The  speaker dealt at great length, in a Seminar, recently, the wonder called the cellular telephone. During the discussion,  he fielded a lot of questions from the floor. Then a gentleman inquired as to why should the called subscriber be charged on an incoming call. I do not know who he was. Since he spoke with an air of authority, we may be justified if we call him Choudhury

The speaker was convinced that somebody must be charged. In  this case it happens to be the called subscriber. So what? Choudhury retorted that if somebody has to be charged, it can very well be the calling subscriber - why the called subscriber?

"There is not much choice," meekly submitted the speaker. This did not satisfy Choudhury. You could charge Uncle Sam - he  proposed. And the speaker parried who was Uncle Sam

At this stage, Choudhury gave up. "Let us pretend you do not know the answer. We shall deflect the question at the audience"  

In that process, I was summoned and was required to propose a suitable response

I said I was no way involved in the business of cellular telephones. I happened to own the durry, on which the lectern had been placed. I was just waiting for the seminar to be over, so I could collect the durry and go home for an early dinner

Choudhury explained that it was like a quiz program in the small screen. I must reckon lucky in having been selected as the unique one to be so decorated

I  said, "There is no video camera around. More importantly", I added, "You have not announced the prizes. How many are the gift vouchers, are you going to send us out, if so where is the holiday going to be, are the tickets being made for two or more, how many nights and days have been included, is the chosen hotel of the five star class and so on"

Choudhury said, "There is no prize for guessing the right answer"

I exploded, "You have not seen any of the TV shows. Especially when I have never filled in a colored post card and dispatched it to any address that terminates with a TVC code - I am not suited for any decoration. Nor am I interested to become a Millionaire or a Crorepati"

Choudhury said, "Well, if you do not know the answer, you can be forgiven. The called subscriber is charged for the air-time instead of the calling subscriber, because, there is no number seven signaling in the national telecommunication network"

I  asked him timidly - "what is number seven - kind of  cigarette, or a jar of condiments?"

Choudhury laughed wildly. "We are in a mood to forgive you  further". He added, "let us not try to explain to you. You would not understand, anyway. Number seven is a sophisticated form of signaling. We do not have that. Period"

"What is so wonderful about number seven? Ok. We do not have number seven - whatever that is. We also don't have car wash in every street. There are no escalators in every public building. We do not have fly over-bridges on the highways by the hundreds, or metro rail in each town. We do not see chain stores that are open till  eleven in the night. We do not get twenty four hours water supply - or for that matter, unfailing power. We also do not have punctuality, integrity or honesty. Are we going to discuss all that too, Choudhury Saheb?"

"No, not at all"

"I am still unable to fathom how can number seven work, say, if there was no power"

"I didn't exactly say that", Choudhury added hurriedly, "What if there was no power? Number seven can work off batteries, if that was important"

"Batteries also need to get charged, isn't ? Where do we obtain power from?"

"Batteries do not necessarily mean chargeable cells. You may deploy engine generators, alternatively, for example"

"A thousand pardons, Choudhury Saheb, I may still have to obtain diesel for the engine. If the power is absent, the petrol bunk may not dispense oil"

"Mister, you talk too much. This is a Seminar where we have assembled to discuss the emerging scenarios of telecom for the future. This is a session on the Information Technology, not on the Psalms of Life. I recommend a strong dose of pravachan for you. Just now, you are in a wrong discourse"

"No. Instead, I suppose I am getting the message loud and clear. If you do get number seven at some point in time, the power will stop failing. The airlines will be punctual. Trains would not derail. Tower bolts in the doors will function. The streets will be clean. People will behave. There will be milk and honey everywhere. Our standard of living, in general, will improve. You are suggesting all that, isn't, Choudhury Saheb?"

The  Chairman of the session sounded the gong and announced the coffee break. I ran away to escape the ire of Choudhury.

Common  Channel Signaling Number Seven is a magic formula  that can  make dumb networks intelligent. It can  provide for third party metering. That is, you make your calls from whatsoever telephone  you find  nearest, but charge your employer or the father-in-law. Sometimes called the 800 services, it is a necessary adjunct for the commerce, so that customers can make long distance inquiries at no cost to themselves

Common channel signaling dissociates the voice channel from the information carrying signaling channel. It has also a lot more capacity to transport information

As a consequence, it can tell you who is calling, for example (caller-ID). There is also a danger in being presented with too much of information. If the telephone is going to announce who is calling, you may avoid answering the particular calls from the creditors! Some of them creditors may then desire that such identities shall not  be  forwarded even if facility was originally engineered. Number seven accommodates such welcom relief as well!

Virtual card calling can become feasible only with number seven. On the recognition of every card it will be necessary to verify if the subscriber has any credit still left in his account. While a card may be presented at Bombay, the account may be  maintained at Bangalore. The number seven outfit provides for a dialogue to obtain the vital information quickly and correctly.

Yes, promptness and accuracy are the watchwords for number seven. The signaling network is configured as a fast packet switch. Error detection and correction are features of the system. The new technology switches, especially, are endowed with  capabilities to engage in dialogues set to the number seven refrains. The  upcoming ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) has been made possible, thanks to this new signaling. IN (Intelligent Network) has also been planned with the same resource.

[Telematics, July 1996]