Boys Wreck Ignition Part 2, Beyond Recognition

I don't understand the need to send messages to the other side of the planet to arrange to fix problems that can only be worked on by someone within the one to five thousand feet between your system an what they call a “central office.”

Over the last few years nearly 30,000 jobs at SBC have been lost. Virtually all of the growth jobs in Internet data services, installation of Wi-Fi hotspots, voice over the Internet (VOIP), DSL broadband and other areas, SBC work, amounting to thousands of jobs, is being outsourced, including going offshore to countries such as India and the Philippines.

"SBC continues to refuse to give this work to our members, the frontline workers who have built SBC into the nation's most profitable telecom company," said CWA President Morton Bahr. SBC's profits in 2003 were more than $8 billion.

http://www.cwa-union.org/news/PressReleaseDisplay.asp?ID=427

Google the terms SBC offshoring DSL and “voice recognition,” and my experience is almost mild compared to say Amanda Brenner's , but , strangely parallels her's, right down to the promise to call back that disappeared from the world as we know it.…

…Or nopaper.net :: start/2004-07-31/1 ...SBC's automated apologies. Our DSL is out right now (11am, ... SBC has implemented a voice recognition menu system, so I was asked to speak my…

It's truly amazing how complicated getting service can be.

It's going to get harder with the FCC helping the Big Guys crush their competition.

The FCC voted 3-2 to suspend public utility commission regulations in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana that had forced BellSouth to sell DSL service to other telephone operators, separate from its local phone service. In the past, the two services had been inextricably linked.…

“"This FCC order continues progress on clearing out regulatory underbrush that handicaps rolling out broadband," Jonathan Banks, BellSouth vice president of federal executive and regulatory affairs, said in a statement. "By affirming a single national policy in this area, this FCC action will increase the speed and efficiency of bringing to consumers new and innovative broadband service offerings over wireline networks. This order is an important step in achieving the president's goal of increased broadband deployment."

A BellSouth spokesman couldn't immediately be reached Friday to discuss the fate of 8,000 or so BellSouth DSL customers in the four states. Aside from users of naked DSL services, an FCC decision would also affect "cord-cutters," a group of about 20 million U.S. residents who don't have local phone lines and go solo instead with their cell phones. As a result of the FCC ruling, cord-cutters may have to buy a local phone line to get DSL.

Providers of voice over Internet Protocol software--which lets an Internet connection serve as a telephone line--will also feel some pain, for the same reason as cord-cutters. VoIP calls are meant to replace phone lines sold by the Bells; and while they're possible with a dial-up connection, most VoIP operators require that users have a broadband connection to make full use of their offerings. As a result of the FCC ruling, some VoIPers must get DSL and a local phone line from a Bell, should a cable operator's more expensive broadband be unavailable in their area.…”

Meanwhile, my state representative's DSL line is down again, and I'm getting better at this Boy's Wreck Ignition thing.

http://techrepublic.com.com/2100-10587_11-5637790.html?tag=nl.e048