Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!texsun!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Pac*Bell: The Old Bell System? Message-ID: Date: 16 Sep 89 20:02:41 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 54 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 380, message 2 of 5 Over the past months, a number of disturbing manuvers have been executed by Pacific Telesis. It would appear that in direct contradiction to the spirit of Judge Greene's order, our RBOC is trying to re-create the old Bell System. In the past year, Pacific Telesis has attempted or received approval from appropriate agencies to provide the following: Voice Mail Cable TV Service VideoTex AudioTex InterLATA Long Distance Service Telephone Equipment Vending In short, it looks like a major attempt to become a one-stop telecommunications shop once again. Some items to consider: Pac*Bell has finally obtained its long-sought ability to arbitrarily disconnect 976 providers. In a recent federal court decision, Pac*Bell was told that it could disconnect any provider that had "obscene" material. The determination of "obscene" is, of course, left in the hands of none other than Pac*Bell. It doesn't take much imagination to see what a tremendous advantage that would give Pac*Bell in the AudioTex field. It would be "obscene" if some competitor was taking away busines from PB, ergo turn him off! We're already seeing what control of the network can do for a promotional effort. When I was in the equipment vending business, it was quite common for PB to contact one of my customers and darkly imply that if they got their equipment from "the phone company", that their service would improve substantially. A friend of mine, who is currently in the equipment business, has documented proof that PB is perpetually causing trouble on a customer's trunk. He reports trouble, they clear it, and the next day it's bad again. When, on behalf of his customer, he asked someone at PB what all the trouble was, he was told that "there seemed to be cronic trouble with the CPE". That was followed with a well-timed call by a Pac*Bell rep who raved about the virtues of Centrex to the customer's telephone administrator. Of course there had been no trouble with the CPE; if there had there would have been major charges levied by Pac*Bell. This Thursday, there will be a discussion by industry players on the matter of Pac*Bell's entry into the VideoTex field at the State building in San Francisco. Yours truly will certainly be there watching the PUC, Pac*Bell, and videotex providers battle it out. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !