That's not exactly a revelation for Beverly Sinople. When her son Christopher was getting married recently, she had to plan the rehearsal dinner from a pay phone at McDonald's. Sinople had no choice. If you live and work in the Midwest, and you want the phone to ring, you've got to deal with Ameritech. The company serves almost all the residences and businesses in five Great Lakes states.
Customers are on hold because the system is stretched thin.
Since five Midwestern states began lifting controls on profits in the early 1990s, Ameritech cut its labor force by 15 percent and failed to invest in local networks. And after SBC Communications took over Ameritech last year, the San Antonio company cut Ameritech's force of technicians by 10 percent, even as demand for service soared. Ameritech has offered other explanations for poor service. But of the three other local phone companies in Ohio, just one invoked the weather excuse, for a single 24-hour period. Ameritech officials say the incidents were the result of sloppy data entries.