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|Vol. 1 No. 2 Telephone Free Planet Issue 2|
|Made by foreigners! tfp.nothing.org Always overpriced!|
|Dial 10-TFP and lose! November 11, 1997 Happy Veterans' Day!|
=------------------------------------------------------------------=
=-------------------------"Yo quiero TFP" -Chihuahua-------------------------=
=--TFP02------------Table des Matieres------------TFP02--=
| Zero to phreak in 5 minutes..................KungFuFox |
| The NorTel Millenium.......................mastermiind |
| Evil phone tricks for smart monkeys............overdub |
| Color coding of pairs and binders............KungFuFox |
| What to do when your mom finds your beigebox...Dublisk |
=----------TFP goodies for extra special phreaks---------=
| Telco News...................................KungFuFox |
| Storytime with TFP..........Whoever bothered to submit |
=--------------------------------------------------------=
"Attorney General Janet Reno announced this week that she will fine
Microsoft $1 million per day for attempting to monopolize access to
the internet. This means that Microsoft CEO Bill Gates will go broke
just 10 years after the earth crashes into the sun." -Norm MacDonald
"I'm sure it would be good if it was teaching me something." -Discore,
commenting on TFP01
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=-------------------------------------------=
| Telephone Free Planet - Contacts and crap |
=-------------------------------------------=
Alpha dog : KungFuFox, mazer@cycat.com <-send me hatemail!
Beta dog : Keystroke, keystroke@thepentagon.com <-say hi!
TFP Email : tfp@tfp.nothing.org <-send us stuff!
TFP Site : tfp.nothing.org <-our real short new url
Cult follower weirdos : digipimp, AlienPhreak, BC219, weatherman,
REality, Scud-O, shoelace, Dublisk, ec|ipse,
overdub, Allah7, and Discore [we got more!]
Submissions of articles, quotes, emails, logs, phone conversations, news
articles, and general crap are encouraged. tfp@tfp.nothing.org needs you!
WARNING: This document is to be read for entertainment purposes only. TFP and
its writers will not be held liable for your actions. If you want to reprint
any portion of this document, just email tfp@tfp.nothing.org and ask.
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Welcome to the second uninformative, lame, stupid, and useless issue of TFP!
I'm KungFuFox, and I'll be your guide through yet another journey into
phones. Hopefully you'll learn SOMETHING this time around, instead of just
thinking "boy this sucks".
If you didn't notice, we changed URLs, thanks to the help of our friends at
nothing.org. That means our email also changed, so make a note of the new
address that we've subliminally inserted at various points in the issue. As
was true in last issue, we still want you to work real hard and stay in
school so you can write us material to save KFF from writing everything.
This issue is coming out just eleven days after TFP01, if you didn't notice.
It's also over 20k smaller than the first issue. This is out of choice rather
than necessity, since I'd much rather read something smaller and more often
than larger and less often. About the eleven days thing, don't assume we're
gonna make this mistake again. It could be months between issues, or maybe
just a few hours. I don't know when TFP03 will be out. Hell, it might not
ever come out. Just watch and see. Buncha anxious bastards.
I've been put under some pressure by a few people to get better HTML and
graphics for the site. Though I did major in HTML and graphics, I'm probably
not the best (ok, maybe I am) but just to see how things may turn out, I'm
sponsoring a cheesy HTML and graphics contest. Submissions of TFP themed
HTML and graphics created with the intent of replacing those on our site at
tfp.nothing.org will be accepted at tfp@tfp.nothing.org until TFP03 is
released. The winner will be announced in that issue unless some horrible
accident prevents it, or TFP03 doesn't come out or something. The best
submission will be judged the winner. Get crackin'!
((__))
(@@) foNekOw sez...
(o__o) "TFP sucks!"
U
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=------------------------------------------------------=
| Zero to phreak in 5 minutes - a satire, by KungFuFox |
=------------------------------------------------------=
Welcome to the wonderful world of phones! Do you wanna make phonecalls for
free?! Do you wanna have lotsa fun at the expense of somebody else?! Do you
wanna have a beigebox or a redbox, but don't even know what they are?! Read
on k-rad kiddies!
Lets start off with some basics, the kinda info you need to become a real
phreak like the big boys! You gotta learn how to get free phonecalls! I'll
tell you about a few simple tools and techniques, starting with the beigebox.
I know you don't know what that is, it doesn't matter, I'll tell you how it
works!
Basically you get a phone, and you plug it into somebody else's house instead
of yours! Don't have a phone? No problem! My poor man's beigebox works just
as well, and all you need to 'make' one is a rock! Either one from your home
or from the location of your victim is fine. Get to the victim's place,
preferrably at night, and find a window to a room you think has a good chance
of having a phone in it.
Chuck the rock at the window. Make sure you're not standing right next to the
window when you do this, because it's liable to break, assuming you don't
have two broken arms to throw rocks with. If you can find a neighborhood
filled with deaf people, or a slum where people hear windows breaking
regularly, this phreaking technique is much more likely to work.
Ok, now that the window is sufficiently removed, you need to get in there.
Hopefully you picked a window that wasn't 10 feet off the ground. Climb on in
there, making sure you don't peel the skin off your body, and look for a
phone. Though you may be tempted, it isn't a good idea to turn on the lights
when you start looking for that phone, obviously because turning on the
lights is a lot more suspicious than breaking a window. Now for the
complicated part.
Once you've located the phone, you have to use a special technique to use it,
because ma bell designed phones so you can't beige box with them at normal
phone jacks. Rip the phone out of the wall, so that the plug on the end of
the phone cord becomes separated from the cord. Bite off the plastic cover on
the cord, and you'll see 2 or 4 wires inside it. You'll be dealing with the
red and green wires. If the wires aren't colored, it's the middle two. Strip
away a couple inches of the insulation from those two wires. Now your
beigebox is prepared for use. The only thing left to do is find a place to
beige from.
If the building you used your geolocial key to get into has a basement,
you'll probably wanna go down there and look around for a plastic box mounted
on a wall. It'll probably have a phone company insignia on it, most likely a
generic bell shaped drawing, and a name with the word "bell" in it. Other
possible names are "uswest", "ameritech", "nynex", or "gte". If this plastic
box thing isn't in the basement, look around outside for it. It'll be on an
outside wall somewhere around building.
Once you find it, bash it good with your beigebox until it breaks open. You
can use your feet and hands if you like. You could even use the rock you
removed that window with if you can find it. Just make sure you bash the
cover off that plastic box. Hopefully after all this work you'll be greeted
with some screws arranged in a strange geometric pattern.
Hold the beigebox's handset up to your ear so you can hear it if it gets a
dialtone, and start touching the two beigebox wires to different screws.
After a few minutes if you don't have a dialtone, you're either retarded or
the phoneline is disconnected. In the latter case, you'll need to goto
another building, find another plastic box with a phone company insignia on
it, and try the same procedure there. If you're just retarded, bash yourself
in the head with the beigebox. It's probably angry at you anyway, for ripping
it out of the wall.
Another good way to make free phonecalls, and become an elite phreak, is to
redbox. Don't know what a redbox is either? No sweat! I'll tell you how to
get free calls just like a redbox does, but without the time consuming
construction!
First things first, you need to find a payphone. Any payphone will do, so
long as it works. Don't believe any of the undercover telco people on irc
that may tell you redboxes don't work. They do! Once you've found yourself a
payphone, you need to get some money to use it. Ha! I didn't mean your own
money! That wouldn't be free! My first technique is something I'll call
begging.
To beg successfully, you'll need to look shabby. Don't shave if you're old
enough that shaving matters, and don't comb your hair or whatever it is you
normally do to it. Also, wearing your worst clothes, slept in the night
before your first redboxing day, is a good idea. Bring along a disposable
cup; you can find one on the way if you need to, and go to that payphone.
Now, when people walk by it, or walk up to use it, they're probably gonna
have some change. Just sit there looking real pathetic and people are bound
to start dropping as few coins as they can into your cup. Don't worry, even
though they're cheapasses, eventually those small donations to your personal
charity will add up. Once you've got like five bucks, you can start making
calls, and they won't have cost you any money at all!
My second technique, which is a much more effective method of obtaining
funds, is something I like to call mugging. This will take some patience
though, for you need to find the weakest person possible before attacking.
Preferrably you should find somebody who weighs a lot less than you do. Once
you've found your anonymous donor, you may either knock them down, or simply
grab them. Weapons such as guns and knives are excellent when implimented
properly, to terrify your victim into submitting to your demands for money.
Once you've acquired the funds that you feel are necessary to support your
need to make free phonecalls, and become a better phreak, you may let them
go, and get yourself to a phone, to start using that money.
Ok now that you've acquired a couple tricks of the trade, get your lazy ass
out there and phreak!
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
=-------------------------------------------------------------------=
| NorTel Millenium: The payphone for the next 1000 years - by miind |
=-------------------------------------------------------------------=
Those NorTel Milleniums that are being bought in hordes by the RBOCs and put
up everywhere are really a work of art. At first look, they might appear to
be a bad idea in high vandalism areas, but they are actually very tough.
The bodies are built with 1/4" reinforced steel, and they employ a 2-way dual
locking system. First of all, the coin box and the logic box are locked
seperately. Secondly, they use a 4-pin Medeco(tm) lock with a notched T-Bit
bolt.
The 4-Pin Medeco lock for the coin box is on the lower right side of the
phone. This must be unlocked, before the T-Bit located on the front of the
coin box can be turned to open the box.
The 4-Pin Medeco lock for the logic box is on the upper left side of the
phone. As with the coin box lock, this must be unlocked before the T-Bit
which is also located on the upper left side of the phone can be turned. Once
this is done, the logic box opens from top to bottom. That is, the part of
the phone that includes the card reader, handset, keypad, display, and RBOC
logo, flips down. The hinge is located just under the card reader.
Oh, a little note about the Medeco locks. Only 4 pins, you say?!? Well you
can almost forget about trying to pick them. Medeco locks are special, in
that not only must the pins be raised a certain amount, but they must also be
rotated a certain amount. This rotation can be clockwise or anti-clockwise.
And also, both Medeco locks are keyed differently for security purposes.
How these phones operate is quite unusual. The days of ACTS and its variants
are gone. These new breed of phones operate on the COCOT principal. I
sometimes call them BOCOTs. The phone itself is responsible for billing. Not
only for local calls, but for long distance and overseas calling as well.
When you pick up the handset on a Millenium and hear a "dial tone", it is not
really a dial tone you are hearing. It is mearly a fake dial tone that the
phone produces. After dialing your number, the phone then decides on what
sort of call it is. Is it local, long distance, or overseas. If it is a local
call, then a synthesized voice asks for the $0.25 and the display also
prompts for the money. Once the money is in, the phone picks up the real line
that it is connected to, and then re-dials the number that you entered into
its memory. The call then goes on as normal.
If it is a long distance call, the phone checks it's rate table for the
current rate based on time of day, day of week, and mileage to destination
CO. It then asks for the appropriate amount of money and continues as with a
local call. The same goes for an overseas call.
Now, stuff gets a little trickier if you plan to use a card to bill the call.
Milleniums are equipped with both a magnetic strip reader AND a smart card
reader. However, not all RBOCs have issued smart cards. Bell Canada
(Ontario/Quebec) has for sure, but as for the others, I'm not sure. I do know
that BC Tel doesn't have a smart card planned until mid '98, at the least.
Anyways, after you dial your number, you are asked to put in your money or
enter your card into the slot. If you opt to enter your card into the slot,
the phone reads in your card data. It then takes the real line that it
is connected to off-hook and proceeds to call it's predetermined credit card
authorization center. After authorizing your card, it hangs up, then
re-seizes the line and proceeds to dial the number that you have entered into
its memory.
A word about authorization. In Canada, where Stentor owns DataPac AND the
RBOCs, it is possible to use real-time credit card authorization even for a
$0.25 call. That means that your card better be valid, or it will fail
authorization. However, in the USA, where de-regulation has been widespread,
an authorization costs about $0.50 for the use of a public switched network
such as telenet. It doesn't make sense to spend this much money to
authorize a call that is only going to cost the customer an average of
$2.30 for the first minute, and about $0.60 for each additional minute.
At least that is the way the RBOCs in the USA think. Because of this, credit
card authorization is not in real time. Therefore, if you have a magnetic
strip writer, you could write a valid Visa number to an old strip, and use it
in a phone to call anywhere in the world for free, and without the annoying
prompt for more money every minute. I have tried this in Seattle (USWest) on
one of their Milleniums and it worked fine. However, in Canada, it won't
work. The card number that you write to the card MUST be a REAL ISSUED
number. Of course, these aren't TOO hard to come by, now are they?
There are lots of more things to be learned about these new Milleniums for
me and the rest of us, so get hacking! These are THE phones that will take us
into the next millenium. There are things to be done with the keypad, but I
don't know enough to write about that at the present time.
A note about boxing Milleniums:
Well, they come in a box. The box says "Millenium, The Power Within". The box
also has a few other markings like the serial number and warranty date and
the like, but other than that, it's just a plain old cardboard box.
As far as "boxing" a Millenium, Red Boxes are out because ACTS isn't used.
Magenta Box is out, because the microphone isn't being muted to deter Red
Boxing. White Box is out because when you initially dial the number on the
keypad, it is NOT the DTMF tones that are being stored, but rather the actual
keystrokes. Playing DTMF tones via a White Box into the mic to dial a number
won't work because the phone isn't listening to the tones, just waiting for
electrical pulses from the keypad. A buttset (Beige Box, if you REALLY want
to call it a "box") will work if you can find the pair either in a SAC, or
from the drop above or below the phone, but hey, that works on ALL payphones.
I can't really think of any other conventional "colour boxes" that would be
any use on a Millenium though.
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
| Evil no-brainer phone tricks for phreaks and smart monkeys - by overdub |
=-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Direct Dial Cab Phones
---------------------
Have you ever been to the mall and seen those phones that you pick up and
they automatically forward you to the local cab company? If so, you're in
luck. This means free calls at your sleazy local cab company's expense...
Payback time for when they took you the long way home to charge you extra.
You need:
tone dialer
buddy (just easier)
Steps:
1: Go to the cab phone.
2: Now get your buddy to slip his finger on the button behind the receiver so
when you lift it, it'll still be hung up.
3: Whip out your trusty rat shak tone dialer and hold down the first digit
and get your buddy to let go of the button. The tone should be in before
the phone has even thought about dialing the cab place.
4: Just dial the rest of the pone number as you would like and you should be
connected courtesy of your sleazy local cab co.
Note: Use your buddy for lookout in case one of those lame security guards
comes after you ;]
Phone Jack Fun
-----------------
Do you ever get pissed at your parents or anyone else who has a phone jack or
box you have access to? It doesn't really matter if you already have access,
since it's not too hard to get access. Just look around your victim's
dwelling until you find their TNI box. If you can't find it outside, you
might have to do one of those new fangled home invasions it cuz it'll be in
their basement. Once you DO have access, you can use the info below to mess
up your victim's lives pretty bad.
Phone Jack Fun:
1: Locate phone jack.
2: Rip the faceplate/cover off the jack.
2: Rip out all the wires.
3: Put the faceplate/cover back where it was.
4: Now no one will be able to call in on or out on that line.
(If you can't do this one, I don't know how you learned to read) (stupid.)
If you're a pacifist or you don't like ripping wires out of stuff you can try
a less physically demanding evil scheme called...
Making their phone bill real high n stuff:
1: Get phone.
2: Plug phone into victim's line.
3: Call $25 900 BBS access number, wait 15 seconds, and hang up.
4: Call it back 100 times.
5: Go get a soda.
6: Call it back 900 more times. (Yeah, it's gonna take you about 4 hours to
do this, but it's gonna cost your friendy friend $25000, right mathboy?)
7: Call a buncha plummers, painters, and service people and tell 'em to come
to your victim's house.
8: Call every local service you can think of, along with every magazine,
newspaper, and mail order product company in your phonebook, and order stuff.
9: Call back the service/delivery type numbers and tell 'em you won't be home
but to do whatever you ordered them to do when they get there. Saying you're
not going to be home means "please, rob us" to the real sly businessman
types.
10: Run far far away.
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
=--------------------------------------------------------------------------=
| Color coding of pairs and binders - one more crappy article by KungFuFox |
=--------------------------------------------------------------------------=
The most common telephone connection requires only 2 wires, known as a
"pair". One of these wires is known as the ring, and is most commonly red.
The other wire is known as the tip, and is most commonly green. They should
be familiar to you, since you beige with them. These wires enter your home
through what is known as a station cable, consisting of 2 pairs of wires,
one pair being red/green, the other black/yellow. The red and yellow wires
are known as 'ring' wires, and the green and black ones known as 'tip' wires.
The station cable connects your home to what is known as a binding post. In
layman's terms, its a greenish or greyish metal box somewhere in your yard
that either has a sticker that says "call before you dig" on it, or it'll be
near a telephone pole (the big wooden thing you tie your dog to). This
binding post in turn is connected to what is known as a binder cable. The
binder cable is buried underground in areas with "call before you dig" signs
on the binding posts. In areas with telephone poles, this cable is usually
located closer to the ground on the pole than any of the other cables.
The binder cable contains up to 25 pairs of wire, 1 pair equalling 1 line.
Your line(s) split from this cable at the binding post, and within this post
are access terminals. The ring (red wire) is usually located on the right
terminal. An easy way to remember this is with the "three r's" rule: red
right ring. Thusly, the tip (green wire) is connected to the left terminal.
You may access these terminals with a beigebox and will recieve the same
connection to the phone network as you would from within the house that the
line belongs to, and hence gain ability to prank a certain President with
little regard for possible repercussions.
The wire pairs within the binder cable are color coded with 10 different
colors in a specific pattern of combinations so that they may be identified
by linemen without the hassle of uprooting your neighborhood to trace the
cable all the way to the house it goes to. Below is a description of the
colors, and a table showing what colors represent which pair and group number
within the binder.
Primary colors:
blue [BLU], orange [ORG], green [GRN], brown [BRN], and slate [SLT] (gray)
Secondary colors:
white [WHT], red [RED], black [BLK], yellow [YEL], and violet [VLT] (purple)
Tip (T) is mostly secondary color with marks of primary color (ex: WHT/BLU)
Ring (R) is mostly primary color with marks of secondary color (ex: BLU/WHT)
Pairs are listed by group number at the left of the chart and by pair number
directly to the left of the color coding. These pairs are marked in groups of
5. Each pair within each group uses a different primary color and each group
uses a different secondary color.
To aid in your deciphering, I'll provide an explanation with some examples.
"Grp1" signifies that the information to the right of it is for pairs in
group 1.
"T" is short for "tip".
"R" is short for "ring".
"#01" identifies the color code to the right of it as belonging to pair 1.
"WHT/ORG" means the wire in question is colored mostly with white but has
orange marks.
"BLU/WHT" means the wire in question is colored mostly with blue but has
white marks.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grp1 T: #01 WHT/BLU | #02 WHT/ORG | #03 WHT/GRN | #04 WHT/BRN | #05 WHT/SLT |
Grp1 R: #01 BLU/WHT | #02 ORG/WHT | #03 GRN/WHT | #04 BRN/WHT | #05 SLT/WHT |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grp2 T: #06 RED/BLU | #07 RED/ORG | #08 RED/GRN | #09 RED/BRN | #10 RED/SLT |
Grp2 R: #06 BLU/RED | #07 ORG/RED | #08 GRN/RED | #09 BRN/RED | #10 SLT/RED |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grp3 T: #11 BLK/BLU | #12 BLK/ORG | #13 BLK/GRN | #14 BLK/BRN | #15 BLK/SLT |
Grp3 R: #11 BLU/BLK | #12 ORG/BLK | #13 GRN/BLK | #14 BRN/BLK | #15 SLT/BLK |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grp4 T: #16 YEL/BLU | #17 YEL/ORG | #18 YEL/GRN | #19 YEL/BRN | #20 YEL/SLT |
Grp4 R: #16 BLU/YEL | #17 ORG/YEL | #18 GRN/YEL | #19 BRN/YEL | #20 SLT/YEL |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grp5 T: #21 VLT/BLU | #22 VLT/ORG | #23 VLT/GRN | #24 VLT/BRN | #25 VLT/SLT |
Grp5 R: #21 BLU/VLT | #22 ORG/VLT | #23 GRN/VLT | #24 BRN/VLT | #25 SLT/VLT |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A binder cable is most likely the largest cable you will find in a
residential area. If you should inadvertantly slice through one of these with
a hunting knife after accidentally digging a six foot hole directly above it,
the above chart will be very handy in identifying exactly which 2 wires
belong to which pair number in the binder cable. Once you have located 2
wires of the same color but in a different color pattern, such as a VLT/GRN
and a GRN/VLT pair, you may splice and access this line with a test set,
lineman's handset, beige box, or whatever you want to call it.
Special thanks to phoneman and his url at
www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/pines/4116/
for providing the bulk of the information contained in this article.
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
=-----------------------------------------------------------=
| What to do when your mom finds your beigebox - by Dublisk |
=-----------------------------------------------------------=
A phreaker's nightmare is when their lineman's handset or beige box is taken
away from them, or found. If it's by the FBI or the police you might have a
chance to reason with them or at least settle something, but with moms there
just is no hope. So what do you do when your mom finds that beige box hiding
somewhere deep within your closet? Pray and keep mental notes of the
following.
You have to be ready to think of an excuse or explanation of what the thing
is that she finds. Remember, stay cool and calm when lying to parents or
anyone, as they seem to have the knack of being able to catch a lie as easy
as 3.141592654. If you believe the lie to be true, then it is true. Don't
ever smile or grin the slightest bit. You should try to seem a bit confused
about the questions they are asking you, pretend to be a little stupid and
don't be sure what they mean. This sort of thing can also help your social
engineering skills as you have to be as believable as possible. Ok, I am
going to insert some dialogue to show you some examples of what to do when
your mom finds your beige box.
SITUATION #1:
<mom> What the hell is this phone and phone cords doing in this napsack? And
why the hell is the end cut off with alligator clips on it?
<phreak> Uhhhhhhhhhh nothing.
<mom> What do you mean nothing?
<phreak> I mean nothing by saying nothing?
<mom> What?
<phreak> What? What are you talking about??? What the hell are you doing with
a phone like that mom anyway huh???? Trying to tap into people phone lines or
something??? you should be ashamed!!!!
<mom> But wait a second here......
ANALYSIS:
By confusing the mother, the phreak was able to get away with it and turn
around the situation on the mom.
SITUATION #2:
<mom> What the hell is this phone and phone cords doing in this napsack? And
why the hell is the end cut off with alligator clips on it?
<phreak> What? what are you talking about?
<mom> This!! What the hell is this??
<phreak> Oh that, yeah I was just trying out something with that.
<mom> What exactly were you doing with it?
<phreak> Oh I was just trying out an experiment that I read about in a
communications technology book that I found at school. You hook up those
alligator clips to the ends of a latern battery and by changing the voltage
and stuff you can make the phone ring and the light go on and things like
that.
<mom> Oh yeah right, then why the hell is there a flashlight, screwdrivers,
and wrenches in here too?
<phreak> Yeah I had to pop open the bottom of the phone to do some stuff with
the phone to get it to work properly.
<mom> Yeah right, you better not be going out messing with people's phone
lines.
<phreak> Now why would I want to do that? What could I do anyway?
<mom> I don't know, but I better not find out you were getting into trouble.
<phreak> Trust me, jesus christ, I am not crazy.
<mom> I just don't trust you, I am going to take this thing away where you
will never get it again.
ANALYSIS:
Ok, except for the fact that he gets the box taken away, the phreak seems to
have gotten away with it this time with some quick thinking, and note how the
phreak asks the mom how he could do anything with that. Considering the mom
doesn't know much about telephone networks she gets confused and assumes the
phreak is telling the truth and couldn't have done anything bad.
SITUATION #3:
<mom> Hey, what the hell are these alligator clips doing at the end of this
phone?
<phreak> That's a beige box you techno-weinie, now leave me alone before I
destroy you with my evil haxor powers!!! muahahhahaha!
<mom> AAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! *Runs outside in terror*
ANALYSIS:
Quick, easy, painless, and works the best! Now what have you learned today?
Never underestimate the power of the haxor.
After reading that you should have a good understanding of what to do when
your mom finds yer beigebox. As for finding credit card numbers,
weeeeeeellllll thats another story. Till next time.
-Dublisk
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
=---------------------------------------------=
| Telco News - compiled & edited by KungFuFox |
=---------------------------------------------=
1: Microsoft trying to take over the world! ($1 billion US West investment)
2: Citibank takes smart card to cleaners
3: FTC gives web suckers an even break
4: Bell Canada and NorTel agree to upgrade Bell Canada's DMS network
5: Bellsouth complains to congrees for not getting favors
6: AT&T Simplifies (charges more on) Basic Long Distance Rate Schedule
"All the 2600 meets in Dallas are old phat guys who just tell us
stories of what they've done. Don't get me wrong, some of the shit
they done is reet but damn do they smell like shit." -Bishop
=-----------------------------------------------------------=
Microsoft bargaining for cable operations $1 billion investment in US West
expected
November 5, 1997
SAN FRANCISCO -- Microsoft Corp. is close to an agreement to invest up to $1
billion in the cable television operations of US West, according to several
people involved in the negotiations.
The investment would buy Microsoft as much as 6.3 percent of US West's cable
business at the current stock price. More important, it would further the
software giant's strategy of turning the nation's cable systems into the
primary providers of high-speed access to the Internet -- with Microsoft
hoping to control the television set-top box software people would use to get
online.
In June, in a similar deal, Microsoft agreed to pay $1 billion for an 11.5
percent stake in another big cable company, Comcast Corp.
Word of the US West negotiations, which the two sides hope to conclude by
early next month, comes just weeks after Microsoft was reported to be close
to such a deal with cable company Tele-Communications Inc. But those talks
have apparently been tabled, executives close to the situation said.
Microsoft was said to be concerned about TCI's 39.5 percent stake in a
potential Internet access competitor, @Home Corp. of Redwood City. @Home,
moreover, employs the World Wide Web browser software of Microsoft's Internet
software rival, Netscape Communications Corp. of Mountain View.
Executives at Microsoft, US West and TCI all refused to comment. But
Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates, is known to have been pressing the cable
industry to make the large investments in the digital technology and set-top
boxes necessary for updating their high-capacity networks for widespread
Internet use.
Direct investments in cable companies by Microsoft are meant not only to
provide some of the financing for such work but also to give the cable
industry confidence that money spent on Internet technology will pay off in
the future. Already, Microsoft's investment in Comcast has improved the cable
industry's status with Wall Street, helping drive up the stock prices of many
cable companies.
For its own part, Microsoft sees cable access to the Net as a way for the
company to potentially gain the same software dominance over millions of
set-top boxes as it currently wields over millions of personal computers. The
company also sees high-speed cable networks as a way to build on Microsoft's
current Internet businesses, which include providing information,
entertainment and commercial transactions via its MSN online network.
Microsoft has already developed Windows CE, a consumer-electronics version of
its Windows 95 software operating system for PCs, which the company is
expected to promote as a standard for a new generation of cable set-top
boxes. As part of its move into TV-based Internet access, Microsoft spent
$425 million earlier this year to acquire WebTV Networks Inc. of Palo Alto,
an Internet service provider, and Microsoft is said to be working on ways to
blend WebTV's set-top technology with the Windows CE operating system.
The people involved in the Microsoft-US West talks said the negotiations were
moving quickly and that Microsoft hoped to announce a deal before the Western
Cable Convention, a major industry trade show scheduled for early December.
Teaming with Microsoft would be the sort of new opportunity that US West, a
regional Bell telephone company, was thought to be seeking when it announced
late last month that it would split off its cable business into a new
corporation, the Media One Group. Media One, with 5.1 million households,
would be the nation's third-largest cable system operator.
The bulk of US West's cable subscribers were acquired last year when the
company bought Continental Cablevision, a Boston-based cable operator that
had been actively developing Internet services for its customers around the
country.
US West is also a major shareholder in Time Warner Inc. and an active partner
in management of its cable systems -- an arrangement that would give
Microsoft a foothold in Time Warner's growing cable empire. After some
pending acquisitions, Time Warner will surpass TCI to become the industry
leader, serving 13 million households.
Microsoft's push into cable is causing alarm among its competitors, who fear
that the software giant is intent on translating its dominance of the PC
world into a similar position in digital television and the Internet. Such
fears helped scuttle a previous campaign by Microsoft to make inroads into
the cable industry.
Several years ago, before the ascent of the Internet, Microsoft, TCI and Time
Warner came close to forming a corporation, Cablesoft, that was to have
developed software for the interactive cable systems then considered the wave
of the future. That alliance failed to materialize, however, because the
cable companies worried that Microsoft would become too powerful a partner.
Microsoft subsequently turned its attention to the Internet, with an evolving
strategy that has lately begun to place much less emphasis on providing
information and entertainment content through news services and online
magazines. Instead, Microsoft is now focusing on conducting commercial
transactions over the Net through efforts like its Expedia travel service,
its Carpoint auto sales business and its Sidewalk city guide, which includes
ticketing and reservation services.
Microsoft realizes that such ventures can become successful mass-market
consumer businesses only if they are able to reach the tens of millions of
households subscribing to cable television -- instead of the far fewer number
now connected to the Internet through PC modems and conventional telephone
lines.
(c)San Jose Mercury News
[I don't wanna cause a panic or anything but LOOK OUT YOUR WINDOW! BILLY G!
HE'S RIGHT THERE(!&)#&!)#*!)#*!]
=-----------------------------------------------------------=
Citibank Takes Smart Card To Cleaners
11/03/97
By Mo Krochmal, TechWeb
NEW YORK -- Citibank has distributed 25,000 smart cards -- credit card-sized
devices that store a cash substitute on an embedded chip -- in what it calls
the largest U.S. test yet of smart card technology.
The bank said it expects to roll out a device in the next 60 days that will
let customers use these smart cards instead of quarters to feed washing
machines in New York City laundromats.
"That will be such a win in a city like New York where most people use
quarters at a washing machine and dryer," said Judith Darr, a vice president
at Citibank who directs her bank's part of the test. Citibank is using the
Visa Cash product, while Chase Manhattan is distributing Mondex, a MasterCard
International product, in a collaborative six-month test being conducted on
the Upper West Side of the city.
At the Global Smart Card Advisory Service Conference in New York Monday, Darr
said getting New Yorkers to use the cards for small purchases is not as
simple as just handing cards to customers and readers to merchants.
"We have a lot of work to get this momentum building," she said.
Last week, Citibank finished distributing the cards, which look like an ATM
card embedded with a gold-colored microprocessor, to its customers. Darr said
700 of 1,300 merchants in the area have signed on to test the product,
including a lot of small cash-only businesses such as news stands, bodegas,
and bakeries as well as larger outlets such as Burger Kings and drug stores.
To back up the effort, the banks are marketing the product with direct mail
reminders, telemarketing, billboards, and signs. In addition, bank employees
are handing out some cards loaded with small amounts of currency in what Darr
called "in their face" marketing.
"We are really having to build the transactions quite quickly," Darr said.
"We think that will help jump-start the program."
Darr said the bank will soon introduce a Veriphone ATM terminal that will let
customers load the product at home over the phone lines and will have, just
in time for Christmas, a pre-loaded, reloadable card -- perfect for a
stocking stuffer.
And, with the introduction of the laundry device, it will be a clean
stocking, no doubt.
(c)CMP Media, 1997.
=-----------------------------------------------------------=
FTC Gives Web Suckers an Even Break
by Wired News Staff
4.Nov.97 -- The great Moldovan porn fraud: The Federal Trade Commission said
today that 38,000 consumers who were caught up in a Web scam in which they
were bilked of US$2.47 million in long-distance phone charges will get full
credit for the money they lost.
The scheme publicized in February involved several sites that invited
visitors to download "viewing software" in order to receive free pornographic
pictures. The downloaded software was equipped to do something that went
unnoticed by most users: it turned off their modem speakers, dropped users'
local phone connections to their ISPs, then redialed phone numbers assigned
to Moldova to re-establish a connection to the porn sites.
Defendants included Internet Girls and Audiotex Connection Inc., both of
Rockville Center, New York; Promo Line Inc., of Dix Hills, New York; William
Gannon, one of the principals in Internet Girls, Audiotex, and Promo Line;
and David Zeng, a computer programmer who worked on the scam.
Under an FTC settlement, the defendants will pay AT&T and MCI, which will in
turn issue credits to consumers victimized in the scheme.
---
MS annihilation warning: Orrin Hatch says Microsoft is trying to dominate the
Internet. "Microsoft now has the ability to virtually annihilate any
competitive product it wants by bringing it into the next version of
Windows," the chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee told The Wall
Street Journal. "There's evidence that they are aggressively seeking to
extend that monopoly to the Internet, and policy-makers have to be concerned
about it."
The Utah Republican's committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Internet
commerce Tuesday. Hatch's comments come soon after the Justice Department
charged Microsoft with violating a 1994 consent degree that placed guidelines
on the company's marketing of its Windows operating system. (3.Nov.97)
(c)1993-97 Wired Ventures, Inc.
=-----------------------------------------------------------=
Bell Canada And Nortel (Northern Telecom) Sign Agreement To Upgrade Bell's
DMS Switching Network
November 5, 1997
BRAMPTON, Ont., /PRNewswire/ - Nortel (Northern Telecom) is pleased to
announce a two-year contract with Bell Canada for $US 82 million dollars to
provide network software and hardware upgrades. These upgrades will impact
every DMS-100, DMS-200, DMS-TOPS and DMS-STP switch in the Bell Canada
network. This contract is the next step in a modernization program by Bell
Canada in providing readiness to deploy enhanced and future services on a
network-wide basis.
"We consider Nortel equipment to be consistently the most reliable in the
world. This upgrade will be a strategic advantage for our network and will
make Bell an even more competitive player," said Dave Southwell, Chief
Technology Officer of Bell Canada. "These upgrades will not only lead to
lower operational costs through network simplification, but will increase our
ability to launch new services and features anywhere in our served
territories to the benefit of our customers."
With four of Canada's largest cities located in this network -- Ottawa,
Canada's capital and Toronto, Ontario; and Montreal and Quebec City, Quebec
-- this upgrade will benefit Bell Canada subscribers who use over 10 million
access lines.
The implementatiuon will be in two phases: first, the entire network will
reach a minimum software level of NA005 by the end of 1997; this will be
followed by an upgrade to NA008 bye the end of 1998. The upgrades include DMS
SuperNode 50s with mixed memory, and DMS SuperNode 60s and 70s, which are
among the most advanced Nortel processors available.
Bell Canada, the largest Canadian telecommunications operating company,
markets a full range of state-of-the-art products and services to more than
seven million business and residence customers in Ontario and Quebec. Bell
Canada is a member of Stentor, an alliance of Canada's major
telecommunications companies.
(c)PR Newswire. All rights reserved.
=-----------------------------------------------------------=
BellSouth Asks Congress To Aggressively Oversee Implementation of 1996
Telecom Act
November 5, 1997
WASHINGTON, /PRNewswire/ -- BellSouth (NYSE: BLS), today called on Congress
to aggressively assert its oversight jurisdiction to ensure straightforward
and common sense implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
In testimony before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on the
activities of the federal government's antitrust enforcement activities,
BellSouth Vice President Mark Feidler pointed out that BellSouth already has
gone to extraordinary lengths to help competitors get into local telephony.
BellSouth has provided telecommunications services that have let competitors
take more than 215,000 customer lines formerly serviced by BellSouth, Feidler
said. That volume is growing at 25 percent a month, a rate comparable to the
growth of customers on the Internet, he added.
However, rather than encouraging competition, Feidler concluded the Justice
Department is involved in creating "endless process -- all aimed, apparently,
at preventing long-distance competition, not promoting it."
Feidler charged the Department with usurping the role of state public service
commissions. "Instead of adhering to the Act, which gave most of the
responsibility for dealing with local market issues to the state regulators,
the FCC and the Justice Department have continually expanded their scope of
authority and given little or no deference to the findings of state
regulators," Feidler told the committee.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department recommended to the Federal Communications
Commission that it reject BellSouth's application to offer long-distance
service to its South Carolina customers.
The Telecom Act of 1996 set standards for Bell companies to meet before being
allowed into long-distance, in July, the South Carolina Public Service
Commission affirmed by a 7-0 vote that BellSouth had met those conditions.
The Department of Justice has strayed beyond its area of expertise, Feidler
told the committee. He noted that Congress had given Justice a role in making
recommendations about the antitrust aspects of Bell applications to enter the
long-distance marketplace. Instead, he noted, "the Department has adopted a
new standard, not based on any antitrust precedent, that calls for the local
market to be 'irreversibly open to competition.'"
In calling for Congress to step in and oversee the Act's implementation,
Feidler said the Justice Department has stepped beyond its technical
expertise, "In practice the Department has applied the standard to second
guess the state public service commissions on matters within their sole
jurisdiction, such as checklist compliance."
BellSouth is a $19 billion communications services company. It provides
telecommunications, wireless communications, directory advertising and
publishing, video, Internet and information services to more than 28 million
customers in 20 countries worldwide.
(c)PR Newswire.
=-----------------------------------------------------------=
AT&T Simplifies Basic Long Distance Rate Schedule
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 1997--In response to customer calls
for simplicity and the success of its One Rate calling plan, AT&T today
announced several changes to its basic interstate schedule for
residential direct-dialed calls.
The company will replace its domestic basic schedule's day, evening and
night/weekend time periods with peak, off-peak and weekend time periods
and will eliminate all mileage bands. Calls will be priced at a single
rate during each time period, regardless of distance.
The new time periods are as follows:
Peak 7 a.m. - 6:59 p.m. Monday - Friday
Off-Peak 7 p.m. - 6:59 a.m. Monday - Friday
Weekend All day Saturday and Sunday
Rates for the peak, off-peak and weekend time periods are 28 cents, 16
cents and 13 cents per minute, respectively.
With the elimination of mileage bands and changes in time periods, many
customers will see lower prices, depending on when they make their
calls. For example, calls placed Sunday evening will be priced up to 25
percent lower than the current rate.
The price changes become effective on Nov. 8, 1997, and do not affect
AT&T customers who are enrolled in a calling plan. These changes apply
only to AT&T's basic interstate residential direct-dialed rates, and do
not affect the company's in-state calling plans.
["Rate simplificiation" must be an expensive program to impliment, seeing as
this plan will cost consumers much more than before. There are a lot more
(39 more) hours of peak/off peak rates (per week) now than before, which
means there are 39 fewer night/weekend hours per week. That "elimination of
mileage bands" happened in the 80s, which makes it odd they should mention it
now. My advice would be to fear rate simplification.]
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
=-------------------------------------------=
| Storytime with TFP |
| By whoever bothered to submit (EviLSaNtA) |
=-------------------------------------------=
Consequences of borrowing
-------------------------
One summer day, me and my friend were thinking of some thing to do. I saw all
of these trucks and vans in a parking lot, and I said to my friend "hey,
wanna go in there?", he said "sure". So we thought up stuff to steal and then
jumped the fence and started going through the vans and trucks but our main
purpose was to steal CBs and stuff, so we took a CB from a big van, and some
other worthless shit, and just as we were about to leave my friend found a
lineman's handset. He gave it to me, since he had no idea how to use the damn
thing, but after awhile we started using it on cans and stuff, had a lotta
fun with it...
A few months (THREE months) later, we got caught. It turned out that some
kids ratted us out for money (one of them was Danny Gibs, so if you live in
Florida, and know him, please beat him down). So anyway it turned out that
Lucent got robbed eight other times (by someone else) and we were one of the
eight that got caught. They gave me an option: I could take this stupid
program (JASP) or just goto JDC. So I took the JASP thing. I got 40 Hours of
community service, had to take 2 of these "crime doesn't pay" classes, and
they made me mow my lawn 3 times, don't ask me why. I'm also gonna have pay
for the 'lost' fone, but in the end, I still had the handset. I just told the
cops that I lost it. I'm not sure how much I gotta pay them; they haven't
told me yet.
PS - If you ever rob GTE or Lucent or any thing like that, please rember to
wear gloves!!!
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Dark|||Knight sent us this ANAC#: (903) 970-xxxx (Sherman, TX). See, we
weren't kidding when we said we'd accept anything! TFP02 didn't have a mail
or logs section because we didn't get any mail or logs that were printworthy.
Yeah, so we do have standards afterall. Fabricate some hatemail or logs of
you pranking the President. Please. That wraps it up for the anticlimactic
issue two of TFP. Au revoir! Support America's Veterans! Just say no to TFP!
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=