211 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
211 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
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The Following was Taken From The 2600 Magazine of Spring 1992
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Text typed by OMEGA / MEGA - Ind.
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The Australian Phone System (By Midnight Caller)
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In Australia there is one company which controls the nation's public
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switched telephone network: The Autralian and Overseas Telecommunications
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Corporation, which trades as Telecom Australia.
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Telecom Australia is a federal government-owned statutory corporation
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responsible for providing telephone, data, and other communications services
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to the public. Put simply, Telecom have a monopoly on first home-phone in-
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stallation and the core network (eg: the copper wires, the optical fibre,
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the cellular network, etc.)
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This all changed in late 1991 when Telecom was stripped of its monopoly and
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forced to compete in a duopoly arrangement with a second carrier until 1997
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when the duopoly arrangement expires and it becomes free for all. The federal
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government will be issuing a second-carrier license which will allow full
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de-regulated competition for the first time in the provision of core network
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services. While the telecommunications industry has been de-regulated for
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quite some time (if you didn't like your Telecom phone, you could buy a
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cellular phone or pager from anyone), there has never been any competition on
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the initial connection service, or in the on-going provision of service.
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When first offered, 31 different companies, mostly foreign, registered
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interest in applying for the license which carries a $3 billion (US$ 2.5
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billion) license fee and includes three operational satellites (which no one
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wants), and three others being built (which no one wants either) by Hughes
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Aircraft Corporation.
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There are now three consortiums left in the race: the Bellsouth/Cable and
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Wireless consortium (C&W run the Mercury phone company in the United King-
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dom), the Bell Atlantic/Ameritech consortium who recently bought the run-
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down hovel phone system in that rather odd country next to us, New Zealand,
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and a third party which has remained anonymous, though rumour has it that the
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third consortium is led by Com Systems.
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It is widely believed that Bellsouth will get the license and Bell Atlantic
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will have to be content nursing sheep in New Zealand. As mentioned before,
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until 1997 there will be a duopoly, with the exception of a third nationwide
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cellular network to be licensed sometime next year or so.
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The Network
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The Telecom network consists largely of ARE-11 and Ericsson AXE-10 switching
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systems though older ARF and step-by-step exchanges still exist in some rural
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areas. The Ericsson AXE-10 exchanges are currently the most advanced exchanges
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available for use by the general public. At present some 70 percent of the
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Australian telephone network is fully computerised and this is expected to
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reach a full 100 percent by around 1994/95.
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The AXE-10 offers all the facilities of what the more advanced Western
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Electric ESS systems offer such as Centrex facilities. One notable feature not
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offered by Telecom, though it can be made available on the AXE-10 exchanges,
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is ANI. Considering the problems US phone companies have encountered in of-
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fering ANI services, Telecom has never made any comment on the facility,
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though Bellsouth has said that it would be one of the new features it would
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introduce should it be successful in bidding for the second carrier license.
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DTMF dialling is available as standard on the AXE-10 exchanges while those
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decrepit individuals unlucky enough to be on ARE-11 exchanges (like me) must
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apply for a DTMF service. It doesn't cost any extra, but it keeps a few
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failed bureaucrats in a job if you have to apply for it. The ARE-11 exchanges
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are far less advanced than the AXE-10's. They do not offer any of the Centrex
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or Easycall facilities (such as call waiting, three-way call, call diversion,
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ANI, etc.) that the AXE-10 offers.
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The telecom network command center is located in Exhibition Street in the
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center of Melbourne with a fallback command center located in the Melbourne
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suburb of Windsor. Smaller network command centers are located in each state
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capital.
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These two locations control all network management functions nationwide for
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all exchanges with the exception of the old step-by-step exchanges. They also
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control the nationwide data services and other special services such as
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Austpac (X.25), Iterra (Satellite), ISDN, DDN Flexnet (Digital data Network),
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MobileNet (Cellular), as well as a host of other services.
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Being Telecom's home city, the central area of Melbourne is also the only
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city to be fully linked up with optical fibre at this time. Telecom is
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gradually overhauling its inter-city trunk lines with optical fibre (with the
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microwave network acting as a backup). Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney are
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linked together by a 1000 km long stretch of fibre optic cable, with other
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links currently under way.
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Payphones
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There are five types of payphones in use around Australia. These are: The
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PhoneCard payphone (the new standard payphone), CardPhone (for credit and
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debit cards), Bluephone, Goldphone (being replaced by Bluephone), and the
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older rotary dial payphones which are progressively being phased out.
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PhoneCard Payphone: the new standard payphone in Australia is the new
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Telecom Phonecard Payphone. This phone uses either coins or pre-paid
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telephone cards similar to the cards that NTT (Japan) used to use in their
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payphones until the introduction of smartcard telephone cards. These pay-
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phones are usually located in places such as airports, hotels, and on the
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street.
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Cardphone Payphone: these payphones only accepts credit or debit cards
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such as Amex, Visa, Mastercard, and debit cards issued by most of the banks.
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To place a call, a customer swipes their card through the card reader, then
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enters their PIN number. After this is verified, the caller dials the number
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they want and the call is charged back to their card. These phones are lo-
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cated in airports, tourist areas, hotels and some central city locations.
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They are generally not located in the street.
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BluePhone Payphone: The BluePhone was so-called because it is blue - pretty
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imaginative. These accept coins only and are only located indoors. Most may
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be found in bars, groceries, supermarkets, restaurants, 7-11's, stores and
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hotels. These are never located on the street.
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GoldPhone Payphone: Prior to the world's greatest marketing coup, the Blue-
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Phone, Telecom's crack advertising team christened the GoldPhone - it was
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gold. The GoldPhones are unimpressive indoor phones such as the BluePhones
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(See 2600 Spring 1990 for Photo) and are gradually replaced by the BluePhones.
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CrapPhone Payphone: So named because that is what it is. This has been the
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Telecom standard payphone for more than 10 years. While some have had push-
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button dialers installed, most still use rotary dial mechanisms. These pay-
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phones are easily distinguishable from their robust, but dull, metallic green
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appearance. The unit itself is made of two inch thick steel. These phones may
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be found in streets but are being progressively replaced bu the PhoneCard
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payphone. By replacing coin-only payphones with card-accepting phones, Telecom
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hopes to reduce the level of vandalism affecting payphones.
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Operator Numbers
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000 : Emergency Operator (Ask operator for emergency service. Or dial direct
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on the following three numbers.)
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11440 : Ambulance / Paramedic
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11441 : Fire
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11444 : Police
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013 : Directory Assistance (Local)
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0175 : Directory Assistance (Intra and Interstate)
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0103 : Directory Assistance (International)
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1100 : Service Faults
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1104 : Cellular network faults
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0173 : Wake up calls
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011 : Operator Connect (Within Australia)
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0101 : Operator Connect (International)
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0108 : Calls to ships at sea
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1139 : Changed number directory
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Long Distance Operators
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001-488-1150 : Canada
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001-488-1459 : Denmark
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001-488-1358 : Finland
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001-488-1330 : France
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001-488-1180 : Hawaii
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001-488-1852 : Hong Kong
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001-488-1620 : Indonesia
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001-488-1390 : Italy
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001-488-1810 : Japan
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001-488-1820 : South Korea
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001-488-1310 : Netherlands
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001-488-1640 : New Zealand (TCNZ)
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001-488-1650 : Singapore
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001-488-1440 : U.K. (British Telecom)
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001-488-1011 : U.S. (AT&T - USA Direct)
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001-488-1100 : U.S. (MCI - Call USA)
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Other/Special Numbers
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199 : Ringback
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552-4111 : Telecom Line Identifier (gives you the number you are calling
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from if on ARE-11 or AXE-10 exchange)
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01921 : Austpac (X.25) 300 Bps
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01922 : Austpac (X.25) 1200 Bps
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01923 : Austpac (X.25) 1200/75 Bps
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01924 : Austpac (X.25) 2400 Bps
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01925 : Austpac (X.25) 4800 Bps
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01928 : Austpac (X.25) 9600 Bps
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0193111 : Discovery 2400 Bps
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01955 : Discovery 1200/75 Bps
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01956 : Discovery 2400 Bps
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Australian Capital City Area Codes
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02 : Sydney, NSW
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03 : Melbourne, VIC
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06 : Canberra, ACT
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07 : Brisbane, QLD
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08 : Adelaide, SA
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09 : Perth, WA
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002 : Hobart, TAS
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089 : Darwin, NT
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-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
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This was Taken From The 2600 Magazine of Spring 1992
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Text typed by OMEGA / MEGA - Ind.
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If you wanna subscribe to 2600 Magazine Fill out the form below
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Back Issues
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o 1984/$25 o 1985/$25 o 1986/$25 o 1987/$25
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(Overseas: Add $5 per Year of Back Issues)
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Total amount enclosed :____
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And send this to :
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2600 Subscription Department
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P.O. Box 752
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Middle Island, NY 11953-0752
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U.S.A
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