Long Distance On Same Physical Switch [Telecom]

With all the problems I have had with my voice line and DSL over the condition of the outside plant I can understand that. AT&T said that the repairs as of last week on my complaints is over $60,000 and still climbing, they have not replaced the 1000 feet of cable from the box to my block.

On Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:02:10 -0800, Steven wrote: .........

Was there ever pro-active maintenance of external cable plant in the past?

It seems the modern way now is to just let it deteriorate to almost unusable and then finally do a replacement - probably because accountants worked out these this is more "cost effective" (in other words, profitable) despite all the hassles any of the customers using it suffer during the whole process.

I think I have just figured out that I now qualify for a "Grumpy Old Men" episode......

-- Regards, David.

David Clayton Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a measure of how many questions you have.

Same is true here in the U.S. I know for a fact that Verizon has lost a little over half it's customer base in my state.

I guess Erlangs are still around for growing end offices. I don't imagine there are very many growing end offices, though.

The cable was installed in the 50's and 60's. Some of the cable has had little or no work done on it in years. The real trouble started when they reworked cable pairs for U-verse. A manager told me that they have not done any cable pair recovery in years and have no plans to do so.

Does anyone these days speak in Erlangs, let alone know what they are?

-- Julian Thomas: snipped-for-privacy@jt-mj.net

In the beautiful Genesee Valley of Western New York State! -- -- If you have received this email in error, please add nutmeg and two egg whites, whisk and place in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.

Indeed they do. Google it.

Here is one example:

I'll admit to difficulties converting 'erlangs per ortnight' to SI units.

But that has more to do with finding a workable definition for an "ortnight".

*grin*

For the benefit of those readers who (unlike the moderator) have a life: Robert is making a play on words derived from the unit "Fulongs per Fortnight", which is part of the Furlong/Firkin/Fortnight system of measurements.

See

for more information.

Bill "Back in just 100,000,000 shakes" Horne

(Filter QRM for direct replies)

"Half its customer base"? That sounds rather extreme.

Keep in mind that if a subscriber keeps his landline and merely switches to another carrier, Verizon is still supplying the local loop to the C.O. and getting paid for that, although [it's] likely not as profitable as other services it could provide.

Also, Verizon is a leading cell phone provider.

I would guess that in terms of telephone lines Vz is still growing.

If as many people as [has been] said [have] truly abandoned traditional land lines for other modes (eg cellphones or cable TV [dialtone]) then there are probably plenty of unused pairs in a cable that could be used as alternates.

As a single person and knowing many single people, an average of five minutes per day _combined_ telephone time seems rather low, even with communicating via email and the Internet. There are a variety of appointments to be made--not only the dentist, but various doctors, car service, service people, prescription renewals, pizza orders, movie or theatre. There are questions for businesses that can not be handled via email or the Internet. There is keeping up with friends and family.

Note this is an average. This all represents conversations that can't be done online. Undoubtedly on some days a single person wouldn't use the telephone at all, but on other days could easily be on the phone for hours. For example, calling a bank to discuss a loan or CD purchase, being put on hold, talking to different people can be ten minutes or more. Some businesses sadly require merely holding for ten minutes until someone answers. Talking to a friend or family member you haven't talked to in a while or needs help with a problem can be a

20-30 minute call or more.

The "commercial" aspect of the telephone business has changed dramatically. In short they have far fewer lower-paid people serving far more customers because of those changes. Verizon, for example, moved its business office people out of high rent downtown locations to low-rent low-wage locations and has far fewer of them since so much is automated. Processing service orders is easier since it's all computerized and interlinked. They don't have girls on roller skates anymore pulling up and replacing accounts from enormous fileboxes. They have sold off many of their buildings, some in premium locations.

Years ago many subscribers had the lowest class of service offered and carefully checked every 15c charge on their bill. That meant a large staff to handle such complaints. Today far more subscribers have flat rate service, even nation wide flat rate, so there are no 15c calls at all to be concerned about. For the few subscribers with old plans, those 15c charges of the 1960s are still 15c--if they haven't been eliminated altogether. For example, in the Philadelphia area, Verizon today charges 7c a message unit, the same price as in the 1960s. Further, Verizon has eliminated that charge on many calls, and, gives discounts for late at night calls. Today 3c isn't worth someone's time to call in.

Many cellphone subscribers do not get an itemized bill at all, so that cost is saved.

Many subscribers no longer get a paper bill by mail, but see it on line via the Internet, which saves money.

Many subscribers have automatic bill pay where the phone bill is automatically deducted from one's checking account. That saves payment processing costs.

Since Divesture, when subscribers could own their own phones and house wiring, the business office has not been concerned about extension telephones and inside wire complaints--payment, ordering, dropping. A big reason they were willing to drop extension rentals was the cost of servicing extensions compared to the revenue it brought in.

When I was a kid they told us that automation would "free" us from working long hours. What they didn't tell us what that they weren't going to pay us for all this leisure time we'd get.

That's not bad at all. If you consider that's 30 years worth of deferred maintenance, that's only $2,000/year worth of maintenance for the whole section of plant.

The thing about maintenance costs is that you can pay them now or you can pay them later.

--scott

They still have not done a replacement, just a bunch of fixes. The PUC is getting weekly updates from both AT&T and me. My DSL took a dump again and I switched over to my Sprint MiFi and plan on having them adjust my bills for the past 6 months by 1000%.

I was up in the mountains north of Sacramento and it looks like they are about 3 months from U-verse there, that will be nice since all they have is dialup unless you want to spend $200.00 plus $60 a month.