Q. I found an old telephone in my grandfather's house. He was an electrical engineer in the 40's. I can't find much info on it on the Web. It has no dial, but two knobs beneath the receiver, (which seems to have a fuse or something like that missing), an electric plug and a switch board (?) plug. It has Federal Telephone and Radio Corp. Control Unit 134-A printed on it. It has a green and a red light on the base. Do you know what this is?

A. I don't know what this is but Geoff Fors (internal link) probably does. His answer:

"It's a Federal Telephone & Radio Corporation desktop remote control for a two-way radio base station of the WWII-1950 period. The base stations were large transmitters about the size of a refrigerator, painted black, and these remote controls allowed them to be placed in a storage room or closet somewhere and then controlled by the desktop telephone unit, which was similar to a desk intercom, and in fact could also be used for that purpose if there were several remotes hooked up."

"These would usually be found on a desk at a military police station or a railroad yard."

"Yours has been modified somewhat; I think the cords, lights and knobs on top were not on the original unit."

"If you want to dispose of it, you might put it on eBay under the 'Telephones, 1940-50' category (or similar.) I don't recall them bringing much money, particularly in modified condition, but one never knows."

Regards,

Geoff Fors

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Ace contributor J.R. Snyder Jr (internal link), checks in again, this time with comments on the new Los Angeles Dispatch Center which was mentioned below. He writes:

Tom:

The photo of the workstation of the 9-1-1 operator in Los Angeles is pretty much like the kind of workstations at the Pima County Sheriff's Office Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). Generally a PSAP is referred to as a 9-1-1 center for short. We have a saying, though, that goes like this: "I'm not an 'operator' nor am I '9-1-1.' 9-1-1 is equipment and an operator only operates equipment; I'm a human being who makes quick, fast and hopefully smart decisions." Some people think that's being hypersensitive but I dare them to work in a 9-1-1 center for a day. . . . continues here with detailed descriptions --->

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TerreStar Networks (external link) recently announced they will build the first satellite to communicate directly with cell phones. Operational at the end of 2008. They hope to provide cellular radio service to communities and areas that have no cell phone coverage now. A few points:

1) Four years is a long time to wait for a radio-telephone;

2) As with all sat phones, you'll need a view of the sky to get a signal. The phone won't work indoors unless you have an external antenna;

3) You can get a wireless connection right now through providers like Globalstar (external link) Call from nearly anywhere in the United States or Canada. Their phones default to cellular radio if a signal is available. You'll save money in many cases by not using the bird. Speaking of money;

4) Satellite phone service is expensive. But, adjusted for inflation, it isn't more costly than roaming charges were for cell phones ten years ago. And being able to call from nearly anywhere is worth a great deal by itself.

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Yes, 48 of them. For the new Los Angeles Dispatch Center. A good article from the LA Downtown News Online (external link) (Caution, this external link may die in just a month or two.)

Rescued 911

Inside Downtown's Improved Emergency Call Center

by Chris Coates

One of the unique things about the Downtown Metropolitan Communications Dispatch Center, where thousands of 911 calls are fielded each day, is that it doesn't look like the expected dark warren of cubicles filled with operators wearing headsets. Instead, the 15,000-square-foot call center in the $19 million building is an odd mix of police station, hectic newsroom and military intelligence center. . .(Continues here, external link)

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Cell phone technology is a good thing sold poorly. I've never understood why a great service needs to be sold like a used car. Since I started writing about cellular in 1994, wireless carriers have oversold their product, lied about coverage, favored restrictive, too long contracts, and have had contempt for their customer's complaints. Nothing changes. In a joint interview with the Chronicle and other media in the San Francisco Bay Area, Ivan Seidenberg, chief executive officer of Verizon Communications, tells us what he really thinks about the consumer:

"Seidenberg, for instance, said people often complain about mobile phone service because they have unrealistic expectations about a wireless service working everywhere. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone, is the state's largest mobile phone provider."

"'Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?' he said. 'The customer has come to expect so much. They want it to work in the elevator; they want it to work in the basement.'"

"Seidenberg said it's not Verizon's responsibility to correct the misconception by giving out statistics on how often Verizon's service works inside homes or by distributing more detailed coverage maps, showing all the possible dead zones. He pointed out that there are five major wireless networks, none of which works perfectly everywhere."

"Seidenberg also defended the company's stiff cancellation fees and tighter return policy."

"Last year, the California Public Utilities Commission ordered all phone companies to give customers 30 days to test a service without slapping them with hundreds of dollars in early cancellation fees. But after the PUC suspended the rule a month ago, Verizon shortened its trial period to 15 days to match its 15-day return policy in other states."

"'We think there is a deal,'" he said. "We invest in the business and have the best service. But when you sign up with us, we'd like you stay with us.'"

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Some nice .pdf files on automating operator assistance:

"An Automatic Direct Distance Dialing System" by T. B. Caveny, JR. (December, 1966) (internal link) "An automatic toll ticketing system was cut into service in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 22, 1964, providing some services never before available. The general purpose relay used in this system embodies imaginative new concepts in. device design and application. . ."

"Toll Service Desk: An Improved Concept of Telephone Toll Traffic Control" by D. E. Halbedel (December, 1969) (internal link) "A new toll service desk (T.S.D) system has been developed and successfully introduced, which greatly reduces the human involvement in the processing of operator-assisted telephone toll calls. . ."

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Frequent contributor Don Kimberlin (internal link) is now an award winning writer. On Tuesday the National Association of Broadcasters meeting in Las Vegas he received on Tuesday the Radio Guide Technology Initiative Award, Historical Events Category. The award was for an article he wrote ten years ago, when he recalled his work on distributing the live feed from the first Moon landing to televisions around the globe. The most permanent archive of that article is here:

http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-
archives/archives/history/camelot.on.moon-july.69
Great reading.

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Q: What is the maximum distance a pair of cell towers (cell sites) can be separated and still function? Obviously there is some overlap of coverage, but what is the maximum, and maybe minimum, too. Assuming flat terrain?

A. From Mark van der Hoek (internal link):

Too many variables! :D

At the limits? I know of analog calls being made several hundred miles away from the serving cell site. I've personally made analog calls 50 miles away from the site. Digital won't go that far because of timing issues. For CDMA, the practical limit seems to be around 30 miles or so and that only under ideal conditions. 20 is no problem, but rarely done. I've seen it in rural south Texas, west of McAllen in the Rio Grande Valley.

GSM has a hard stop by design at 35 km (22miles), but that can be doubled with some special equipment and software. The price you pay is that you cut in half the available time slots. Some years ago Nortel was trying to make GSM go 200km (124 miles) for an Australian operator, but that effort seems to have faded into obscurity.

Minimum? I know of sites running an eighth of a mile apart. If you count in-building systems, less than that.

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All information in digital is contained in packets (internal link). Voice, data, or video signal are in bits which the packets carry. (internal link) A digital communication device can be designed, therefore, to provide different digital services.

A recent AP article (external link, read this soon before this link dies!) says Comcast will soon merge its cable TV and internet offerings with telephony. By the end of the year "It expects to offer its digital phone service to 15 million homes. Voice packets will be given priority -- and traffic will be carried over Comcast's own network."

"Rian Wren, Comcast's senior vice president of telephony, says voice services will converge not only with computers but also with TVs. In the next 18 months, you'll start to see prompts on your TV for processing e-mail, voicemail or incoming calls. Eventually, you'll be able to handle that communications right through your TV."

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The Financial Times reports that Andrew Robertson, chief executive of Omnicom's BBDO advertising agency, thinks mobiles will "replace TV as [the] prime ad medium." Yeah, right. The FT goes on to quote him as saying, "We are rapidly getting to the point where the single most important medium that people have is their wireless device. It's with them every single moment of the day. It's genuinely the convergence box that everyone has been talking about for so many years."

The mobile is indeed convergence, but advertising would doom its effectiveness and I can't see how subscribers would tolerate it in a TV like form. Since all wireless screens and displays are quite different and most quite limited, I think the best an adman could do are Google like text ads. Other interesting tid-bits from the FT article:

"Mr Robertson spoke as BBDO released a report that said consumers are now more willing to live without television than without mobile phones or home computers."

"The agency asked nearly 3,000 typical consumers in 15 countries to choose the communications device they would most want to keep. Forty-five per cent said their home computers, 31 per cent their mobile phones and 12 per cent their televisions. In China, 61 per cent opted for mobile phones, compared with 30 per cent for home computers and 4 per cent for televisions."

"The survey found that mobile phones users like to stay connected even while they are asleep. More than 60 per cent said they kept their phones on and within reach 21 to 24 hours a day, and 15 per cent said that figure was 16 to 20 hours a day."

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Excellent Ericsson white paper on CDMA basics here (internal link). Good information on power control, cell breathing, soft handoffs, and so on. This 10 page .pdf complements well what I have done on cellular basics. (internal link). Note especially that a cell site is located at the edge of a cell, not the center, and that one base station or cell site can control several cells. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the discussion on layers, understanding them isn't necessary to comprehend basic cellular radio.

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