Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Distinctive Ringing Message-ID: <15641@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 23 Dec 90 02:27:24 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 38 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 901, Message 8 of 12 Charles Buckley writes: > PacBell should clean up its act, and be responsive to customer > requests, period. Sandbagging with saccharine politeness and > browbeating the customer by defining his requests as illogical are no > substitute, especially when others are willing to (but barred by law > from) fulfilling them. These blocking strategies seem particularly > misplaced when they exist only to protect intra-organizational > political traditions. Hear! Hear! I was beginning to feel a little out of step with reality. One of the reasons I have TEN lines is because distinctive ringing is not available (one of the comprehensive list of "not available" features) from my local phone company. With this in mind, we have Pacific Telesis running full-page ads decrying the regulations preventing it from pursuing other service and manufacturing markets. Its regulated arm, Pac*Bell, provides the barest, most minimal telephone service to be found in the world and yet summons up the effrontery to whine in the media that we the public are losing out because regulations prohibit the company from competing with enhanced information service providers and equipment manufacturers. I have lived within the service area of Pac*Bell (formerly Pacific Telephone which was even worse) all of my life. It has become a way of life to have new telephone services become commonplace in the rest of the country five to ten years before seeing the light of day in California. There were some who thought that this would change with divestiture. They were wrong. If there was another telephone company, I'd sign up in a minute. How about competing LECs? Wouldn't that be great? John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !