Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: decvax!decwrl!apple!zygot!john@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Consumer Opts For POTS Message-ID: Date: 12 Jun 89 17:43:25 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: ATI Wares Team Lines: 30 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 205, message 5 of 6 In article , bet@bent (Bennett Todd) writes: > Our old electromechanical system worked vastly better. Please, please, no yearning for the good old days of electo-mechanical! Let's see...on SXS you would frequently get on a noisy stepper and hear crackling noises all through your converstation, punctuated and modulated by other subscribers dialing. Wonderful. The equivalent in Xbar is a sproinging noise at random. Great. Another joy of Xbar is what we call the "killer trunk". Occasionally, someone would call, you would talk, then hang up. And your phone would be stuck for hours. No dial tone, busy to incoming calls. Try to get 611 to fix that (it's intermittant). In fact, I have learned that most COs now turn off the trouble recorder on Xbar; they haven't a clue as to what to do when it drops a card anyway. We nasty people who want features are actually *reducing* the cost to the black rotary-dial customer. It costs the telco nothing to provide call waiting or three way or forwarding, but they not only collect our money for the service, they get more completed calls, timed calls on hold, etc., etc. Over half of my recurring monthly charges is for "advanced" features. Any CO upgrading costs are quickly recovered, not only from these charges, but from the reduced maintenance and plant staff required. Now tell me who is paying for it! -- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.uucp | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !