From: gutierre@noc2.arc.nasa.gov (Robert Michael Gutierrez)
Subject: Re: Why is cable so bad?
Organization: NASA Science Internet Network Operations
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 04:19:42 GMT

jebright@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (James R Ebright) writes:

|> Some amps have transponders that will tell the head-in they have power and
|> are working.  With these, the cable company knows almost immediately when
|> there is an outage and where it is.

This is very rarely true.  Responders are expensive, and cable TV co's are
always trying to cut every sort of cost imaginable all the time.

|> Those companies which do not have transponders rely on the following method
|> to determine when and where they have trouble:
|> 1) Put a map of your network up on the wall.
|> 2) Mark the location of the amps.
|> 3) Wait for the subscribers to call in trouble reports.
|> 4) Mark the subscriber location on the map.
|> 5) See where the subscriber calls start in relation to the network amps.
|> 6) Dispatch to first non-working amp.
|> 
|> High tech, eh?

Yeah, you can say that ...

I worked for Customer Service at a cable co about 5 years ago.  It was
a medium sized system, which was built around the "mini-hub" theory, which
the system had 5 mini-hubs, all fed by CARS-band microwave paths.  This type
of system is now popular for MSO's that feed multiple _systems_ off of
one headend, instead of smaller mini-hubs which what CARS was originally
envisioned for.

We were a seperate division of Cust Service called "Repair" where we
only dealt with service calls.

There was only 2-3 people working Customer Service-Repair at any given time, 
and if there was an outage, we usually knew about it in a matter of seconds
(ie: if all of a sudden there were 25 calls in queue, the number of inbound
trunks avail for the Repair number) or a few minutes (as we were encouraged
to easedrop on other reps on other calls, as we knew the area pretty well).
Those were unscheduled outages.

Scheduled outages were the variety where the utility company was digging
or cutting power somewhere, as we were _supposed_ to get notifications
from USA ( = Underground Service Alert) and we all had copies of the days
alerts pasted up on our desks.  The utilities sometimes, though, did not
notify USA, and so there was always those surprises ...

BUT, the whole point of this posting is that when we did get a call from
a customer whose cable was out, we made sure it was out by having the
customer bypassing the cable box and making sure the cable _was_ out.
We then scheduled a service call _within_24_hours_ on what we called a
"SNP" (snow-no picture).  Yep, real service ... ?

During the weekends (I worked them also), I was by myself, and I played
both dispatcher and repair customer service.  This again was convienent
as I could get immediate status from the field with the customer on the
phone (we had weekend techs in the feild).  Believe me, I TRIED!!!

Yeah, I was underpaid in the area of 5 digits, and when MCI offered me
a position in customer service there for what then seemd like an astronomical
sum ...

Oh well...time to find that sate receiver for my next place to live.


    rob.

Newsgroups: rec.video.cable-tv