Date: Mon, 7 Sep 92 12:48 PDT
From: john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Illinois Bell Now Allows Remote Call Forwarding Changes
Reply-To: John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com>
Organization: Green Hills and Cows
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 691, Message 1 of 13

On Sep 5 at 11:21, TELECOM Moderator writes:

> [Moderator's Note: IBT has always been considered a very progressive
> and advanced company. After all, ESS started here, in Morris, IL back
> in the 1960's ... and we had it routine use in various exchanges as
> early as 1974 downtown. We had lots of centrex in use in the 1960's.
> The company has always been involved in the community with numerous
> charitable donations and services.  PAT]

Just a little plug here for Pacific Bell. Before divestiture, Pacific
Telephone was the lowliest step child of AT&T. It was the last of the
Operating Companies to get any technological advancement. No crossbar
until the mid-fifties. No touch tone until the late-sixties. No ESS
until the early seventies. Virtually every other BOC was at least a
half-decade ahead of anything that Pacific Telephone was allowed to
do.

Since divestiture, it has been playing a very successful game of
"catch-up". It has virtually eliminated all mechanical switching
throughout its system. It is right up to speed (technically) with ISDN
and other specialized services. It is CLASS-capable, although the
technoweenie-controlled PUC is making sure that customers cannot
benefit. I would put post-divestiture Pacific Bell up against most of
the other operating companies in the country.

Pacific Bell is a major supporter of the arts and charities. You will
find its name as sponsor on many worthwhile charitable projects in
California. It has a most progressive employment policy. It regularly
provides its services for charitable events at no charge. And with all
of this manages to deliver local service about 20% cheaper than GTE,
who has no noticable community involvement whatsoever.

Yes, IBT is a very progressive company. It should be; it was the
favored son of the former Bell System. It had a tremendous head start.
Pacific Bell has gone from being one of the most backward telcos to
its current position in less than a decade. Not a bad endorsement for
divestiture, if you ask me.


        John Higdon         |   P. O. Box 7648   |   +1 408 264 4115
    john@zygot.ati.com      | San Jose, CA 95150 |       M o o !


[Moderator's Note: Has anyone ever noticed how many senior management
people at AT&T came there from Illinois Bell? A former chairman of
AT&T held the same position at IBT for several years. In another angle
to this thread, Lauren Weinstein posed some questions about possible
risks involved with remotely programmed call forwarding. I responded
and then another message which unfortunatly seems to have gotten lost
here commented on the ease with with people could anonymously use pay
phones to illegally change the call forwarding of someone else. I am
sorry I don't have the message for some reason; I have looked high and
low for it here. The answer is yes, there will always be some risks
involved with any telephone connection to computers.  PAT]