Quote:
Originally posted by jaguar
A company here, one .tel recently went bust - one of the biggest colapses here ever due to a total lack of aworking billing nad customer servicesystem. It was genereating more than 3 times as many complaints as any other company when it went bust, taking nearly 1billion of inventment from packer and murdoch alone. Sounds to me like ATT might just do the same if they don't watch out, even in america they can only screw consumers *so* much.
|
Deregulation proved that anyone could setup a phone company. But billing and customer service was really the most difficult part of the business.
However when costs per call are less than 1 cent per minute and yet charge well over 10 cents per minute - then how can you lose with that kind of markup. AT&T Long Distance is losing $millions anyway.
OK so AT&T decided to switch to new technology (a decision they could make when the anti-American Robert Allen stepped down). Neat idea that is consistent with concepts I advocated 1) replacing circuit switch technology with packet switched, 2) transitioning from the obsolete technology circuit switched computers to packet switching using xDSL and POTS on the same wires, and 3) the elimination of the ISP as a internet gateway provider. This was posted what - in Cellar mark II (about 1996?) - probably when most had never yet heard of xDSL or ATM.
AT&T could do this major technology upgrade using cable. But AT&T (I just discovered) still fears technology. Their cable based phones will not use packet switching technology. Their cable based phone system will use obsolete technology circuit switching!
No. AT&T will not go bankrupt. We don't let failing (downsizing) companies go bankrupt. We let them be purchased.
That is why US West was taken over by Qwest. Qwest is going full out on providing xDSL everywhere. Why did he computer industry and internet providers take such a beating? The multimedia revolution on the drawing boards since the early 1990s - that forced Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, and Compaq to all but sue the baby bells for xDSL and the 1996 Federal Communicatons Act. The plans that cause Intel to create DIB computer architecture (PCI, AGP, N/S gates, Rambus, etc) and caused so many million miles of fiber optic to be installed - that revolution did not happen because too many 'last mile' companies in the telco industry still have the AT&T disease - a fear of innovation.
Toad is only experiencing a tip of the iceberg. AT&T even was billing me for long distance access when I was also billed for and serviced by MCI - and it took them months to correct the billings. AT&T is a classic example of what happens to America run by business school graduates. Robert Allen's was from Harvard Business.
Why the Internet meltdown? Look directly at the telco and cable industry - the people who provide the 'last mile'. They are the bottleneck.
AT&T is a classic example of a company that survives at the expense of America (GM, USX, and Bethlehem Steel are others). But to a less extent, most of the 'last mile' telecom industry has the same 'we fear innovation' attitude. In this region, we have seen less of it since Verizon (as Bell Atlantic) was the most innovative of the baby Bells.