John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com> (04/21/91)
Here is the party line presented to Contel customers as quoted from my
bill insert (heaven help us):
"Shareholders of Contel Corporation and GTE Corporation have approved
the merger of the two companies, following an offer to merge made by
GTE in July, 1990. The merger will be the largest in the history of
the telecommunications industry. The merger is going through various
regulatory approvals and is expected to close as late as the second
quarter of 1991.
"As a result of the merger, Contel will become a wholly-owned
subsidiary of GTE Corporation, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.
The deal calls for Contel shareholders to receive 1.27 shares of GTE
common stock for each share of Contel common stock.
"Contel serves over 3.2 million customers in 30 states, and provides
cellular service in 36 metropolitan cellular systems in the US.
"GTE provides local phone service to more than 14 million customers in
31 states. [I had no idea so many people were being screwed by GTE!] It
also provides cellular phone service in 34 metropolitan areas.
"The combined company's local exchange operations would be the
nation's largest, with a total of 17.7 million telephone lines, and
its cellular telephone business would be the nation's second-largest
with a service territory containing 50 million potential customers.
"In the interim, there will be no change in the way you do business
with Contel. We will keep you informed of developments."
How depressing! Actually there will be no need to notify Contel
customers when the takeover is complete. While GTE most probably will
not replace all of the digital equipment with SXS, some way will be
found to muck up the service. When calling the business office, the
customer will be greeted by a snippy GTE droid whose job it will be to
terminate the call as quickly as possible. Repair service will no
longer guarantee repair within twenty-four hours (or your monthly
service is free for the month), and will start tearing up repair
tickets and call them "resolved".
It is the end of an era for many happy Contel customers.
John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !