemonic - Waste of Time, Money (2 msgs) 149 Information Wanted About Smart Cards 150 TCOM Assistant Professor (One Year, Ph.D.) 151 Merging Phone Company Test Boards 152 Multiplexer Software Control Pat spends as much time writing and editing as any newspaper or magazine writer. He's just doing it electronically. I think he needs encouragement to put some of the ten years of the Telecom Digest into hardcopy. He's contemplating a CD ROM but that would cut out access for anyone without a computer and a CD drive. He also needs contributions to continue the work of the digest: TELECOM Digest 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL 60076 X. BOOK REVIEWS Old Time Telephones is a wonderful book about telephones for collectors, repair people and just about anyone who wonders how telephones work. You'll find everything from the earliest history of telephony to a lengthy discussion of modern touch tone phone circuitry. It's divided into four parts. The first discusses the development of components. It includes chapters on early developments and the Bell patent, receivers, induction coils, magnetos, ringers, switches and dials. The other major parts of the book are Telephone Instruments, Electrical Circuits, and Restoration and Repair. Each of these parts are as well detailed as the first. There's a good appendix that describes basic electrical principals (Myer holds a Ph.D. in physics), an excellent bibli ography and a well done index. Myer's approach is comprehensive. He comments, for example, on a component's function as well as its evolution. Let me illustrate this point. In the first part he explains that varistors protect a telephone receiver from elec trical distrubances and that they reduce clicking noises on the line that you might hear otherwise. He then writes in a later chapter that, "Unfortunately for Western Electric, the No. 44 varistor could only be successfully made with copper oxide from a mine in the Chilean Andes, and that ore was being rap idly depleted (Michal 1960). Consequently, the Bell Laboratories developed a new low voltage varistor out of silicon." Your editor approves of esoterica! haven't seen this kind of detail since Fagen edited A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: The Early Years. I use this book for reference and for browsing. It keeps things straight. Dozens of models, makes and manufacturers are described or mentioned. ITT, Kellogg, Stromberg-Carlson, A.E. and Western Electric all made different products at different times and this book does a great job of sorting most of them out. It's a little light on Automatic Electric and foreign makes like Ericsson are generally not treated but what do you want? The 290 pages of details that it does have will make any telephone enthusiast happy. Myer says that it took him more than five years to write this book and I believe it. Here's a nice paragraph from his book to end this review: "On January 1, 1984, the Western Electric Company, then older than the telephone itself, ceased to exist (Hochheiser 1991, 143). On that day of court ordered divestiture, the Bell System was broken into seven regional operating companies (the Baby Bells) and a more compact AT&T. AT&T retained the long-distance part of the business, its venerable research organization (Bell Laboratories), and its manufacturing operations (which could no longer have exclusive supply arrangements with the operating companies). A newly cre ated AT&T Technologies, Inc. assumed the corporate charter of Western Electric and continued making 500-type, 2500-type, and Trimline telephones under the AT&T Technologies label for several years at plants in Indianapo lis and Shreveport. However, to become competitive in the market, AT&T shifted residential telephone manufacturing to the Far East, beginning in Hong Kong in late 1985, Singapore the following year, and later in Bangkok and elsewhere. Thus ended U.S. production of rugged electromechanical telephones, and though phones similar to the 500-type, the 2500-type, the Princess, and the Trimline are still made to day, they are products of the modern electronics age, rather than a bygone culture." Old Time Telephones:Technology, Restoration and Repair by Ralph O Myer Published by TAB Books, a division of McGraw Hill, Inc., Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17294-085t 1 -800-822-8158 (717)-794-2191 (717)-794-2103 FAX ISBN No. 0-07-041817-9 (Paperback) 1995 $19.95 (U.S.) ---------------------------------------- The Straight Scoop is a ten page report on the 900 Pay-Per- Call Industry. It looks at the problems and pitfalls you'll want to avoid if you go into business as an IP or information provider. In particular, it describes service bureaus and how to deal with them. You'll be working with these people so you better educate yourself. These service bureaus help set up your program, maintain the switch, lease the necessary lines from the telco and do the accounting. They charge hundreds of dollars for their work every month, even if no calls come in for your number. Service bureaus operate in an incredibly competitive, shark filled environment. Each claims to have the best, most profitable program for you. Each program has different terms and rates. What to do? Ken Wells provides honest, realistic guidance in dealing with these people. He also discusses advertising for your venture, market research, resources and consultants who can help you without hyping you. He also sells a list of 44 (!) questions to ask your service bureau prospect for five dollars. My advice is to get both the report and the list. At $15 total, I can predict that this will be the least costly, most honest information that you come across in setting up your project. The Straight Scoop Kenneth R. Wells 1-800-482-FACT (3228) Visa, MC The Straight Scoop 1142 Auahi Street, Suite 2014 Honolulu, Hawaii 96814 scoop@mailback.com The report is $10 and the list of questions is $5.00. Ken is a senior communications engineer for a U.S. contractor in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. ------------------------------------ ISDN: A User's Guide to Services, Applications & Resources In California, is this issue's freebie to write away for. It's 60 pages of information on the Integrated Services Digital Network -- the most talked about and most delayed telecommunication service in the last 15 years. The best parts of this book are the hand drawn graphics, lifted with permission from France Telecom, Inc. and reworked by Pacific Telesis. ISDN is a digital service provided by some phone companies. It uses two conventional twisted pairs. You could set it up right now if you had two phone lines and your local telco had a switch equipped with ISDN capabilities. Pacific Bell, though, recommends that you also have an additional line with a normal phone in case of a power failure. In any case, ISDN allows a digital connection from you to the telephone company. It makes sense to put digital into the local loop since nearly all traffic is digital between switches. This allows a full digital connection from one end of the telephone system to the other. Provided, of course, that the person on the other end has or can get the same kind of ISDN connection that you have. Voice and data or both can travel at the same time on the same ISDN line. You can do video conferencing with one person while sending a fax to someone else. You can also run a fast Internet connection on this, although frame relay may be a better choice. ISDN is a particular kind of digital service, with its own protocols and signaling requirements. It's being implemented in various parts of the country in some form. Thus, it competes with or complements other digital services such as switched 56, frame relay, full T-1 and fractional T-1. The speed of the connection most resembles fractional T-1, which has always been the least expensive digital line if your telco provides it. Implementing ISDN, though, may be the most difficult of all the services at this point. Pacific Bell's offering is a good place to start understanding the terminology, procedures and possible applications of ISDN. I keep it as a reference to look up things like BRI, PRI, NT1 and so on. I may not need ISDN but it's interesting to read about and to keep current on. The book is free but you may have to flatter them if you are from out of state. Note: Telecom Books puts out a nice catalog of, well, telecom books. Newton's Telecom Dictionary is especially good. Write or call for a free catalog: Telecom Books, 12 West 21 Street, New York, NY 10010. 1-800 LIBRARY or 1-212-691-8215. Make sure your book is in stock and follow up with phone calls if it does not arrive within a week. By the way, except for that dictionary, I've paid for all the books and reports I have reviewed. ISDN: A User's Guides To Services, Applications & Resources In California Pacific Bell Business Market Group 2600 Camino Ramon San Ramon, CA 94583 (510) 823-7543 (510) 277-1808 XI. DEBIT CARDS: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE David Stubbs of Teltrust gave a great talk about debit cards at TeleCard World '95 in Los Angeles in March. I didn't go to the convention but I did get a tape of his speech. His remarks concentrate on pre-paid calling cards but he does mention optical cards and magnetic cards in passing. Optical, magnetic and chip cards all store value in the card itself. Remote memory cards, however, store value in a remote database. Stubbs uses debit card to refer to all pre-paid cards. Remote memory cards are a big business getting bigger. Please read this article even if you are not interested in cards; I think you will become interested in them if you do. The following is not a verbatim transcript, by the way. I did have to add some words here and there to make the text flow more freely. I would say, though, that 98% of his speech is unchanged. Remember, too, that this talk was aimed squarely at trade people and not the average phone user. It does not, for example, address the fraud committed by certain debit card companies. Like giving you 58 seconds instead of 60 seconds for one minute of time. Or printing up a million units worth of time but only buying 800,000 units, hoping that not all of the cards get used up. Good morning, my name is David Stubbs and as you can probably tell straight away, I've got a rather funny accent. I come from an area that is very much involved in the use of debit cards for rather a long time. In fact, it's almost twenty years since it was actually started. I am both an Englishman and a New Zealander and both of these countries have major investments in debit cards. Probably most of you have seen this - I've got here a 20 unit British Telecom card. A unit in the UK is a period of time. If you are talking in the London area you might get two minutes per unit, if you are talking from London to the north of Scotland you might get half a minute and if you talk to the United States you may get three seconds per unit. I bought this card last week for two pounds which is about $3.40. This thing has been around in the UK I think for about 17 years. I'm going to talk a little bit more about the fraud side of things, not the side that we have been talking about like the switches and the issuing of cards. More about a different sort of area because I was an original frauder of these cards. It was possible in the old days to coat the back of this card with ladies' nail polish, be able to insert the card into a British Telecom reader and get all the free calling you wanted. [Laughter] That was before Landis and Gyr decided that perhaps they ought to modify the machines so that people like me couldn't do it. But my history as a hacker goes back a lot, lot further than that. Do you remember the English telephone boxes, the red ones you often see in the movies? In the old days they used to have these lovely black telephones inside that used 'push-push' operation. Put your money in and push to talk if your party answered. You pressed 'A' if they did and if they didn't you pressed 'B' and your money came falling out. Well, we as kids learned that if you picked up the handset and you tapped out on the cradle, three taps gave you a three, four taps gave you a four, and, in fact, you used to be able to make free telephone calls. So, as kids about on the West Side we used to call people for free all the time and annoy them just for having use of the telephone system. Well it's come a long way since then in the UK. You've got two different systems. You've got a system like this which is produced by British Telecom, with the payphones made by Landis and Gyr. And then you have another system made by GPT which I think is the one that is used by the Japanese and by the New Zealanders where they actually store the value not in a strip across the front of the card where it is optically burned out and scanned, which is the little white line that you can see when you come up later on, but in three magnetic stripes. It's actually a fairly interesting algorithm that calculates how much is being used and rewrites it to the card. The only place you'll buy those readers from is GPT so there's a fair amount of security built into the system by the fact those cards can only be read by certain readers. We don't face that problem, in fact, in the United States. We have a different set of rules. We have allowed our debit cards to be used absolutely everywhere. Here I have a sample of a debit card that my company issues. Teltrust, by the way, started life as a payphone operator. I think we hated the concept and the idea of debit cards when they first came out because we thought everybody would use our telephones without us making any revenue. [People dial around a payphone owner and their profits with 800 numbers] I think we finally came to the realization that, okay, if we help sell these cards we'll make revenue from both sides of it coming and going. We've actually been playing now with debit cards for two years; I think we're fairly serious now. We've issued something like five million cards so far. My question, by way of Rick's comments, is how many of the 250 to 500 million cards issued in the United States in 1995 will actually be used? I don't know if you realize it but something on the order of 85% to 90% of all debit cards issued are not going to be used. [This is very high. I think he means that the card will not be used up completely] A statement was made in December at a conference I was at in Houston that less than 3% of the population currently knows anything about what a debit card really is. Bear in mind these large numbers are going to be . associated with cards that are active but not being used. And that is the hacker's dream. It's finding out [for the hacker] who's been issuing these cards. For instance, if a half million Kodak cards were given away with a box of three rolls of film, and the number of those that were used was minuscule, a hacker who gains access to your system and gains access to those cards can absolutely make free with what is your money. And so I think the control of those is very, very important. Richard mentioned that activation is a great problem - you have to be able to control the activation. I'm just making these comments before I go into what I really wanted to talk about. Why were debit cards originally issued overseas? They were issued because they were a way to give an economic calling method to the casual caller. We're all very familiar with people going out and using payphones; they're all over the place in this country. I think there are estimated to be something like two and a half to three million pay-phones available in the United States. But we're paying a premium, though, with payphones because of fraud. If ever you go to one of the pay-phone shows and listen to the people talk about fraud, you'll wonder why the heck people ever go into the business. The destruction of payphones for accessing the coins is the main reason why people are thinking of changing [to cards]. I asked our payphone division head about what he thought was the reason a payphone was broken into or stolen. He said 95% of the people who break in are after the money. There may be $2,000 worth of control boards and mechanisms and everything else in the payphone but they're not interested. 95% of the reasons you have problems is because of money; either they're breaking into the money box or they're really hacked off with this payphone because it swallowed their money and so they take the handset and they bash the heck out of the payphone and break the handset. So, the people overseas learned their lessons fairly early on with payphones. They were controlled by the national telephone companies. [The Post or Postal Telephone & Telegraph companies (PTTs)] I showed you a British Telecom card earlier on as an example - they had to find a better method of a) stopping the destruction of their payphones and b) giving the user a break. If you don't have a problem with the payphone you bring down the costs of service. That's one of the things that we are seeing as a spin-off over here, because of the reduced amount of fraud that there is using debit cards we're able to offer really low cost calling. For example, typically we're seeing anything from the independents who are producing debit cards, producing a debit card that's giving you like 20, 24, 25 cents a minute in the United States. If you go to our majors, the AT&T's, the MCI's and the Sprints, they're charging a higher premium because they are protecting their existing business which is calling cards. These then are the reasons why people did it: it was more economic, there was less fraud, and there was less knocking of the phones around. For instance, in New Zealand -I like to bring this one up because I know this study fairly well there - they have approximately 9,500 payphones in the country and 5,000 of those are debit card only. They do not take anything other than the debit card. They have placed those in the higher crime areas, they've placed those in the remote areas of the countryside, they've cut down considerably on the cost of servicing that business. The other thing we've got to do to be able to get more debit cards in the United States is, in fact, to educate the general public. As I've mentioned before, only 3% of the population really knows what the heck we are doing. As we see the majors move more into the debit card business you're going to see more and more acceptance by the general public and therefore more and more usage of those. The key questions? [About fraud] I thought I'd take this invitation to speak to you as a challenge to learn something more about it. My background is more on the switch side of things; I do know quite a lot about our switching facility although I am a simple peddler in the field. My background is 25 years in computers so I know quite a lot about hacking. I was mentioning the hacking in the early days, it was fairly simple to do hacking through systems and networks because most people didn't protect them. A lot of the things we are going to learn over the next couple of years in our industry is how to protect our switches against this. But what we've got to look at are the vulnerable areas, where the risks are, who has the liability and who pays for the fraud. These are four very, very key questions that we need to answer when looking at debit cards. In particular, we need to look at the PINs, which we've talked about, the physical cards, the actual cash that's being paid over, the credit cards that are used, the time that is being stolen and what I call the intellectual property rights of the actual card itself. That's because one of the major areas that is not being addressed by my two colleagues is the actual card. Rick mentioned the card that was issued at the Democratic National Convention. That card currently sells from $1500 to $2000. It's just a simple piece of plastic. And here we have, as I've said before, the typical piece of plastic that is issue by Teltrust. [Shows debit card to audience again] And I, as a fairly sophisticated computer user, wouldn't bother to actually hack into your database. There's far, far more money to be made by simply taking a 2400 dpi scanner, scanning in the front and back of that card, pressing it through my PC and going to a very sophisticated printer, which might cost me about $5,000 and physically duplicating the card. And you say, "Why do that?" On the back you notice the little sticker, it can either be a sticker or a scratch off, I don't care which. I'll put either one on there. The thing is, the value to that card is going to be associated with the fact that that sticker or scratch off has not been removed. Or if it was in a pouch, that the card has not been taken out of the pouch. We're going to see cards in this country go up in value like crazy as more and more people become aware of what they are and more and more people collect them. The biggest fraud, I believe, is not going to be the theft of time, I believe it is going to be the duplication and copying of cards. All right? That's where the money is going to be made. Do you realize that the most valuable card in New Zealand at the moment is one that shows Dunedin's railway station, a god awful place, excuse my French, but I don't know why they put it on a card. That card sells for $46,000 dollars now. And I was in New Zealand last year and they held an auction for debit cards. Telecom New Zealand is the major issuer of debit cards. It issued 25 cards of face value of $100 dollars each. The first 24 cards were sold en block for $125,000. The last single card, number 25, was sold for $25,000. It's just a piece of plastic. So bear with me and see what's going to happen. So that's the thing that you are going to have to control. The question is, how are you going to control it? There are two sets of numbers on the back of a card. There happens to be a number hidden under here which is the authorization number and there is a number over here which is the control number. And Richard talked about the fact that you are generating a card, getting them out to the general public's hands, but as you pass through you've got various phases. And you've got to control that all the way through. What we have recommended is the use of a single control number on the back here. This is a sequential number that is used - if someone buys 2,000 cards they get number 1 to 2,000. You then should take those cards, if they are going to be sold out and activated, and use a system like one that Rick talked about. You should track who they've gone to, at what time they went and where they've gone. Right? Then you have the ability to check that there are only 2,000 of those. So, that reduces the risk of someone straight copying the card compared to one that has only an authorization number that I as a perspective dealer in these cards would not want to scratch off. This control number is trackable and you should know where it was and when it was sold. This reduces and minimizes risk. But it is something you've got to be vigilant about. I don't know if you've been following the copyright law cases that have been going on between the United States and China, which we have finally resolved. They have now basically come to the realization that intellectual property rights are vested and need to be protected. You could go and get any book copied in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and somewhere else and there was nothing against anybody copying that and going out and selling an identical product. We need to control this, we need to come up with systems. Richard's got a very good system, being able to track and do inventory on this but we have got be serious about this. Number your cards, put control numbers on them and watch it. Because that, I believe, is the biggest problem. Who's going to be responsible if we go back to the problem of time theft? That's one of the things that's not been talked about. Who's got the liability and who's got to pay for it? That depends on how you sell the card. If you as a card generator, sell the card to a dealer then make sure he pays you. He, in turn will sell it to somebody who is going to retail it and he makes sure that he gets paid. The retailer wants to make sure he gets the cash before he gives the card out. One of the things about retailing is that you are dealing with human beings. We talked about a card swipe system. You swipe the card through to activate it. A customer then gives the clerk some money. You've got to make sure that you get that cash. Fraud is associated, of course, with not getting cash for a card that has been issued. So be aware of who is selling your cards and where the money is going. And from my old murky past, the rule was always to follow the money trail. That's the biggest thing you've got to keep an eye on. Where, oh where, is the cash going and who's blowing it and who's pocket is it going in now? Be very much aware. Richard's control system will help you with that but you have to be aware of the people you are dealing with. Okay, the activation at the switch which David talked about - there are some wonderful things at the moment. One of the things that I'm not sure David mentioned is about the trunk group coming in. Make sure your switch can look at the physical telephone number of the person endeavoring to activate that card at the time. We talked about a card swipe. There are other systems where a clerk actually phones in from the retail store to activate the card. One of the things that you can check is that the phone number line that is used to place that activation call is already in the database in the switch to make sure that the two numbers marry. little since it isn't on the card but there is still a chance of fraud. I've talked about vending machines a little. I think that we are ultimately going to see vending machines in which you can put in your debit card and cash or a debit card and a credit card and the machine will reload your debit card account. I know because I built one a few years ago. You see, all we're doing in this debit card business here in the United States is remembering a physical number. I wrote out a number on a piece of paper at a lecture I gave in Houston. I hung it up and asked if anybody would give me fifty bucks for this piece of paper. Nobody took it. There was actually $100 worth of time on a debit card. All I was getting over was the point that all we are selling is a number. What I am saying is that there is risk, there is reward, there is liability, you have to define who's got that, where they've got it and at what point does somebody take over that. And be aware that with collector cards there is a opportunity for people to copy these and make a lot of money. And that is where I think the future is going to be. Resources: David Stubbs' company is Teltrust, Inc. at (801) 535-2000 or write to: 221 North Charles Lindbergh Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84116. Fax number is (801) 235-2080. I've never dealt with them. David mentioned Richard Arend. His company is Macrologic, Inc., 1544 Elmira Street, Aurora, CO 80010. Their phone number is (303) 367- 8766 and their fax number is (303) 367-8786. Again, I've never dealt with them. Debit cards are covered extensively by TeleCard World and Premier Telecard Magazine. Subs aren't free but samples are. TeleCard tends to be more corporate while Premier seems to cater more to the collector. My choice, if I had to subscribe to just one, would be Premier. Check out page 110 for details on them. You can get audio tapes of TeleCard World '95 through Conference Copy, Inc. Their address is 8435 Route 739 Route 379, Hawley, PA 18428. (717) 775-0580. Tapes are $12 apiece plus $2.00 shipping apiece. I bought TE1, 'Inventory and Fraud Control' and TE4, 'Vending Machines and Smart Phone Technologies'. TE4 is a two tape set and a bit of a snoozer. Yes, Your Editor spent $42.00 for three cassettes. The most informative corporate information that I've seen on debit cards comes from CPDI: Communications Product Development Incorporated of Vancouver, Washington. Their information packet goes into a great deal of detail about call blocking by ANI as well as everything else It's a bit difficult to follow. Ask for the Communicator at the same time. It's a little newsletter they produce that is much more user-friendly and will help to explain the rest of their material. Try CPDI, 915 Broadway Street, Suite 100, Vancouver, WA 98660. (206) 694-2977. A contact person might be Kimberly A. Farmer. XII. TELEPHONE REPAIR COLUMN PRODUCT REVIEW: Telephone Ringing Generator Board: RG12V/5RP. The board itself is 2 inches square. The mechanism is adjustable from 15 to 68 Hz, costs $49.95 and is featured in the latest Hosfelt Electronics Catalog. The part number is 56-374. Hosfelft is at 800-524-6464. USES: An interesting product was recently offered for sale which can actually make your telephone bell ring. Not only can it be used to test phone bells and do line simulations, but it can also activate equipment that listen for phone bells such as modems, faxes, and answering recording machines. It can also be used for inlercom signaling or to provide a variable Hz output for electronic experimentation. The variable Hz output could also be used to test old rural farm-country phones which were set to ring at different fre quencies (for several parties on a line). This product can be useful in testing old phones for repair or new ones to see if they ring properly. The product would be especially useful for folks who lack a second line with which to call their first line from. Most of all, of course, the product is an amazing and wonderful toy which a person can enjoy playing with in order to have fun. OPERATION: Connect Ground and 12 Volt-ln leads to a 12 Volt DC Power Adapter. Ground = black wire may be used. 12 Volts = red wire may be used. Connect Outputs to Phone Set. (Either since it's AC) One of the Outputs = red Ring wire of phoneset. Other of the Outputs = green Tip wire of phoneset. Touch a yellow wire between Enable and Ground to cause ringing. Set Cycles Per Second to about 20 Hz where phone bell sounds proper. CYCLES PER SECOND ADJUSTMENT: Although it is advertised as adjustable between 15 & 68 Hz; in practice I find it to be adjustable between 5 & 4500 Hz when I measure the output with a digital multimeter with frequency feature. Telephones use 20Hz. OUTPUT: When set to 20Hz exactly (by digital multimeter reading), this product puts out an alternating current of 150 volts and so the positive portion of that which is located above the ground would be 75 volts which is just per fect for Ringing phone bells. The 150 volts, by the way, is an unloaded voltage which instead reads 147 volts when a phone bell is connected. In order to picture in your mind how there can be an alternating current with a positive half located above the ground, think for a moment of how your ordinary household current is 240 volts AC but has a positive portion above ground which is 120 volts and used in ordinary household wiring such as that leading to your light bulbs. 240 volts is available between the hot positive black and the hot negative red wires. But 120 volts is available between either of those wires and the white ground wire. TELCO'S BELL-RINGING POWER IS DIFFERENT: The phone company sends out a pulsating positive direct current of 75 volts root-mean-square measurement at 20 cycles per second through the red Ring wire and receives the power back through the green Tip wire (which is near ground) in the case of ordinary normal private subscriber lines. Remember that pulsating direct current stays on the plus side of the ground when it pulsates up and down. In contrast, alternating current wanders on both side of ground when it pulsates between minus and plus. But phone bells usually don't care whether they get pulsating direct or alternating current. HAVE FUN WITH IT: This unique product is a lot of fun, very useful and varied in potential application. For further information, dial (800) 524- 6464 and ask for their free catalog and look up the product on page 39. Information Regarding Phone Line Colors and Voltages The green Tip wire is near ground. In that sense it is somewhat related to the yellow ground wire which is an actual ground. The red wing wire carries minus 50 volts when the phone is hung up or on hook. The red Ring wire carries a minus twenty volts when the phone is in use or off hook. This steady, direct current is used for talking and listening. But when the phone bell is ringing, there is superimposed upon the red Ring wire a positive 75 or 90 volt pulsating direct current at 20 cycles per second. So, remember that the red Ring wire's current is negative for talking but pulsating-positive for bell ringing. In both cases, the current finds its ground in the green Tip wire. The Tip of the old operator's plug was more positive than the Ring of the plug because that which is near ground is more positive than a nega tive direct talking current. This takes some thinking to get used to because we so often think of ground as being the more negative. But with telephone talking power, the more negative was the minus fifty volts of the red Rinq wire. Editor's Note: This article and its sidebar were submitted by a sub scriber in Minnesota who wishes to remain anonymous. His subscription has been extended by a year in retum for his review. ---------------------------------------------------------------- XIII. ETEXT NOTE: The following relate to the charts and the 30+ photographs contained in Number 7. Send me $5.00 and it will all become clear :) 5150 Fair Oaks Blvd. #101-348, Carmichael, CA 95608. Thanks! A single wire does not run from your house to the central office. A connection is maintained, instead, by a collection of wires and cable that are strung together. Let's take one common example. We'll follow your phone line from your house to the nearest C.O. This example combines aerial and buried plant. Let's assume that you live in an older neighborhood in a medium sized town. The kind with telephone cable running through the backyards on poles. 1. Telephone wiring inside your house first connects to the telco's wire at the houseprotector or service terminal. This is the demarcation point. Your wiring ends here and the telco's wiring begins. 2. A drop wire containing one twisted pair goes to a pole closure, an aerial terminal or ready access terminal Call it what you will, this is the termination of the sub scriber's drop wire. Drop wires may be 30 feet or 3,000 feet long. They contain one twisted pair apiece. 3. The customer's twisted pair is connected to binding posts within the enclosure. Depending on the enclosure, a wire representing your twisted pair may now be connected to the aerial cable servicing your neighborhood. This sort of enclosure is inline with the aerial cable and may serve as a connecting or splice point. Or, a wire from the back of the enclosure may run to a splice case nearby. This marries that enclosure's wire with the larger aerial cable that services your area. 4. This cable may contain 50 pairs or more. It's called distribution cable or aerial cable or F2 for being the secondary feeder cable. Several F2 cables may work their way back to the nearest SAI. 5. These cables go underground via conduit before connecting to the serving area interface. 6. The SAI. A big terminal block. Those ubiquitous gray-green cabinets you see nearly everywhere. F2 cable pairs connect with F1 pairs at this point. F1 or main feeder cables then go underground in conduit, usually to the nearest C.O. or remote switching module. Or first to transmission equipment and then to the central office. 1. The demarcation or demark point. A residential one. This one is protected by fuses so it is considered a protected service terminal. Note the cable near the rain gutter. It runs up to the top of the roof to become an aerial drop wire. A 66 block is a much larger protected service terminal installed at many businesses, apartment complexes and other multi-unit buildings. April's Blacklisted! 411 had a picture of a Western Electric 66 on the cover. John Higdon notes that some GTE served residences have a mulitplexer at this point. 2. An aerial drop wire goes to a telco's service terminal. Fooled you, didn't l? Everyone's seen aerial drop wire so why show it? This is actually open wire. It does the same thing as a drop wire does. It brings a customer's tip and ring to a distribution point in the form of bare copper wire instead of a cable with a twisted pair of wires. 3. Pole mounted service terminal. They come in many shapes and sizes. They all do the same job. They connect the drop wire to a larger cable. A stub from the box goes to a splice case a few feet away. Ready access enclosures, by comparison, terminate the drop wire and splice into the larger F2 cable all at once. 4. A serving area interface? Possibly. Many pole mounted SAls do look similar. 5. Typical aerial splice case. 6. A terminal block of some sort. Maybe an SAI. Or it could be connecting the local drops to a larger distribution cable that in turn runs to an SAI. 7. A modern SAI cabinet. Loosely called a connecting point or a junction box or cross connect box by some. Hundreds of connections possible at these binding posts. The back is mostly wired in, just waiting for local pairs to come to it. These cabinets can be many sizes. The inside of the frame usually tilts forward, providing access to the other side. 8 . & 9. Still going. A car crashed into this cabinet. See the spare duct for future cable? Underground cable comes in and goes out. The SAI is the interface between the loops in the local neighborhood (gathered up by F2 or distribution cable) and the cable below the street which is F1. The main feeder goes to the C.O. 10. Exterior. Handle is mounted flush with the door. Opens with a normal can opener but it's a strange, pull out, turn halfway kind of locking mechanism. The Cable Vault Here's where outside plant begins, even though it is within the central office. See page 101. Harry Newton defines it thus, "Cable Vault: Room under the main distribution frame in a central office building. Cables from the subscribers lines come into the building through the cable vault. From here they snake their way up to the main distribution frame. The cable vault looks like a bad B-movie portrayal of Hell, replete with thousands of dangerous black snakes. Cable vaults are prime targets for the spontaneous starting of fires. They should be protected with Halon gas, but they usually aren't because some parts of the phone industry think Halon is too expensive." C'mon, Harry! Lighten up. Maybe that's the way it is in NYNEX country but the vault I saw was a picture of orderliness and careful workmanship. Everything was in its place, including a Halon fire suppression system. I can't imagine an insurance company settling for anything less. 1. Exterior of typical C.O. But what's below ground? 2. Roof of the cable vault, with each cable neatly held to the rack. 3. Far end of vault, where cables enter through conduit. Note the extra conduit available. 4. Long view of the cable vault. A massive amount of cable but all neatly racked up. Those large splice cases are better considered as vault closures. 5. Close-up of the entry point to the vault. Each black cable contains 2400 twisted pairs. Lighter colored housings contain several fiber optic threads in a loose tube cable. Air pressure hoses connect to the copper cable housings. 6. Splice case. Similar to what you'd see in a manhole. 7. Over-exposed photo of a NT fiber optic cabinet. This enclosure is a Fiber Manager. It first arranges some of the fiber coming into the vault before it heads upstairs to the distribution frame. 8. Pressure monitoring system for the pressure distribution system. Very expensive equipment feeds dry air (3%) into the F1 copper cables at about 10 P.S.I. 24 hours a day. This helps keep water out of the cables. There are two systems in this vault. One takes over if the other fails. 9. Cutaway of a fiber optic "splice case". Tom Farley 5150 Fair Oaks Blvd. #101-348 Carmichael, CA 95608 $5.00 for this issue. Comments and corrections welcome. privateline@delphi.com