Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: David Lesher Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Phone Frustration Message-ID: <2427@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 26 Dec 89 14:59:00 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: David Lesher Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 132 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 596, message 3 of 5 Midst the moderator' regular tirades about nasty Judge Greene, I have never seem mention of ANY improvement from the 'good old days' of Maximum Control for Maximum Profit. Well, I'm not as old as the moderator, but I have worked in, and been both a subscriber and customer for both POTS and variety of special services in and around the communications business for many years. Also, I have lived in several metropolitan areas, (with different BOC's and PUC's) rather than just one. I have traveled and seen other PTTs in {mostly in-}action. Here are a few things I can comment on. They all relate NOT to the divestiture issue that Judge Greene addressed, but to DEREGULATION, which depending on your point of view, {caused, was caused by} it. 1) Local equipment: Used to be, you got a 500 set. If you wanted colors other than ebony ("We don't have black phones, that's racist" a rep told me once) it cost you extra. EVERY month. If you wanted more phones, more extra MONTHLY charges. A choice?--forget it. Memory dialer--we got card dialers (ugh) or Magicall (double ugh). PBX, you rent what we offer, period. Music-on-hold--She don't write music, you can't play someone else's on her equipment. ACD, what's that? Until the late 70's, all Bell 2500 sets came with Touch-Tone generators invented in the mid-50's. They used two special tapped, tuned, pot core inductors in an exotic circuit. Why? Because when first designed, transistors cost big money, and this circuit used one, not two. But why did they continue to build them like that for years, while other companies had hybrid and IC designs out that cost much less? If you DARED to hook up "FOREIGN EQUIPMENT" to their network, they came out and confiscated it WITHOUT A WARRANT. If you denied him (never her, unless it was an operator, then always) entrance, goodbye service. I even have copies of an old SWB employee newsletter defending this and instructing employees on how to deal with the sub (NEVER A CUSTOMER) while doing this. A friend of mine who worked for Ma designed and installed an automatic ringer_counter in several #5 X-bar offices just to detect this "ILLEGAL EQUIPMENT". Of course, I can't help but mention the answering machine. After all, it was Carterphone, (reported to be financed by answering machine companies -- Carterphone sure didn't have the cash to take on Ma in court) that broke the dike. Maybe the moderator rented (do I hear an echo?) a 1B answering machine. I never did, because I never had a big enough house. It was best described by the term "tank" as in Sherman. Of special interest to UseNet'ers would be the modem. Blazer--you have got to be kidding. You RENT (there's that word again) our 300 baud modem. If WE decide you are worthy of a faster one, we will invent it. Well, their next one was the 202, gawd help us all. Does anyone on-net think we would be here today if we still moved all the news via 202's and decvax? Look at the EUNET/EUUG situation for a comparison. 2) LD Service: In case it escaped your attention, there was a recent rate decrease. That is 'd' as in down. While we can pontificate ad-nauseam for hours about access charges, AOS, etc, when in the history of lock_stock_&_barrel Bell was there a decrease? Plus, I can call from any local phone and pay direct-dial, not "credit card" rates. In those good_old_days, such calls cost about 3x as much. If I get po'ed at my carrier, I can change, just the same way I can buy a Ford instead of a Olds. Such freedom of choice is important. Ask anyone who has bought a Lada, for example, if they would not have preferred a Nisson. The moderator has extolled the virtues of PC Pursuit several times. Would IT be around if we were still single-sourced? About the only thing that drove Ma to upgrade their LD network was when a blind student figured out She was stupid enough to set up the calls on the same path used to talk on. All of a sudden CCIS was the hottest thing since Hula-Hoops. If it wasn't for Hi-rise Joe, we likely would still listen to MF on every call we make. Along the same topic, I had a couple of friends that were foolish enough to get mixed up in such toll fraud. (Being in love seems to drive even the most sensible people to do crazy things. Being such and poor too, is even worse.) When caught, Ma wanted two things from them. First, how did you figure it out, and who have you told? Agree to tell no one else. Second, pay for the calls. If broke, pay a little per month, but tell us item one NOW. Only when they stalled on item one were they threatened with criminal charges. Ma's only interest was her fear others would discover her shortcomings. 3) Special Services I no longer have an active role in this end of the business, but do have friends that are involved. While it hasn't gotten a lot better, it has improved somewhat. Now at least the man at the board does not go into shock when you talk about 'your' equipment on his line. You can find someone who at least has some idea about what's going on. I clearly remember trying to get the rep. to explain the difference between 3003 and 3004 (I believe those were the numbers) grade leased lines. They had the same specs, went the same place, got the same loading treatment, etc. But one was twice as expensive as the other. He had NO idea, but would not admit it. In my most active days as a special service subscriber, I used to have to buy Christmas cases of brew for two local and one Long Lines testboards so they would break the rules and talk to me about the problems. The big change is not in the equipment area, but rather in outlook. The people, albeit slowly, are learning a customer is far more important that a subscriber ever was. My engineer friend surprised me. He was *happy* about it. He could go out and buy things from NEC that solved problems the KS equipment had been unable to handle. He no longer had all of New Jersey looking over his shoulder. He could go fiber now instead of 'real soon now' if he needed it. In short, competition has been good for our communications system. Sure there are new, different problems. But since Mussolini, the trains never run on time anymore, either. If the moderator really relishes those great old days of monopoly control, I STRONGLY urge him to go live in (or at the very least make an extended visit to) a European (or Latin American) country, or even better Cuba. Call the PTT. Get an answering machine, order call waiting and Star-whatever service. Obtain a Mitel PBX. Set up a UseNet site and call your feed every day for 7.2 meg of news. Then come back and tell us about it. What do other TELECOM reader think? Have you seen ANY improvements since D-Day? (By the way, who did say you installed those terminal boxes in your basement?) A host is a host & from coast to coast...wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu no one will talk to a host that's close..............(305) 255-RTFM Unless the host (that isn't close)......................pob 570-335 is busy, hung or dead....................................33257-0335