Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: ggw@wolves.UUCP (Gregory G. Woodbury) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Consumer Opts For POTS Message-ID: Date: 2 Jul 89 02:39:23 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: ggw@wolves.UUCP (Gregory G. Woodbury) Organization: Red Wolfe Software, Durham NC Lines: 71 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 222, message 7 of 8 In article apple!zygot!john@decwrl. dec.com (John Higdon) writes: >In article , bet@orion.mc.duke.edu >(Bennett Todd) writes: >> [regarding who's really paying for switching upgrades] >> I'm paying for it. I get to pay more and more for service that is less >> and less reliable, to the point where I finally decided to shut the >> danged thing off Bennett is (of course) entitled to his opinion, but he does have a real reason to complain. Duke University and Durham NC have a rather interesting set of telephone interactions. Durham (a satrapy of GTE South) has a relatively bad service reputation. The area is undergoing a period of rapid growth and new CO numbers are being opened rather quickly. As they open the new numbers, they are not necessarily installing new switches. Some parts of town get modern equipment and good service, and other parts get stuck with the older stuff. In fact, I can generally know how reliable the service to a given number is going to be by just the CO code. I even asked specifically to have my service provided by one of the new COs. Going from my home to Duke, or any computers in the newer COs will be fairly good (only fair :-( ) but bbs's in other COs are subject to the }}i}} type interference. I don't know the particulars of the actual switches, but they aren't AT&T. >Then your problem is incompetent installation/service people. Even the >relatively crummy 1ESS in my CO is vastly superior to the crossbar it >replaced. It is more reliable, it is faster, and it is capable of all >"modern" features. Yes, we do have most "modern" features, why just last month they announced that they could now offer temporary cancellation of call waiting! (I do want to thank the Digest/newsgroup for giving us the ammunition necessary to get this "new feature" made available.) >> And I'm paying for it. Our new super-spiffy AT&T digital PBX has amazing >> features -- when it works. Half the time my phone won't ring when >> callers try to reach me, and I have to get the guy who is attempting to >> administrate this system to re-initialize my line, since its parameters >> are getting hosed somehow. >Find some competent people to operate and maintain your equipment. This is easier said than done. Duke University's phone system is almost totally independent of the Durham phone system. It even has its own tarriff hearings before the state PUC. It has 3 CO codes (684,681,680) and leases ists own set of AT&T LD access trunks. Early this year, the University cut over to a 5ESS all digital switch. This has brought the usual set of settling in bugs. The AT&T PBX that Bennett complains about is the PBX for the Department of Radiology in the Medical Center and is actually on the floor next to the 5ESS (I think, it may be in the hospital, Bennett?) Being an independent entity, yet committed to AT&T equipment, Duke has to compete in the market for technical people, but can only bid (substantially) lower academic salaries. Occasionally, Duke can manage to get some good people and hold onto them, but most of the phone crafts are .... >> If they could have maintained as reliable and straightforward a level of >> service, while adding new features and improving maintainability, then >> I'd be delighted. > >Of course, the reverse is true. With the self-diagnostics and lack of >mechanical unreliability, newer switching equipment is an *order of >magnitude* MORE reliable and capable of providing basic telephone >service. > Duke and Durham have phone systems in transition, ISDN is going to be here (sometime) and that will be a "Good Thing" for some, but others are just too confused to deal with it. "bet" is really just frustrated by technology that doesn't work right.