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From: jwb@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (Jim Breen)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Best and Worst (was: Labor Day, 1990)
Message-ID: <11941@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 10 Sep 90 01:52:00 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 633, Message 10 of 12


In article <11895@accuvax.nwu.edu>, john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon)
writes:

> Jim Breen <jwb@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> writes:
> > In the best/worst voting, my opinions (based on experience) are:
> > BEST:   Japan
> > WORST:  India

> Bzzzzt! Wrong -- but thanks for playing anyway. Without getting into
> the "US is best" fray, I can categorically state that Japan does NOT
> have the worlds best telephone service, unless there are criteria that
> I am missing.
> * No itemized billing (not even for "Dial-Q", Japan's 900 equivalent)

           True, but then I was used to this.

> * About one out of ten calls bomb (don't go through).

           Not on my observation.

> * Long distance within Japan "sounds" like long distance.

           In my experience much less so than in the US.

> * Digital services are just being introduced.
      
           Whereas the US is *completely* digital?

> * Outside plant is pathetic and inadequate.

           Not in my experience.
             
> * Even though the system is "privatized", it is run like a government
>   bureaucracy.
       
           Whereas AT&T was a paragon of lean and mean private
           enterprise. Anyway, an irrelevant point.

> * You get to hear the "meter pulses" on many calls.
       
           I haven't noticed.

> Sources: close associates who live and work in Japan.

           So have I.
           
     
      Jim Breen ($B%8%`(J) (jwb@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au) Dept of 
            Robotics & Digital Technology. Monash University
              PO Box 197 Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia
                (ph) +61 3 573 2552 (fax) +61 3 573 2745