Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: In Defense of GTE and their Apparatus Message-ID: Date: 12 Sep 89 18:08:34 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 52 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 369, message 3 of 6 I was fascinated by Mr. Lippman's interesting history and spirited defense of GTE. Unfortunately it doesn't explain away reality. I remember growing up in Oakland. Our telephone was connected to one of those "unreliable" panel offices, which seemed to work pretty much 100% of the time. We moved to southern California and in GTE land we were shocked. We learned what it's like to not have calls routinely completed. We even complained to repair and were told, "Oh, that's normal. You know, we're so heavily overloaded." Interesting that neighboring areas served by Pacific Telephone didn't have those problems. Ask anyone who has had any *real experience* and they will tell you the truth about AE directorized SXS. I sat in Los Gatos for several hours one day and determined that AE step has about an 80% call completion average. Not really impressive. When I called to complain I was told that the problem was with the "old" equipment that would soon be replaced. When they installed their highly-touted 1EAX we were all told, as Mr. Lippman pointed out, that this equipment was more advanced than the ESS being used by Bell in the surrounding areas. Why then did it routinely crash, not offer most features available in Pac*Bell, and find itself already on the replacement list if it was so wonderful? If AE equipment is so damn good, then GTE must be completely inept. The truth of the matter is the service is substandard by any measure. All service and feature offerings are 5 to 10 years behind Bell, and their prices are even higher (they have special tarrifs). Pac*Bell has had to delay implementation of their 900 services in the Los Angeles area for at least a year while GTE tries to figure out how to set up their equipment to put the calls through. In the Bay Area and in San Diego, where there are insignificant amounts of GTE, the 900 service is already implemented. In area code 714, GTE was responsible for the implementation of 976. It's the only area code in the state that has no 976 to this date. Believe me, if there was even the slightest indication that GTE was pulling its act together, I would be the first to cheer. But you have much smaller companies like Contel who provide service that runs rings around GTE. All of my associates have indicated that they would gladly live in a Contel area before one "served" by GTE. And these opinions come as a result of actual experience, not just word-of-mouth reputation. Glossary term for the day: subscriber carrier; GTE's answer to undercapitalization John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !