telecom@bu-cs.BU.EDU (TELECOM Moderator) (02/02/89)
Dear Mr. Sirbu, Your participation in our little Digest is deeply appreciated. Persons with your background in telecom are always valued resources in discussion groups such as comp.dcom.telecom/[Telecom Digest]. But I think you misunderstood me. I have NEVER spoken against competition in long distance services. Some of them are woefully inadequate for my needs; many of them promise 'savings over AT&T' which never actually materialize. But so be it. Nor have I ever objected to the *right* of AOS companies to operate, as worthless as they are, and as deceptive as they are in their operations. Yes of course the FCC approved alternative LD services in 1969. I remember well that MCI's first application to Illinois Bell was fraudulent on its face; claiming they wanted merely to have 'limited service between Chicago and St. Louis for a few selected customers'. But I digress: all are free to compete, but why did Judge Greene feel that AT&T had to be broken up in the process? A built in bias against AT&T was prevalent throughout the procedings. You rightly noted the end result was a Consent Decree. Are you forgetting that if I held a gun to your head you would 'consent' to anything I requested? It has been claimed that AT&T signed off on the decree because they wanted to go into the computer business. A casual glance at that side of the business today would show that it has been a miserable failure for the company. Either some very poor business judgment was used to 'decide to enter the computer business' or else there was more to it than my former neighbor Charlie Brown wanted to discuss. You reference Peter Temin's account, and while it is comprehensive, Mr. Temin was not without his own axes to grind. I should talk, huh! Perhaps you saw my essay on the subject which appeared in [Telephony Magazine] and [EMMS Newsletter] at the time. As to the exact chronology of events, I don't think it is all that important which came first and which came later. A word from Harold Greene at any phase of the proceedings carried a lot of weight. And the word from Harold was you can dump on AT&T with impunity in his courtroom. Even the largest corporation in the world deserves to be treated ethically and fairly. Again, my thanks for your participation here. Patrick Townson TELECOM Digest Moderator