Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!pacbell.com!ucsd!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: AT&T's (appropriate) New Market Message-ID: Date: 17 Feb 91 21:36:00 GMT Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 44 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 127, Message 2 of 10 AT&T NEWS BRIEFS SOVIET SPIRIT -- AT&T said it signed its first telephone-equipment distribution contract for the Soviet Union ... AT&T said it agreed to allow the Moscow Local Telephone Network, a government agency known as MGTS, to sell AT&T's Spirit Communications System product to business customers and AT&T-approved equipment dealers - likely other Soviet government organizations. Well, isn't that special? At last AT&T has found a promising market for its virtually featureless small telephone systems. What better place to sell them than somewhere that the competition is either non-existent or dreadful? Someday AT&T may wake up and come to the party, but for now its equipment offerings leave a lot to be desired. Even the mighty Systems 25, 75, and 85 have major inflexibilities that render them useless for many potential applications. (No station CPC, inflexible station numbering, inflexible hardware configurations, to name a few.) The highly touted 5000 series cordless phones have those damned little short DTMF bursts that make voice mail retrival next to impossible. The Spirit is too weenie to even use in my residence, while the Merlin is way too expensive (and still does not have some of the capabilities that I require). The PARTNER is unknown, but given the information posted so far and AT&T's past performance in this arena, initial indications are that it is similarly lacking in features that people really need and use. Someone suggested to me recently that AT&T would do well to BUY a Panasonic KX-T123212, set it up, see how it works, and then correct its deficiencies and enhance its features. What a killer system that would be! But as it is, I get e-mail from AT&T employees singing the praises of the company's brain-dead offerings from a position of obviously never even seeing the competitions' wares. I have said this before and will say it again, when AT&T finally gets its head out of the sand in the equipment market, it wiil become a force to be reckoned with. The competition had better watch out; someday it may happen. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !