A few years ago I was having repeated and extended power failures every December at a residence in the heart of the mid-Peninsula -- on the Stanford University campus in fact. Every winter, the first time it rained, our sub-neighborhood would lose electrical power for up to four days. Complaints to PG&E went nowhere. Requests for PG&E's published standards on service reliability got nothing but runarounds.
Since I knew some Bell System and Bell Labs old-timers, I asked them about reliability and service standards in the Bell System:
Q: Were there published standards for service reliability?
A: You bet! For example, "No residential customer should be without dial tone due to any reason within the control of the Bell System for more than 17 minutes per year". (That's my best memory of the quote.) Similarly: Any calls to Repair Service or Information to be answered within three (?) rings.
Q: Were these quantities really measured, and did the results have any impact on performance evaluations of telco executives?
A: You bet! Performance against the standards was regularly monitored, and promotion of executives in local telcos depended heavily on whether these published performance goals were met.
That's my memory at this point, anyway. Sounds like these green books in action. Can anyone document the "no more than 17 minutes/year without dial tone" item?
I'll look forward to any replies in this thread