peterm@sumax.seattleu.edu> (05/14/91)
The March edition of CWA's "Information Industry Report" contains a
"Special Report" on Northern Telecom that should be of interest for
various reasons, including NT's signficant role in the telecom privacy
area and the perspective of the source of the report.
According to the CWA report, "...in 1990 ... evidence was uncovered
which disclosed that for a period of 13 years, the company had
illegally wiretapped the telephone calls of its employees and
monitored their private conversations through microphones hidden in
the...sprinkler system. Management is believed to have used this
secret surveillance to create a hit list of union supporters...."
CWA further indicates that "Based on this evidence CWA and other
individuals filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Northern
Telecom under federal and state statutes." The union says that the
suit "is now being actively pursued before a federal judge in
Nashville...."
This look at NT takes a broad historical view of the company. For
example, the report suggests that "More than any other manufacturer,
Northern Telecom was positioned to take advantage of deregulation of
the U.S. telephone system and the divestiture of AT&T. In 1972
Northern Telecom's revenues barely reached the $500 million mark. It
still relied on Canadian customers, primarily its parent company Bell
Canada, for 80% of its sales and the United States accounted for only
$35 million in revenues, or less than 7%.... Two elements changed all
that. An early jump from analog to digital technology and the breakup
of the Bell system propelled Northern...to be the second largest
telecommunications manufacturer in the United States and the fourth
largest in the world...."
The report indicates that NT's "position in Canada is secured by its
special relationship to Bell Canada, which formally owned it outright
and now still holds a majority ownership of 53.1% of its stock."
According to the report, NT "gets the lion's share of Bell Canada's
purchases and is estimated to control more than two-thirds of the
Canadian market for telecommunications equipment."
Re: the BOCs, CWA states that NT's "penetration of the U.S. market,
and particularly of the ... BOCs, has been the critical trigger to its
growth. In less than a decade it leveraged the breakup of the Bell
System to achieve virtual parity with AT&T in central ofice switches
and to build alliances with the BOCs to distribute PBX equipment."
[CONTINUED]
The 23:00 News and Mail Service - +1 206 292 9048 - Seattle, WA USA
PEP, V.32, V.42
[Moderator's Note: Mr. Marshall sent this in two parts. We will have
Part II in a future issue of the Digest, probably later today. PAT]