Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!iuvax!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: rsiatl!jgd@gatech.edu (John G. De Armond)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Centrex, Everyone?
Message-ID: <3595@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 6 Feb 90 17:36:12 GMT
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john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes:

>This fellow, however, revealed a little telephonic naivety with his
>pronouncement. The fact is Centrex is rarely a good idea for anyone.
>Unlike a PBX, Centrex does not offer "user friendly" feature phones;

I'm with John on this one.  A recent ex-employer of mine left a nice
SRX-based PBX and bit the Centrex hook.  What we got in return was:

a) Very ugly and large phones
b) No ability to reconfigure
c) Voice mail that answers after X seconds instead of X rings
d) No distinctive ring for outside calls (available for large extra fee)
e) Extension numbers no longer followed phone sets as in SRX system.
f) Disconnecting the phone even for a few minutes (as when one HAS to get
   some work done.) results in killing the line and dropping a trouble
   report.  We did this a lot :-)
g) GREATLY reduced reliability.  Every contractor who decided to target
   the trunk for the day took us out.
h) A new and large bureauracy to work through to get anything done.
i) No call-waiting beep (available for large extra fee.).  Callers 
   get dumped to voice mail.  (I HATE voice mail.)

To me, Centrex violates one of the most basic business principles -
never entrust a strategic resource to an outside concern.  You are
courting disaster if you do.  Small example - whereas with the SRX
system, a trunk outage would kill outside lines only, with Centrex,
even intra-company calls are killed.  This creates a general level of
chaos.

BTW, I spent some time talking to the Southern Bell installers while
they destroyed a perfectly good system, er, I mean, installed the
Centrex wiring.  They did NOT install any mux or control equipment.
They ran a fiber-optic cable from the CO to our building and simply
piled all the lines onto it.  Centrex may be OK for Pat's house but it
really sucks for businesses.


John De Armond, WD4OQC  | We can no more blame our loss of freedom on congress-
Radiation Systems, Inc. | men than we can prostitution on pimps.  Both simply
Atlanta, Ga             | provide broker services for their customers.
emory!rsiatl!jgd        |  - Dr. W Williams |                **I am the NRA**