private line magazine and e-zine back issue text archive. Caution when using any material here which is now very much dated.
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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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!)
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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.
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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
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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)
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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. I had been doing my own proofreading before. 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.
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