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The Syndicate Report Issue 05
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THE SYNDICATE REPORT
Bell Information Transmittal No.5
Featuring:
Agents in Unix (n.wk 8\7)
Memory Management System (it.iam 8\11)
Argo, Microtel, & Litel Merging (m.am 8\11)
Fiber Optics & Competition (e.i.nl 8\11)
UNISTAR Bureau (n.mkt 8\15)
C-LAN (n.mkt 8\15)
Written by The Sensei
Released Aug. 26 1986
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The Syndicate Report is stictly Bell orientated information. Without some
background, reading in this material could cause a problem to understand.
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AGENTS IN UNIX:
Profiles of firms participating in Distributor Marketing's three-month--
old sales agent program are now accessible in the Company's UNIX electronic
information system.
The profiles list the sales territory, product line, assigned
distributor consultant, address, branch office locations and the name of a
contact person at each authorized agency.
The Unix data base also includes an explanation of the sales lead
referral program, along with the "800" number employees should call to get a
sales lead passed on to the agent.
To review this information, UNIX users should begin at the main AIM menu
and select Option 2 -- News Bulletins. Next select Option 8 -- Special
Menu, and finally Option 7 -- Sales Agent Information.
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MMS - MEMORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:
MMS is a new machanized system that plays an integral part in the
mechanized process. This Trasmittal is to introduce the new system and provide
information regarding its purpose, benefits and relationships to other systems
in the mechanized provisioning process.
order activity into the ESS switch. The order activity entered through MMS are
PIC selections and changes, Custom Calling, and TTS for non complex orders.
Future enhancements to MMS will handle Centrex and Multiline Hunt orders.
As MMS is deployed in each wire center, the RCMAC clerks will no
longer be required to manually type those order activities into the ESS
switches. The switches will accept and store the information and mechanically
"flip the switch" between 1 AM and 2 AM on the due date.
Since MMS is driven by COSMOS output, it should be transparent to the
Installation organization.
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ARGO, MICROTEL, AND LITEL MERGING:
It is not easy for a tiny telephone company to compete in the long--
distance market with giants like AT&T, MCI, and the recently fored U S Sprint.
Together, the top three companies have more than 90% of the $50 billion-plus
U.S. long distance market. So three of the smallest competitors -- Argo,
Litel, and Microtel -- have decided it's time to band together to survive.
With the merger of GTE Corp.'s Sprint Communications Corp. and U.S. Telecom
Inc. into the $1.8 billion U.S. Sprint, Litel President warns pf a "comming
oligopoly" of massive long-distance companies. Mictrotel and Litel operate
fiber-optic phone networks in the South and Midwest, while Argo runs a
satellite-based national long-distance network for meduim-to- large business.
The as-yet unnamed company should do about $150 million in sales this year.
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FIBER OPTICS & COMPETITION:
With all this talk about fiber optic cables, some experts have been
led to predict the demise of the satellite communication business. But the
satellite vendors are not about to die. Now they plan to steal a page from
cellular technology. Rather than launching several satellites that cover the
entire U.S. with a single broad-beam signal, they are developing a "bird" with
multiple antennas. Each antenna will serve one of the series of overlapping
circles that cover the country. Because focusing the signal in a tight beam
will increase the strength of the signal, smaller ground antennas will be able
to pick them up. Earth stations could shrink to 1/10th their current size,
thus costing tens of thousands of dollars instead of tens of millions. This
would enable more companies to cut their communications bills by building
their own earth stations and bypassing more costly land lines. Think about
the possibitilies of satellite/cellular/wrist-radio technology.
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UNISTAR BUREAU:
UNISTAR (Universal Single Call Telecommunications Answering & Repair)
Bureau is one of Communications Services' newest marketing services.
Unistar's purpose is if a person has any kind of telephone trouble, they
call Unistar. A person does not have to know whether it's in their set or in
their line. Just make onecall to Unistar and they do the rest. Unistar also
provides people with customized reports and data on their service, including
the number of repair calls, type of trouble found - weekly or monthly as they
wish. Unistar employees take the calls, isolate trouble, test lines, and
dispatch repair personnel if necessary. Also Unistar deals with vendors, other
telcos and customers, acting as liaison and coordinator between all affected
parties.
Unistar has not had it's grand opening as of yet. Unistar will be
expected in major cities by Sept.
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C-LAN:
By transmitting and receiving at high-frequency -- above voice range
-- it's possible to transmit data simultaneously with voice over the
same line with no interference. The advantage, is that one cicuit will handle
both voice and data.
In late August, Bell will begin marketing voice/data lines to some of
its Centron and Centrex customers in selected areas. C-LAN will be only
available to people served be IA ESS offices in downtown areas.
Bell calls this new voice/data feature C-LAN -- an acronym for Centron-
Centrex Local Area Network. C-LAN is extremely well-suited for small, medium
and large data users. CLAN is capable of transmitting data at rates as high as
19.2 kilobits per second -- 16 times faster than the standard 1200 baud rate.
Instead of modems, users use on-premise multiplexors, which translate
a digital-bit stream to a higher-then-voice frequency.
There are two types of service: 1- Private Facility Pooling (PFP), is
simply incorporating CLAN over facilities. People who routinely send data
between two points can use one line for voice and data. Initiating data
transmission is as simple as keying in a three-digit access code. For
subscribers with many users, a statistical multiplexor, or stat mux, can
provide numerous transmission channels, both in the central office and to the
subscriber premise. 2- Network Modem Pooling (NMP), uses the direct distance
dial network to link CLAN users to a variety of computers and data bases
throughout the country. Instead of each user owning a costly modem, the
central office maintains a modem pool, which is shared by a number of sub-
scribers -- a powerful enhancement to Centron/Centrex service.
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If there is any question to the information in this file, contact the
author. Now can be found on the Private Sector 20 Meg, 3/1200 baud
system at (201) 366-4431 (2600 Magazine Bulliten Board).
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This concludes this Transmittal No. 5 presented by:
The Sensei - The Syndicate Report
The information in this file is copyrighted and all rights reserved. This file
may, in whole or in part be copied, photocopied, reprinted, translated, recuded
to any electronic medium or machine readable form or reproduction in any manner
as long as no part or parts of information is tampered without prior consent in
writing from The Sensei, Syndicate Report Aug. 26 1986.
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