Slashdot Mirror

SBC is currently in partnership with DISH Network. BTW, DirectTV was bought by News Corp (Fox).

SBC Response to CWA Strike Announcement

San Antonio, Texas, May 19, 2004

We regret that the CWA leadership intends to launch a four-day strike. We will immediately activate our strike contingency plans to minimize any inconvenience for our customers. Our primary goal is to ensure the best service possible under the circumstances.

The decision to strike is difficult to understand, especially since our proposal increases wages and pensions to among the highest in the industry; provides health care coverage with no monthly premiums; and, before the union insisted on moving the job security issue to the regional table, our proposal guaranteed a job offer for any employee whose job is surplused.

We have provided many proposals that addressed numerous union demands. At some point, the CWA must take "yes" for an answer. For the sake of our customers and our employees, we hope that day is near.

SBC Response to CWA Strike Announcement

San Antonio, Texas, May 19, 2004

We regret that the CWA leadership intends to launch a four-day strike. We will immediately activate our strike contingency plans to minimize any inconvenience for our customers. Our primary goal is to ensure the best service possible under the circumstances.

The decision to strike is difficult to understand, especially since our proposal increases wages and pensions to among the highest in the industry; provides health care coverage with no monthly premiums; and, before the union insisted on moving the job security issue to the regional table, our proposal guaranteed a job offer for any employee whose job is surplused.

We have provided many proposals that addressed numerous union demands. At some point, the CWA must take "yes" for an answer. For the sake of our customers and our employees, we hope that day is near.

In short, the two largest states (in population) use SBC.

Here's a quick link to the Census Statistics PDF file. The population of those 13 states are an estimated 123,829,994 people. That's an estimated 42.6% of the US population.

P.S. SBC issued their own press release in response to CWA's press release.

You coastal people drive me nuts. The SBC family of companies offer local phone service in Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. We don't count?

Sheesh!

Here is what the campuses pay to get connected. Here is the in-depth network design for CENIC including which campuses are connected. Here is the commercial version of SONET which brings that type of bandwidth to companies.

-Pat

The local electric co-op, Trinity Valley Electric, had a phone subsidiary, Trinity Valley Services. When we moved to their service area last summer, I was exctatic to be out of the grasp of the scandal-plagued monopoly I'd been forced to buy power from before. So when we signed up for electricty and they asked if we'd like to use their phone service, we said heck, yeah!

Last month, we got a note in the mail that TVS was now "Cedar Valley Communications", and no longer directly affiliated with TVEC. This was pretty depressing... it was so nice to call up the phone company and talk to a person instead of to a robot.

Now, it makes sense. With an 8-1 decision in the works, TVEC/TVS must have known that they were about to get hammered by Texas law. With little hope for legislative help from the Republican puppet government in Austin, they spun off TVS.

At least I don't have to worry about getting a bill from the clueless megacorporation I was stuck with before.

Southwestern Bell

Uh, Southwestern Bell. They're pretty freakin big.

You pay HOW MUCH??? Around here SBC offers "low-end" business DSL for $27/mo. Granted you'll probably want something better than 384/128, but for $10 bucks more you can get 1500/384. That should be fine to meet the demands of initial users at a small establishment and obviously, as demand/revenue grows, so too can the bandwidth.

I'm all for giving the local telcos some competition. (Especially now that consolidation means they're less and less local any more.)

But really, what's your cable company's track record on service quality? That'd be the first thing I'd be concerned about.

-Sporktoast

Charter may be the first cable ISP to fight but SBC has been fighting already as shown:

here
here
and here

Then how come when I go here I can sign up for SCB dsl?

I have lived in the States for 13 years and now live in Hong Kong. I guess I can share some of my experience regarding to broadband use in both Hong Kong and US.

The reason why US broadband usage is not as high as other Asian countries is because of adoption and availability. I used to lived in California. If my memory served me right, SBC (aka Pacific Bell)first offer DSL service back in late 1998 or early 1999. When they offer DSL, it was price at $49.99 for 1.5mb/128kB DHCP (and later become PPPoE) and $199 for 6mB/384kB with 5 static IP. I had the $199 plan back then. Dial up service from Earthlink was around $25 bucks. Most areas still didn't have broadband service. My area didn't have Internet cable (Comcast) service till 2001. I think SBC offer the the 6M/384k plan for $159 and 1.5/128 still at $49.99 now.

Hong Kong offer DSL service at about the same time in late 1998. However, the difference is that availabilty become much higher than the State due to the coverage is alot higher. Dial up service was required to pay per minute charge (what they called PNet charges). So, people quickly moved to the flat rate DSL services. Right now, you can get 6mB/640kB DSL service at around $40 bucks with dynamic IP, and $80 bucks with 4 static IP. 1.5Mb/256kB is as low as $20 bucks.

In Hong Kong, pricing is already an advantage over the State. And the other reason is the coverage is much higher, people are easier to get broadband service. And thirdly, people in Hong Kong tend to like to use newer technology at a premium price. In the State, majority of the people who use Internet for checking email or light web surfing might just use dial up service. On the other hand, the same kind of people in Hong Kong will use the low end broadband service. Dial up service in Hong Kong is no longer offered except being a value add bundle with the pruchase of broadband service.

So, adoption of new technology is the key here. For example, celluar phone in Hong Kong is now a necessity. People will buy new celluar phone as new model release. It is a fashion and trendy thing. It is HARD to find an adult in HK without a celluar phone. Over 80% of high school kids have their own cell phone. Elementary school kids have their own cell phone is not uncommon too. Cell phone with built in camera is very popular in HK. 1 out of 10 people, you can find someone with one of those cell phone. On the other hand, celluar phone usage in US is a bit different. It is more or less still a luxuary stuff since the air time charges is not cheap. In Hong Kong, celluar plan can be as low as $17 with 1100 mins out of network + 1000 mins within network.

So, the key reason why broadband usage in the State is not as high is because of adoption of new technology, availabilty and most importantly, the way how people look at new technology.

Obviously the core LEC business is to prevent the loss of business lines and local service, but what is lost is made up for with high-cap voice circuits like PRIs and channelized T1s and high density long distance calling solutions. The LEC's have over 20 years of experience with these products. They are the data hardware vendor's largest partners for deploying voice over data networks, because they already have the experience set to design, maintain and deploy them.

-Pat

Obviously the core LEC business is to prevent the loss of business lines and local service, but what is lost is made up for with high-cap voice circuits like PRIs and channelized T1s and high density long distance calling solutions. The LEC's have over 20 years of experience with these products. They are the data hardware vendor's largest partners for deploying voice over data networks, because they already have the experience set to design, maintain and deploy them.

-Pat

Caller ID (so you can tell who's calling) plus Privacy Manager (so they can't get through with blocked ID) plus Voice Mail (so they can leave a message failing all else).

I have this combination. Works like a charm. (Check your particular phone company for their equivalent.)

Caller ID (so you can tell who's calling) plus Privacy Manager (so they can't get through with blocked ID) plus Voice Mail (so they can leave a message failing all else).

I have this combination. Works like a charm. (Check your particular phone company for their equivalent.)

Caller ID (so you can tell who's calling) plus Privacy Manager (so they can't get through with blocked ID) plus Voice Mail (so they can leave a message failing all else).

I have this combination. Works like a charm. (Check your particular phone company for their equivalent.)

This says that "Southwestern Bell charges 33 cents to each customer" and has been for since 1999. So let's see, this says that SBC has "6.9 million wireless customers across the United States" as of 1999. It's been 54 months since January 1, 1999 including this month. 54 * 6,900,000 = 372,600,000 months of total charges. 372,600,000 * $0.33 = $122,958,000.00 which makes a $22,958,000.00 profit(!!!!) on the $100,000,000.00 re-tooling you mention if it were SBC. That's not even counting the growth of the customer base since 1999!

Yeah, the point is to do away with option 1. However, the $500 is paid to you by them. I'm not sure of the law, I believe its federal. I'd google for it, but I'm in the middle of writing some Rational Robot scripts..

Not sure about setting the prompt. I belive all it says is something like along the lines of your not publishing your number and that in order to speak to the party you've dialed enter your passcode or wait and say your name. It's picked up part of autodialers going through their scripts (last half of 'please wait while we connect you' and then someone saying 'hello? hello?') & disconnects from the announcement recording & then calls us. Once we hear the script, we hit 2 (I believe) to disconnect. The dialer sees that the number was answered, but no one ever gets through.

You set up passcodes (10 digit) in order for them to get through. The passcode shows on caller ID & says 'Passcode' where the name would be. So, as long as you know the passcode you can figure out who it is.

And its not AT&T, its SWBell : https://www05.sbc.com/privacy-manager-facts.html

for the past couple years, i've been using rcn rather than sbc/pacbell for my local dialtone (650 area code). during that time, i've been paying a "local number portability fee" to -er- somebody. i recently moved about seven blocks. rcn doesn't provide service at my new location so i switched to att. could i move my phone number? ha!

to continue my subject line: unfortunately, the incumbent phone company (sbc/pacbell) is even worse and will never get me back as a directly-paying customer...

for the past couple years, i've been using rcn rather than sbc/pacbell for my local dialtone (650 area code). during that time, i've been paying a "local number portability fee" to -er- somebody. i recently moved about seven blocks. rcn doesn't provide service at my new location so i switched to att. could i move my phone number? ha!

to continue my subject line: unfortunately, the incumbent phone company (sbc/pacbell) is even worse and will never get me back as a directly-paying customer...

Are the Feds keeping track of how much is collected? Probably not. I suspect nobody is but some wily executives and accountants.

No idea what kind of "catches" there are, but sounds good.

As I write, the Texas house may be passing the Texas version of the sDMCA (SB1116). Amidst some Memorial-day "Freedom" speeches, perhaps.
After pasing Senate earlier this month, it passed out of House Regulated Industries committee 5/22 (no ammendments), and is on the House floor calendar.
EFF-Austin has been organizing visits at the capitol.
Apparently SBC (local "Baby Bell" telephone/DSL monopoly) has also been flexing its mighty arms in support of the bill.
More info here.

I don't run my website anymore, but when I did I had framed navigation by default, and the option of not using frames. Just give the user two options: 1. pay royalties to these people and continue with frames. or 2. no frames. :)

I am writing to explain the reason that my wife and I are switching our local service from SBC to ATT, effective Monday. The switch order is being handled by ATT and this message is NOT a request for you to take any action regarding my local service.

I am not motivated by cost in telephone services -- your rates are competitive and I am not sensitive to a few dollars per month.

I am, however, very concerned about the recent actions by SBC Intellectual Property in regards to U.S. Patent No. 5,933,841 and U.S. Patent No. 6,442,574, wherein SBC claims ownership of the concept of "structured documents" and in particular "HTML Frames," and has begun to sue small businesses such as Informal Educational Products, owners of WWW.MUSEUMTOUR.COM.

I used to trust PacBell and now SBC to provide telecommunications services. Now I see that your company is interesting in controlling what I say and think, and how I can say it, and is using its capital and political muscle to extract money from small businesses. I am no longer interested in doing business with your company.

You can thank Harlie D. Frost, president of SBC Intellectual Property, for destroying in my mind, and that of countless others, the goodwill that your company has built up over years of service.

About the only bad thing (other than the $160/month) is that they cap it to 6M/384K when the technology goes up to 8M down (my own line tested for the full 8M speed) and a little faster up (400Kbit?), but then most ADSL modems seem to only have a half-duplex 10BT port anyhow.

Hmm... I just noticed they have a new offering with 256K upstream and faster minimum guaranteed downstream for $10-15/month more.

SBC currently has a flat-rate local, flat-rate long distance plan. See National Connections for $20/month. It bolts on to your existing local service with Caller ID/Caller ID Call Waiting, Voicemail, etc.

SBC also has a combo that includes the above features, with unlimited LD ready to go. That is called All Distance Connections and it is $49 a month. This is the commercial that is currently playing in California.

I happen to work for SBC - but as a VoIP/IPT network engineer oddly enough. So take that as a blatant plug.

Cheers.

-Pat

SBC currently has a flat-rate local, flat-rate long distance plan. See National Connections for $20/month. It bolts on to your existing local service with Caller ID/Caller ID Call Waiting, Voicemail, etc.

SBC also has a combo that includes the above features, with unlimited LD ready to go. That is called All Distance Connections and it is $49 a month. This is the commercial that is currently playing in California.

I happen to work for SBC - but as a VoIP/IPT network engineer oddly enough. So take that as a blatant plug.

Cheers.

-Pat

See here for the temporary password, 1234.

Other SBC affiliates may have used the last four digits of the phone number as the default. Real bright these phone company types.

Here. Seems strange that he refers to himself as president in the letter but the SBC TRI website refers to him as vice president... maybe the site is just outdated.

That's exactly what Chickasaw Telecommunications Services, Inc. did for Stillwater, OK.

The city gave them permission to string their fiber along the electric poles, thus avoiding costly digging. These guys are way cool, and there is even a little box in my backyard labelled "fiber". I think it actually means that it connects to fiber, not that it is fiber because the big fiber concentrator thingy (I forget the actual term) is literally just a stone's throw from my house.

I only subscribe to their 256k service ($29/mo), but they give all of their customers a VDSL modem (a standard capable of 57 Mbps, although they only offer 6Mbps max AFAIK) for future expansion. They install the modem on your spare wire pair instead of sharing the voice line like SBC (read: no silly ADSL filters).
As a result, we have three main Internet providers in Stillwater, a city with a population of about 18,000 (not counting 22,000 students): SBC, Cox High Speed Internet (cable), and Chickasaw
Competiton is a good thing!

> Your email address will stay the same.
>Your monthly price will stay the same.**
>Your billing method will stay the same.
> Your high speed DSL Internet connection will stay the same.

"**"? Why did I just instinctively reach for my wallet?

>[...]With SBC Yahoo! DSL, you are in control. You have the power to choose which software to download based on the features you want: ***

"***"? ...and my firewall? :-)

Interestingly enough, just a few weeks ago, I got a snail mailing regarding an opportunity to opt out of SBC's sell^H^H^Hharing of my CPNI (Customer Proprietary Network Information) data.

Unless I opted out, SBC promised that it would dutifully use the record of every phone number I dialled to figure out what sorts of crap^H^H^H^Hexciting products and services I might be interested in.

I wondered how the fuck a phone company could use that, and then I realized that if SBC is partnering up with Yahoo in order to provide DSL, that going through every phone user's CPNI records to target ad campaigns to users of competing (dial-up) ISPs would be a perfect application of this.

After all, with CPNI data, SBC could easily send "u wan2 swtch frm AOL" mailings to AOL users, "Tired of seeing Sky Dayton buggering the rotting corpse of Mindspring/Netcom every day?" mailings to Earthlink users of Mindspring or Netcom POPs, and "Why are you still with these small-timers" to users of independent/local ISPs.

Rant: I hate telcos. I hate marketroids. They seem to feed off each other, in an evil, sickening way that makes spammers seem honest by comparison.

At any rate, if you do business with SBC, I'd strongly recommend that you opt-out of having your calling records used for marketing purposes. (You'll need a copy of your phone bill to use that link. A few days later, you'll get a receipt in the snail-mail confirming your opt-out. No word on how long it lasts, but knowing the DMA, you'll probably have to jump through the hoop on at least an annual basis. )

Legally it's quite a shrewd manuever to launch the offensive against a smaller target. BT can bully Prodigy and get a settlement, or, if they go to court, they won't be fighting the endless hoardes of lawyers that a company like AOL would throw at it.

Except that Prodigy is owned by SBC, one of the Baby Bells. They've got tons of bucks and lawyers.

There's no mention of the little "gotchas" such as data service fees: $5/mo + $0.15/min modem access (Cingular) or for GPRS (yes, it's out there, but not much) it's $15 for the first 500k plus $0.07 for each subsequent k (Cingular) or $20/5M + $5/M (Voicestream). And we won't even go into roaming fees. Note the vast disparity in pricing between Voicestream and Cingular.

Nor does he speculate about the poor likelihood of a timely GPRS rollout. Voicestream has it already, but you can only get it on the West Coast if you're in Washington- the Pacific-Bell (California & Nevada) side of Cingular isn't well known for its infrastructure, so who knows if it'll be available locally even by the time the Treo update is available.

So, yeah, the hardware and software are nice and the thing is nice as both a phone (though I'd probably prefer bigger dialing buttons) and PDA if you like the Palm OS (though he doesn't go into how much smaller the screen is compared to a normal Palm or Handspring Visor), but using the thing to its full wireless capability can get expensive. And considering that the GPRS support isn't yet available, the wireless capability is partially vaporware.

Prodigy is owned by SBC aka Southwest Bell Communications (see the reference in the lower right of the web page).

SBC is also the owner of PacBell and Nevada Bell. And, from what I've seen, their service ranks right up there with BT's.

S4R does hosting, colo, services, and has rack space in SBC's Irvine IDC. Inflow is also good (and in SoCal, if you need that), but I get a very Exodus-like feeling from them... more sizzle than steak, like they've bought too many Aeron chairs.

Whatever happens, if you have a server in an Exodus rack, you should probably make plans.

-B

Originally, POTS (plain old telephone service) was delivered out of COs (central offices) with a twisted pair going to each customer. This is known as the local loop and typically covered a 3 mile radius from the CO. As switches became saturated and neighborhoods/businesses sprang up further from the CO, the question of how to deliver POTS to these outlying areas came up. Building more COs at several million $ each was not cost effective.

This dilemma was very much like the xDSL problem the telcos are faced with today with DSLAMS that extend 15-18 kft. The solution to the original local loop problem is also the solution to the xDSL loop limit. In the case of POTS, DLCs (digital loop carriers) are used to extend the reach of the CO by placing remote terminals just about anywhere -- as long as you can feed that terminal with copper or fiber (and their inherent distance limitations).

DLCs have evolved into an alphabet soup of features and acronyms (NGDLC, MSAP, IMAP, etc). The current IMAPs (integrated multiservice access platform) deliver nearly any type of analog or data service over copper, fiber, and RF.

So, with an IMAP, VZ can deliver that xDSL service (which is ATM-based) over copper or fiber or RF. In this configuration, the DSLAM is pushed out to the remote terminal. There's no reason ATM traffic can't be transported over copper -- it happens all the time! The challenge is having the equipment to handle the conversion between electrons and photons (among other things). If you can put that equipment (hardened) in a remote terminal, then the sky's the limit as long as the customer is within the range of the remote terminal.

If you want to know more about this, check into SBC's Project Pronto. SBC has selected two DLC/IMAP vendors (AFC & Alcatel) to provide equipment for a digital overlay. Verizon is reported to be very interested in AFC's xDSL solution (essentially a DSLAM on a card), as well. Another good source for the technically curious is WebProForum.

Also, the most you're going to get for a single violation (calling back, not slamming) is five hundred dollars. AT&T will either consider that a trifle, or balk and force you to prove that you asked to be put on their "do not call" list.

Slamming is definitely illegal, and given how much the FCC enjoys regulating the phone industry, it sounds like something they would find most interesting. Also, you may wish to call MediaOne and see if they offer some kind of "anti-slamming" protection. My local carrier is Ameritech (owned by SBC), and set me up (notice the double entendre). Now my long-distace carrier can't be changed unless Ameritech gets a signature from me!

SBC is planning to have most of their major metropolitan areas upgraded for total DSL coverage by the end of 2001. I presume this will be done by putting DSLAMs in the sheds. (You know, the sheds with two doors that each have a five-button lock.)

This link has PDF maps of the planned coverage areas.