"Michael P. Andrews" <mikea@ddsw1.mcs.com> (04/15/91)
Just last week I had Illinois Bell add one business phone line to my house. We had three residential lines in service. The previous occupant of my house ran a travel agency in the basement and had added lines one at a time until the house was wired with six individual one-pair aerial drops. The back wall of the house had a two plastic housings holding a total of three protectors in a loosely attached and messy arrangement. The IBT installer that came to add my extra line told me that they were instructed to replace the aerial drop with a single six pair line whenever the home had more than three lines. He ASKED MY PERMISSION to replace the service with a better one. He then installed a neat new single six pair cable and a new lockable Seicor interface/protector with a capacity of twelve lines. Mind you, I would have been happy if the installer had just powered up one of the unused pairs. I'm very happy with the new installation and especially with the IBT installer who worked for three + hours in a cold drizzle to do a better job. [Moderator's Note: I think most telco employees are dedicated people who will do a good, professional job given a chance. There are the rotten eggs in that profession like all others; fortunatly most know the importance of reliable telecommunications and it reflects in their work. It sounds like you got a good person assigned to the job. PAT]