Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: dritchey@ihlpb.att.com (Donald L Ritchey) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: New $108 Million Phone System For Illinois Message-ID: Date: 13 Oct 89 14:37:36 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 32 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 448, message 4 of 10 telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator): In article (Message-ID: ), you wrote > We taxpayers in Illinois bought a new $108 million phone system for > the State of Illinois last week, which according to Sprint is supposed > to save $50 million over the next seven years. > With the new system came a new prefix for State of Illinois offices in > Chicago and a few other 'minor glitches' as the first phase of the > system switched into operation. When I first heard about this contract several months ago on a local PBS radio station, I heard the director of telecommunications for the State of Illinois defending the contract with the rather absurd statement that they had chosen to go with US Sprint for the carrier because "... Sprint used fiber optics that traveled at the speed of light, but the alternative carriers used microwave transmission that only traveled at the speed of sound..." Or words to that effect. Sounds like someone got sold a real bill of goods (or Illinois politics in business as usual). Don Ritchey dritchey@cbnewsc.att.com (or in real life) dritchey@ihlpb.att.com AT&T Bell Labs IH 1D-409 Naperville, IL 60566 (312) 979-6179