Welcome back, Ma Bell

Mon Mar 6 16:38:44 UTC 2006

Thus spake "Justin M. Streiner" <streiner at cluebyfour.org>
> On Mon, 6 Mar 2006, Christian Kuhtz wrote:
>> That being said, the 'new ATT' with all those assets will need to be 
>> integrated, and work efficiently.  Turf battles will ensue.  Tens of
>
> Integration, going on past experience, is highly unlikely.  ... It's the
> same phenomenon of having 37 different numbers to call to get
> anything done at $RBOC, none of which are connected to each other. If 
> their phone tree is that disorganized, I have little reason to suspect
> the underlying support systems are any different, nor will they be
> under the SB^H^H^HNew AT&T.

I was helping $RBOC roll out a new service, and their project schedule had 
six months allocated to determining which billing system (out of a dozen or 
so) would be used and and another six months to determine what the pricing 
model would be.  It's now a year later, and last I heard they still haven't 
figured out either one.  But the technology works great...

Integration?  How are they going to do that when the first thing management 
does is lay off all the people who understand how all the systems work? 
It's all the peons can do to keep the mess running; there's nobody left to 
integrate anything and get the "synergistic cost savings" that management 
touts when they propose mergers.

S

Stephen Sprunk        "Stupid people surround themselves with smart
CCIE #3723           people.  Smart people surround themselves with
K5SSS         smart people who disagree with them."  --Aaron Sorkin 