Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!killer!vector!telecom-gateway From: decvax!decwrl!apple!zygot!john@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: push to Centrex Message-ID: Date: 4 Apr 89 07:49:13 GMT Sender: news@vector.UUCP Organization: ATI Wares Team Lines: 26 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 124, message 1 of 7 In California, Pacific Bell is doing a saturation campaign to sell Centrex services to business. They push the reliablility of the service ("the equipment is in our office, and we monitor it 24 hours a day") and the fact that it can grow with your company. I think I have found a major flaw with centrex (other than the obvious ones). In my home there are nine lines in Commstar II, Pac*Bell's "small" centrex service for business and residence. The easiest way to retrieve calls from my Watson is by calling it. Normally, I pick up any phone, dial "#20" (the intercom code for the Watson) and get my messages. This morning in the Bay Area there was a small earthquake. I thought no more about it until it was time to check my Watson. Picked up the phone and, you guessed it, no dial tone. The CO was overloaded from all the dummies calling Aunt Millie to see if she felt the 'quake. So now here's the scenerio: There is an earthquake. Things fall off shelves, shelves fall over, people are screaming. And XYZ Corporation has now lost all of its internal communications because they made the "right" choice and bought Centrex. At least if you own your own switch, while you may not be able to make outgoing calls (CO trunks dead), you can call up to the third floor to make sure everyone is OK. -- John Higdon john@zygot ..sun!{apple|cohesive|pacbell}!zygot!john