
 
 
TELECOM Digest     Thu, 27 Apr 95 11:17:00 CDT    Volume 15 : Issue 213
 
Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson
 
    UCLA Short Course on Multimedia Compression Principles (William R. 
Goodin)
    UCLA Short Course on Transmission of Multimedia Information (W.R. 
Goodin)
    Quebec-Telephone Opens WWW Server (Nigel Allen)
    Help Wanted With AMARYS "210" French Telephone (Alan Nicolson)
    Can Someone Help Me With Sidetone (Steven Hellman)
    Farmstead Telephone Opens WWW Home Page (Alex Capo)
    International Caller-ID (Marko Ruokonen)
    New Date For National CID Announced? (Michael G. Godwin)
    Duplex Speaker Phone For Around $300 Available? (David Kovar)
    Minitel and European Infohighways (Romina Keller)
    Telecom New Zealand and GB (Marianne Stevens)
    What are Secure and Insecure http Links? (Jan-Adriaan de Lijster)
    VBR Video Over an ATM-Network (Hugo Nordkamp)
    Video-on-Demand (Herman Vandeven)
    Telecom in China (Tom Dedecker)
    Help Request - PC Autodialer vs. Phone System (Bill Breckinridge)
    Icom R-71 Receiver Wanted (Gordon Mitchell)
    Correction: PCS Comparative MTA Ranking (Bob Keller)
    Administrivia: Issue Number Correction (TELECOM Digest Editor)
 
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not
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All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
 
On August 8-11, 1995, UCLA Extension will present the short course,
"Multimedia Compression: Principles, Applications, and Standards", on
the UCLA campus in Los Angeles.
 
The instructors are Jerry D. Gibson, PhD, Professor, Department of
Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University; Richard L. Baker, PhD,
Chief Scientist, PictureTel Corp; Toby Berger, PhD, Professor, School
of Electrical Engineering, Cornell University; and Tom Lookabaugh, PhD,
Vice President, Research and Business Development, DiviCom.
 
The efficient digital representation or compression of data, speech,
music, facsimile, still images, and video for storage and transmission
plays a dominant role in current and developing communications
systems, computer networks, PCs/workstations, video-on-demand, and
entertainment.  Standards have been and continue to be developed for
this host of multimedia applications that will serve as the traffic on
the information superhighway.
 
This course explains the fundamental principles and algorithms
underlying these standards and describes in detail current and
evolving multimedia compression standards.  Audio tapes, slides,
videotapes, and equipment demonstrations complement the lectures.  The
course should helpprofessionals to understand existing standards and
products, evaluate future standards, and incorporate these compression
methods into their ownapplications.
 
Topics include: entropy and lossless coding, quantization, predictive
coding, speech coding standards, frequency domain coding, audio
coding, vision, perception and image representation, standards and
applications in video compression, grey-scale image compression,
videoconferencing, desktop videoconferencing and collaboration.
 
The course fee is $1395, which includes extensive course materials.
 
For additional information and a complete course description, please
contact Marcus Hennessy at:
 
(310) 825-1047
(310) 206-2815  fax
mhenness@unex.ucla.edu
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
On August 2-4, 1995, UCLA Extension will present the short course,
"Transmission of Multimedia Information and Data", on the UCLA campus
in Los Angeles.
 
The instructors are Chris Heegard, PhD, Professor, Electrical
Engineering Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, and Andrew J.
King, MSEE, Design Group Manager, Communications Products, General
Instrument Corp, San Diego.
 
Each participant receives a manual used by DigComT, "The Digital
Communications Toolbox" and extensive lecture notes.
 
Digital communication systems are used for the transmission and
storage of a large variety of data, speech, still images, audio, and
video information for a wide range of applications including
facsimile, telephony, voice mail, digital cellular mobile radio,
CD-quality audio, personal communication systems, video-conferencing,
video-on-demand, and HDTV.  The physical transmission media for these
applications, called channels, take a variety of forms such as copper
wire pairs, coax cable, optical fibers, electromagnetic radiation,
magnetic tape and disks, and optical disks.
 
This short course presents the basic digital transmission methods for
conveying digital information through these channels efficiently and
reliably and covers the fundamental techniques for digital transmission
 from first principles to applications and implementations.
 
The course presents an overview of the how and why of modern reliable
data transmission.  In multi-media applications, compressed information
must be reliably delivered over channels that exhibit real-world 
limitations
such as noise, distortion and interference.
 
The course begins with an introduction to the basics of digital
modulation theory and channel capacity.  The results of this
discussion are then used to motivate the need for Forward Error
Correction (FEC) systems.  An overview of the engineering methods that
have evolved for these applications follows, including basic
modulation methods, techniques for FEC, algorithms for tracking
channel parameters and ideas for adaptive receiver design.  Both
hand-workable examples and a computer are used for developing a basic
understanding of modern digital transmission systems. Such ideas as
block, convolutional trellis and concatenated coding are described, as
are methods of signal tracking and adaptive receiver design.  The
course provides practical methods for implementing digital
communications systems, and a summary of some basic standards are
presented.  This material covers all issues concerning the development
and prototyping of digital systems, with particular emphasis on
communications applications, computer analysis and simulation, and the
basis of modern VLSI design methodology.
 
The course fee is $1295, which includes course materials.
 
For additional information and a complete course description, please
contact Marcus Hennessy at:
(310) 825-1047
(310) 206-2815  fax
mhenness@unex.ucla.edu
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
Quebec-Telephone, the second-largest telephone company in Quebec (Bell
Canada is the largest), has opened a WWW server at:
 
http://quetel.qc.ca/qt0000ag.htm
 
Other WWW servers operated by Canadian telecommunications companies 
include:
 
http://www.bell.ca        Bell Canada
 
http://www.bctel.com/ (BC Tel, formerly the British Columbia Telephone
Company)
 
http://www.sasknet.sk.ca/Pages/sktlhome.html (SaskTel)
 
http://www.rogers.com Rogers Communications, a cable TV company which
owns part of Unitel and has others communications and media investments,
including Rogers Network Services.
 
http://www.stentor.ca      Stentor, the consortium of telephone
companies
 
Interestingly, while Quebec-Telephone and BC Tel are both partly owned
by GTE Corporation, GTE has not yet set up a WWW server of its own.
(Its GTE Laboratories unit does have one at http://info.gte.com,
though.)
 
 
Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada     ndallen@io.org
http://www.io.org/~ndallen
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
Our company is undergoing a feasability study on manufacturing of
basic analogue telephones for the French telecom service. As most of
our experience is with providing terminals with small digital switches
for British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, and the Dutch PTT there are a
few questions that are posing slight difficulties with regard to
testing. The documentation which we have is one user guide (all in
French of course :) ). These are not insurmountable, but if anyone
knows the answers it would simplify matters. The name of the telephone
is AMARYS "210".
 
1. What are Ringing frequencies, as well as DTMF frequencies/amplitudes?
 
2. What exchanges does this telephone connect to  (PBXs' etc..)?
 
3. Are there any features of these exchanges that operate on this 
telephone
   (eg. CLI etc..)?
 
4. What type of barring is available on French exchange systems
   (eg.Line-to-Line)?
 
5. Are there any 'funny' French quality specifications (like the 
equivalent of
 
   BABT) that would involve us for example carrying out 'drop' testing, 
or
   lightning tests etc..?
 
If anyone can help us out, it would be much appreciated. Thanks in 
advance.
 
 
Alan Nicolson
Philips BCS, Airdrie, Scotland.
Tel.    +44 1-236-79311   ext.3179
e-mail  nicolson_a@ukbcs1.decnet.philips.nl
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
MY PROBLEM:
 
 I have a medical problem, with my ears, whereby I have
required the use of an amplified telephone "handset or headset" for
years.
 
 I have been in telemarketing, "Screaming into the telephone"
for years, which has caused my hearing to get progressively worse.
 
I NEED:
 
a. I need to eliminate or 'lower' the sidetone in my handset.
 
b. alternately, since I normally work in a private office, so, I could
talk into a handset microphone and use "external speakers" to 'receive'.
 
I am new to the Internet and don't know where to look for this answer.
I have, for five years been speaking to Engineers at Bell labs, NY Tel,
most of the telephone suppliers, most of the handset and headset 
suppliers,
with almost no success (with very few people even understanding the
term 'sidetone'.
 
The only possible help I found is in the book "UNDERSTANDING TELEPHONE
ELECTRONICS",  which is 'Greek' to me. (I can E-mail the discussion if
requested)
 
If you can help with the solution or lead me to some avenues of possible
assistance I will be in your debt.
 
 
Steven Hellman   HQKX13A@PRODIGY.COM
fax 914-632-8628
 
 
[TELECOJ Digest Editor's Note: Well Steven, I think you came to the 
right
place. Let's see if in a few days some of the readers here have not
responded to you and/or this Digest with some solutions. Let me know how
it works out.   PAT]
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
"Farmstead Home Page"  http://www.farmstead.com
 
Farmstead Telephone Group, Inc., headquartered in East Hartford, CT.,
the alternative source for AT&T parts and systems, is proud to
announce the "Farmstead Home Page". Farmstead is an "authorized
distributor of AT&T remanufactured products". Farmstead is the oldest
and largest reseller of AT&T equipment to AT&T end-users. All AT&T
products sold by Farmstead are guaranteed for AT&T installation and
maintenance. Farmstead offers all AT&T voice products at significant
savings with AT&T Credit Corp financing. The "Farmstead Home Page"
gives complete information on products and services as well as
information on current industry trends and issues.
 
Farmstead Telephone Group, Inc. may be reached at 1-800-243-0234, FAX
203-282-9719, or contact administrator Alex Capo <acapo@farmstead.com>
Visit the "Farmstead Home Page", http://www.farmstead.com
 
 
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Alex! Isn't this a new position for
you? Weren't you with a securities firm in New York?  PAT]
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
Yesterday, I received a call from a friend in the US and was very 
surprised
to find his phone number on the phone's display even though I'm in 
Germany.
I must admit that I have ISDN (Caller-ID is not provided to analog lines 
in
Germany at all.)
 
My friend called from the 301 NPA and was using AT&T for long distance.
 
Some time ago, I received a call from area code 617 and the Caller-ID
did not show up, just "Number unknown". I am not sure if that person
used AT&T or some other LD carrier.
 
My question is: What long distance companies pass caller-ID along on
international calls? Also, did readers in the US with Caller-ID receive
international numbers on their Caller-ID boxes?
 
 
Regards,
 
Marko Ruokonen
Cologne, Germany
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
I read a posting a while back about the FCC delaying the national
rollout of Caller ID.  Has a new date for this blessed event been
announced yet?
 
 
Mike
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
  I participate in a conference call requiring speaker phones on both
 



 
  Does anyone know of any standalone speaker phones for under $500?
Thanks very much in advance.
 
 
David
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
Hi,
 
I'm a third-year communication student at the Free University of 
Brussels
(VUB), Belgium. I have to write a paper about the French Minitel-system
and the possible impact of this French succes-story on the "infohighway
policy" of the European Community because this EC-policy is rather
confused at the moment. So if someone out there could help me by mailing
me some information on this topic it would help me a lot.
 
Thank you in advance for your help and best greetings from Brussels.
 
 
Romina
hw42374@is1.vub.ac.be (KELLER ROMINA)
Student Communicatiewetenschappen
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
Hello,
 
I am a student at the Free University of Brussels and I am making a 
paper
on telecommunications policy in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
 
Is there anybody who could send me some information about this subject,
everything is welcome.
 
Thanks in advance.
 
 
hw42611@is1.vub.ac.be (STEVENS MARIANNE)
Student Communicatiewetenschappen
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
 
 
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I seem to get lots and lots of these
messages from students in Belgium asking for help in writing their
papers. Every day or two someone from there writes me and asks.  PAT]
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
I was on the net and ended up in some kind of shopping mall (WWW). What
the difference is between secure and insecure http links? How secure is
secure?  What makes a http link secure?
 
Could somebody explain this to me?
 
 
Thanks.
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
We are two students working on a M. Sc. thesis at Ericsson Telecom.
We have to model the bit rate of MPEQ VBR Video.
 
If somebody knows where we can get some more information about this
subject, please tell us. It is hard to find people who are working on
this subject.
 
Our e-mail adresses are:
 
xtrhugo@alfa.etx.ericsson.se (Hugo Nordkamp)
xtrasa@alfa.etx.ericsson.se  (Asa Hallgren)
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
I'm a student at VUB, Belgium and i'm looking for general information
on video-on-demand and on its tarification towards the client. If any
of you has information on this topic, please be so kind to send it to
me.
 
 
Thanks in advance.
 
hw48233@is1.vub.ac.be (VANDEVEN HERMAN)
Student Communicatiewetenschappen
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
Hello, I am a student at the Free University of Brussels and I am
writing a paper about telecommunication development in China.
Especially about the policies and the companies who are trying to
enter the market. If you know something interesting about this topic
would you be so kind to send it to me?
 
 
Thank you,
 
Tom   hw42276@is1.vub.ac.be (DEDECKER TOM)
Student Communicatiewetenschappen
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
 
 
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The several messages above printed in
this issue are a small sample of the requests I receive like this from
day to day. Shall I print more of them from time to time?    PAT]
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
Has anyone been able to use a PC based autodial program (such as
Windows Cardfile, or Metz Phones) in an office environment?
 
I have a separate modem line going to my PC, and the software dials
out OK -- I can hear the ringing and the answer over the modem
speaker.  I got our telecommunications support people to add my modem
line to an available button on my phone (NT Meridian M2317); but I am
unable to pick up on the line once the modem goes off hook, apparently
due to a feature called "privacy release".  Our telecom people have
been unable to figure out a way to remove the privacy release from the
modem line, which would enable me to pick up the call being autodialed.
 
Comments I've noted from our telecom people (which mean nothing to
me, but may help all of you ;{>} ) include:  "modem line is an analog
line and privacy release is incompatible with an analog line", "switch
is an SL100", "regular phone line is a digital line and modem can't
dial out on a digital line", "autodial software needs to send a
750ms break followed by *87 after dialing" (there's no obvious way
in the software to do that ...)
 
Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Request you respond to me
directly so as not to add to the overworked condition of our dear
Telecom Digest Editor.  If a working solution is found, I will
send a report to the list.
 
Thanks for your help!
 
 
Bill Breckinridge
Office, 24HR Voice Mail/Pager:  214.995.3587
breckinridge@dallas.photronics.com
(or wbreck@aol.com if your mailer can't handle the longer address!)
Photronics, Inc.    Dallas, TX  USA
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
I am looking for an Icom R-71 in good condition.  I will be using the
computer interface so that has to work too.
 
Gordon Mitchell  (206) 481-5577  g.mitchell@ieee.org
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
The comparative market ranking I posted last month for the PCS Blocks A
and B auction were (How shall I put this?) ... well ... quite frankly 
...
not even close.  It was a botched intermediate effort that mistakenly 
got
included in my final output. Sorry about that! Set forth below is the
revised/corrected listing.
 
The process for compiling this listing was as follows.  The amounts bid 
in
each market for both licenses (Block A and Block B) were totalled and 
the
sum was then divided by double the MTA population. (This renders the 
mean
avearage of $/Pop value of the two licenses in each market.) The
exceptions are the pioneers preference markets.  Only one license was
auctioned in MTA 1 (New York), MTA 2 (Los Angeles-San Diego) and MTA 10
(Washington- Baltimore), the other license having already been issued
pursuant to pioneers preference awards.  So only one bid amount was used
and the populaton was not doubled. However, a second calculation was
performed for each of these marekts for which the amount to be paid by 
the
pioneers preference licensee (pursuant to the forulas specified in the
GATT legislation) was also factored in as if it were a bid on the second
license. Thus, for the "*" lines below, "w/o pp" = without factoring in
the pioneers preference licnsees, and "w/ pp" = including the pioneers
preference licensees.
 
    MTA# Market Name                       Population   $/Pop  Total 
Bid(s)
    ---- --------------------------------  ----------  ------  ----------
--
 01 M003 Chicago                           12,069,700  $31.39  
$757,800,583
 02 M024 Seattle (Excl. Alaska)             3,827,175  $27.63  
$211,518,486
 03 M011 Atlanta                            6,942,084  $27.59  
$383,071,483
 04 M010 Washington-Baltimore (w/o pp)      7,777,875  $27.23  
$211,771,000
 05 M002 Los Angeles-San Diego (w/o pp)    19,145,232  $25.78  
$493,500,000
 06 M015 Miami-Fort Lauderdale              5,136,581  $25.09  
$257,743,126
 07 M019 St. Louis                          4,663,926  $25.00  
$233,161,789
 08 M031 Indianapolis                       3,017,475  $23.45  
$141,533,000
 09 M027 Phoenix                            3,510,140  $21.93  
$153,955,434
 *  M010 Washington-Baltimore (w/ pp)       7,777,875  $20.19  
$314,114,539
 10 M037 Jacksonville                       2,274,933  $19.89   
$90,500,544
 11 M047 Honolulu                           1,108,229  $19.87   
$44,036,462
 *  M002 Los Angeles-San Diego (w/ pp)     19,145,232  $19.47  
$745,418,526
 12 M020 Milwaukee                          4,541,432  $18.83  
$171,043,290
 13 M017 New Orleans-Baton Rouge            4,925,269  $18.62  
$183,424,485
 14 M036 Salt Lake City                     2,573,372  $17.88   
$92,026,882
 15 M033 San Antonio                        2,986,524  $17.80  
$106,344,182
 16 M016 Cleveland                          4,945,749  $17.48  
$172,881,000
 17 M013 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Orlando       5,417,788  $17.45  
$189,114,560
 18 M004 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose    11,891,177  $17.18  
$408,650,000
 19 M001 New York (w/o pp)                 26,410,597  $16.76  
$442,712,000
 20 M022 Denver                             3,880,637  $16.61  
$128,938,483
 21 M014 Houston                            5,190,849  $16.04  
$166,569,262
 22 M048 Tulsa                              1,096,396  $15.67   
$34,364,023
 23 M025 Puerto Rico-U.S. Virgin Islands    3,623,846  $15.39  
$111,571,000
 *  M001 New York (w/ pp)                  26,410,597  $14.96  
$790,230,309
 24 M026 Louisville-Lexington-Evansville    3,556,648  $13.47   
$95,839,000
 25 M008 Boston-Providence                  9,452,712  $13.16  
$248,725,892
 26 M028 Memphis-Jackson                    3,465,226  $12.46   
$86,337,314
 27 M030 Portland                           3,059,948  $11.16   
$68,294,815
 28 M029 Birmingham                         3,244,076  $10.92   
$70,875,000
 29 M038 Columbus                           2,145,561  $10.36   
$44,466,837
 30 M009 Philadelphia                       8,927,748   $9.29  
$165,946,012
 31 M043 Nashville                          1,767,391   $9.10   
$32,184,000
 32 M007 Dallas-Fort Worth                  9,694,157   $9.07  
$175,944,578
 33 M018 Cincinnati-Dayton                  4,716,665   $8.98   
$84,665,483
 34 M023 Richmond-Norfolk                   3,846,210   $8.67   
$66,697,045
 35 M005 Detroit                           10,001,009   $8.36  
$167,284,000
 36 M034 Kansas City                        2,913,304   $8.11   
$47,231,005
 37 M021 Pittsburgh                         4,102,766   $7.36   
$60,385,199
 38 M032 Des Moines-Quad Cities             3,006,139   $7.18   
$43,143,004
 39 M006 Charlotte-G'boro-G'ville-Raleigh   9,752,317   $7.05  
$137,523,001
 40 M035 Buffalo-Rochester                  2,777,046   $6.98   
$38,757,000
 41 M041 Oklahoma City                      1,877,478   $6.46   
$24,253,457
 42 M012 Minneapolis-St. Paul               5,986,039   $6.37   
$76,274,685
 43 M044 Knoxville                          1,721,911   $6.33   
$21,784,000
 44 M040 Little Rock                        2,051,667   $6.11   
$25,053,501
 45 M051 American Samoa                        47,000   $4.71      
$442,556
 46 M046 Wichita                            1,124,174   $4.13    
$9,294,343
 47 M039 El Paso-Albuquerque                2,113,890   $4.08   
$17,268,030
 48 M042 Spokane-Billings                   1,863,335   $3.19   
$11,879,000
 49 M045 Omaha                              1,659,273   $2.93    
$9,725,000
 50 M049 Alaska                               550,043   $2.41    
$2,650,129
 51 M050 Guam-Northern Mariana Islands        176,000   $0.71      
$248,837
 
 
Bob Keller (KY3R)                         Email: rjk@telcomlaw.com
Law Office of Robert J. Keller, P.C.      Telephone:  301.229.5208
Federal Telecommunications Law            Facsimile:  301.229.6875
http://www.clark.net/pub/rjk/ | ftp://ftp.eznet.net/pub/telcomlaw/
 
------------------------------
 
 
 
Issue 212 of the current volume left here Wednesday evening correctly
numbered at the start of the issue, however the very bottom line
which is used by some systems for bursting and separation of messages
incorrectly identifified it as issue 213. Please correct that reference
on your copy. What you are reading now is issue 213.  Thank you.
 
 
PAT
 
------------------------------
 
End of TELECOM Digest V15 #213
****************************
 

