Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: jimmy@denwa.info.com (Jim Gottlieb) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Best and Worst (was: Labor Day, 1990) Message-ID: <12064@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 12 Sep 90 14:49:52 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Jim Gottlieb Organization: Info Connections, West Los Angeles Lines: 77 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 639, Message 3 of 10 In article <11941@accuvax.nwu.edu> jwb@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (Jim Breen) writes: [>> comments are those of John Higdon] >> > In the best/worst voting, my opinions (based on experience) are: >> > BEST: Japan >> Bzzzzt! Wrong -- but thanks for playing anyway. >> * About one out of ten calls bomb (don't go through). >Not on my observation. I would say it may even be higher. These bombed calls take two forms. Either the call just sits there and does nothing, or you get a "The number you have dialed is not in service" recording. I verify that this is not user error by using my last-number-redial to try again. The second time is usually the charm. Interestingly, I can't ever recall reaching a wrong number. >> * Long distance within Japan "sounds" like long distance. >In my experience much less so than in the US. Only if you use bogus carriers here in the U.S. While Sprint's network is 100% digital and AT&T's is 99% digital, NTT's is far less. I read recently in the {Japan Times} that NTT has announced that they plan to have their long-distance network all digital by the year 2000; 10 years ahead of their original schedule. And consider the fact that the foreign exchange lines we have in our office don't even use digital carrier for the CO-to-CO portion. They are run on metallic pairs all the way from the originating C.O. to our office. The quality is so bad they are barely usable. >> * Outside plant is pathetic and inadequate. >Not in my experience. Definitely pathetic! The cable they use is so thin that we have serious crosstalk problems. And cable is so inadequate that in most places in Tokyo, if you want more than a few lines, you may have to wait up to a year for service. This problem is exacerbated by the current labor shortage. NTT claims they just don't have the manpower to run all the new cable they need to. And hiring foreign workers is not socially acceptable (see soc.culture.japan). >> * 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. The point is that NTT feels like the old Bell System, where no one goes out of their way to make things better for the customer. >> * You get to hear the "meter pulses" on many calls. >I haven't noticed. I'm not sure when it happens. I almost never hear them on calls within Tokyo, but listen to some of the people on our party lines or some of the messages left on our voice personals services and every five to eighteen seconds, you hear "ka-chink, ka-chunk". >> Sources: close associates who live and work in Japan. >So have I. My source: Myself. I live there. >Jim Breen ($B%8%`(J) ^^^^^^^^ Ahh, but he has Japanese in his .signature. That increases his qualifications a bit.