eli@pws.bull.com (Steve Elias) (09/29/90)
[Sprint cat is responding to ATT cat's allegation that Sprint and GTE do the same kind of deals as ATT & Western Electric.] First of all, we were not owned by GTE (US SPRINT that is) we were owned by two companies, GTE and Unitel. In case you don't read the papers, Unitel bought out most of GTE back in August,1988. They also have an option to buy the rest whenever they want (currently, Unitel has 80.1%). This buyout occurred pretty much before tariff 12 was conceived. Second, how many people to you know that have GTE PBX's?? They're the biggest piece of junk PBX's! Last time I checked, ATT had 26-28% of the market, the closest competitors were Northern (who we do try to team up with against tariff 12 bids, and NEC, but neither are quite as dominant as ATT in the equipment market. GTE doesn't really even get an honorable mention. Even so, the fact that they are all DIFFERENT COMPANIES counts for a hell of a lot. It's much harder to have a one vendor solution when you have more than one company involved. That's the point most of the time behind tariff 12. Third, if it isn't already clear, by the time tariff 12 starting to become a threat, GTE was completely divorced from day to day operations of US Sprint. It is incredibly difficult to arrange a bulk services agreement for one customer that involves two companies, the services of which one, will be used to subsidize the price of another. In other words, Northern is not going to go into a deal unless they can make a reasonable return on investment. GTE equipment isnt even in the running so it's not even considered. (forwarded by) eli