john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (11/21/89)
AT&T's successful "anti-dumping" suit has finally struck. This
weekend, I installed my KX-T1232 as a residential PBX. One key item,
the "doorphone", had yet to be obtained. Today, I discovered that
there are no doorphones left in the known world. As soon as the
ridiculous tariffs on Japanese telephone equipment were announced,
shipments of Panasonic PBX components were halted.
There will be no further shipments until next year, when the new plant
(not located in Japan) begins operation. Now isn't that silly? AT&T, a
multi-national corporation takes on Matsushita Electric, another
multi-national corporation, because they claim that Matsushita's
off-shore-made product unfairly competes with AT&T's off-shore-made
product. AT&T claims dumping. However, the Panasonic PBXs are not sold
in Japan, so how can AT&T claim that the pricing is below cost? What
can they base that on?
So here I, a frustrated user, sit until Matsushita can move things
around to circumvent the silly new governmental restrictions. AT&T's
historical contributions to telephony may be vast, but lately it seems
that AT&T is more interested in protecting its investors at the
general industry's expense.
The long and the short of it is: If you want to get a Panasonic
308|616|1232, you had better grab fast, or you may be stuck with a
Merlin. Trust me; you don't want that! And besides, you probably can't
afford it.
John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !tad@ssc.UUCP (Tad Cook) (11/24/89)
Here is a possible solution if you cannot get a door phone for your Panasonic system, and you have an extra CO line port on the key system. Get a Proctor 46220 ringdown circuit, and put it between the unused CO port and a dial-less wall phone by the door. When someone lifts the phone, it will ring into the phone system. Proctor is at 206-881-7000, or 800-824-9719. Tad Cook tad@ssc.UUCP
jimmy@icjapan.uucp (Jim Gottlieb) (11/30/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0526m01@vector.dallas.tx.us> john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes: >AT&T claims dumping. However, the Panasonic PBXs are not sold >in Japan, so how can AT&T claim that the pricing is below cost? What >can they base that on? I believe that AT&T complained of the products being sold at "below fair market value", obviously defined as AT&T's inflated price for inferior gear. By the way, none of Panasonic's equipment with model numbers beginning "KX-" are available in Japan. These are produced by a division of Matsushita called "Kyuushuu Matsushita" and they are not allowed to sell in the domestic market. This is really a shame, as I feel that some of Panasonic's best products come from the KX people. At the recent Tokyo Data Show, I noticed that the laser printer they were using was a Canon. Also on the subject of Kyuushuu Matsushita (pronounced maht-SOOSH-ta), a few months back I had the pleasure of spending a Saturday morning with Mr. Hashimoto, the patent holder (at least in Japan) for the answering machine. I saw all the latest KX- answering machines sitting in his workshop. He said that they ask him to check all of their answering machine products (as do other comapnies). (It seems to be common practice in Japan to hire respected elders as consultants like this, though in reality I see no real use in having Mr. Hashimoto check answering machines.) Anyway, when I mentioned that I thought Kyuushuu Matsushita makes the best answering machines, he said that they account for his biggest royalty payments, at about 500,000 units per month. For all his claimed expertise in the field though, he seemed to be relatively lacking in knowledge of modern systems such as voice mail. He also claimed to have the patent for a display that shows both the number called and the CLID at the same time. So be careful: If you make them both show up on your computer screen at the same time, you could owe a royalty :-). >So here I, a frustrated user, sit until Matsushita can move things >around to circumvent the silly new governmental restrictions. And they will. They are supposedly setting up a plant in the U.K. to produce these things. I must admit my bias here: I am a devout fan of Matsushita's products. They always seem to turn out at the top of Consumer Report's repair-infrequency tables, and they always seem to have just what the consumer wants, at a price that's right. When a choice of product comes down to seemingly equal products from several manufacturers, I always opt for Matsushita, though this means knowing, for example, that VCRs labled "Magnavox" or "GE" are made by them, just like their own brand names of National (not used much in the U.S.), Panasonic, Technics, and Ramsa. Jim Gottlieb Info Connections, Tokyo, Japan _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ <jimmy@pic.ucla.edu> or <jimmy@denwa.uucp> or <attmail!denwa!jimmy> Fax: (011)+81-3-448-0878 Voice Mail: (011)+81-3-944-6221 ID#82-42-424