Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: apple!zygot!john@decwrl.dec.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Long Distance Carrier Sound Comparisons Message-ID: Date: 20 Jun 89 05:17:48 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: ATI Wares Team Lines: 67 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 207, message 5 of 8 In article , jimmy%denwa.uucp (Jim Gottlieb) writes: > In article OLE@csli.stanford.edu > (Ole J. Jacobsen) writes: > > >Which LD carrier is the best? I have found that calling the East Coast > >from the West Coast almost universially gives you a clear digital circuit > >when the call is placed via SPRINT, and almost universally gives you a > >cruddy circuit when placed via AT&T. > I agree. I get tired of hearing all the AT&T employees on here who buy > the company line about their LD being best. I must say that AT&T's > digital connections are superb, even surpassing Sprint's, but they are > still all too rare. Oh, really. I just made test calls to every out-of-the-way place I could think of on AT&T and every single one of them was carried digitally. Even a call to Washington state, the last hold out of analog connections for AT&T was digital. Or how about St. Marys, KS? Or Thistle, UT? All digital. > Let me say that I appreciate the level of service offered by AT&T, and > this is especially obvious after having to deal with Sprint. We also > use nothing but AT&T computers here (even though AT&T doesn't make > them) because of the great service we get from them. Just had a modem problem with calls to St. Marys. A call to AT&T service reached a live person in seconds. My complaint was taken and I was promptly called back by someone in "network". I told him that my Trailblazer was having consistent difficulty establishing contact with another like unit and then he promised to get back to me. Within a couple of minutes my Trailblazer answered what sounded like a "wrong number" (no modem at the other end). Later that day, Alan in "network" called to tell me that the modem levels looked good at each end, so they were going to turn down the trunks between San Jose and St. Marys and test them. He told me that the alternate circuits would probably be OK to use in the interim. They were. Today he called to tell me that they had found timing problems in the main circuits that have been repaired and the trunks had been returned to service. Contrast that with Sprint, where you can wait 45 minutes just for someone to answer the phone. Then you talk to someone who takes your complaint and you never hear anything from them again. If you call back to check the progress of your complaint, you first have to re-invent the wheel to get them to acknowledge your first call (AT&T gives you a ticket number when you first call). Then they either tell you it's all fixed when it isn't, or they tell you that they could find no trouble and that it must be your equipment that is to blame. At no time do you speak to anyone knowledgeable. This fact alone tells me what Sprint thinks of its customers. > And I would be willing to pay a little more for that service. But AT&T > LD is not a little more, and they are decidedly inflexible. I always > give them a chance when we are re-evaluating LD service, but because > they won't let us combine all our locations for a quantity discount > (unless we pay a $2500 monthly fee), they are just way too expensive. Too bad. It really is superior. > Not to mention those analog connections... Not any more. -- John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.uucp | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !