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IP: Pac Bell says Net use may collapse phone system (fwd)
Some Pac Bell propaganda
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 02:48:30 -0400
From: Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
To: interesting-people mailing list <interesting-people@eff.org>
Subject: IP: Pac Bell says Net use may collapse phone system
Pac Bell says Net use may collapse phone system
ISPs rebut dire, 'trumped-up' prediction
Published: Oct. 24, 1996
BY HOWARD BRYANT
Mercury News Staff Writer
As many as one of every six telephone calls in Silicon Valley now
doesn't go through on the first try because Internet denizens are
tying up the lines, Pacific Bell reported Wednesday.
Under normal circumstances, less than 1 percent of calls go
uncompleted, the company said. The situation is so dire that
California's entire phone system is in danger of breakdown, a company
executive said, with Silicon Valley especially on red alert.
''The explosion of the Internet is flooding our network,'' said Ralph
Parker, marketing manager for Pac Bell's industry markets group. ''We
have a change in phone patterns that has thrown everything off
kilter.''
But rather than being a sign of imminent collapse, critics called Pac
Bell's startling statistic a trumped-up charge designed to scare the
public and pressure federal regulators into ending a price break
Internet service providers enjoy when tying into Pac Bell's network.
''The Internet is a baby and Pac Bell has been in this game since
Alexander Graham Bell's bar mitzvah. Now they're saying that in the
last three weeks, we broke the phone system? Come on,'' said the head
of a service provider who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal
by Pac Bell. ''We had a good year, but let's put our thinking caps on
here.''
Delicate position
The issue of phone system overload puts the ISPs in a delicate
position because while they may have strong disagreements with Pac
Bell, they also depend on connections to Pac Bell's network for their
success.
The telephone system was built to handle phone calls averaging four
minutes long, Parker said. But most people connecting to the Net or an
online service do so for an average of 22 minutes. In fact, Pac Bell
said its research showed that 10 percent of all Net connections last
an hour or more.
In a Pac Bell central office in Santa Clara, 2.5 percent of phone
lines accounted for 20 percent to 36 percent of the office's total
traffic, the company said. Much of the slowdown takes place between 7
p.m. and 11 p.m. -- a clear indication that it's Internet use, not
normal business calling, that is responsible.
The result is a slow but steady breakdown of regular telephone
service, the company said. Customers see the problem when getting
''fast'' busy signals, or messages advising that all circuits are busy
or that a call didn't go through, the company said.
Workforce cutbacks
But one ISP executive said the real issue is Pac Bell's own cutbacks
in its workforce. Over the past year, the company has made
considerable reductions, which, some charge, has hurt service.
''This may, or may not be, a crisis that can be rapidly resolved. This
may, or may not be, a crisis that exists at all,'' the executive said.
''Pac Bell is to blame with its poor planning, huge bureaucracy,
untimely layoffs and poor execution in its operation.''
At the heart of the issue is a pricing conflict between Pac Bell and
the ISPs. In 1983, the Federal Communications Commission gave
companies that offered Internet services, and other ''enhanced service
providers,'' an exemption from the per-minute fees that other
companies, such as long-distance telephone companies, pay to use Pac
Bell's network.
The reasoning behind the exemption was to protect start-up companies
from high up-front access charges that would stunt growth of a brand
new industry.
Cutting the subsidy
But now that the Internet access business is booming, and with some of
the companies offering Net access being some of the largest in the
world, such as AT&T, Pac Bell and other local phone providers across
the nation want the FCC to eliminate the exemption. By ending the
subsidy, Parker said Pac Bell could then take the added revenue it
would receive from the service providers and reinvest it in the phone
network to prevent a collapse.
Wiping out the subsidy would force Internet companies to find new,
more efficient ways of pricing that better reflect actual usage,
Parker said.
In all likelihood, Net service prices would increase for consumers.
The critics noted that at the same time Pac Bell is warning of
disaster, the company also has been trumpeting its own success. Dave
Dorman, Pac Bell's president and chief executive, said in July that
during the first five months of the year, Pac Bell added 368,000 new
customer lines, 132 percent more than the average for the same period
over the last five years. Two-thirds of those lines serve residential
customers, he said.
''We expect 1996 to be a very good year, comparable to our all-time
highs during California's boom time,'' Dorman said.
The company also has been pushing its own Internet access service and
boasting of how quickly it has signed on customers.
It's those statements and statistics that lead Pac Bell's critics to
question the severity or validity of a crisis.
''This is clearly a ruse,'' said Dick Severy, director of public
policy for MCI. ''They've added 691,000 access lines this year.
Business lines are up. It's curious.''
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Posted-Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 02:32:33 -0400
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 02:32:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: Daniel Updegrove <daniel.updegrove@yale.edu>
X-within-URL: http://www.sjmercury.com/business/dial1023.htm
To: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu
Subject: dial1023.htm
[LINK]
Pac Bell says Net use may collapse phone system
ISPs rebut dire, 'trumped-up' prediction
Published: Oct. 24, 1996
BY HOWARD BRYANT
Mercury News Staff Writer
As many as one of every six telephone calls in Silicon Valley now
doesn't go through on the first try because Internet denizens are
tying up the lines, Pacific Bell reported Wednesday.
Under normal circumstances, less than 1 percent of calls go
uncompleted, the company said. The situation is so dire that
California's entire phone system is in danger of breakdown, a company
executive said, with Silicon Valley especially on red alert.
''The explosion of the Internet is flooding our network,'' said Ralph
Parker, marketing manager for Pac Bell's industry markets group. ''We
have a change in phone patterns that has thrown everything off
kilter.''
But rather than being a sign of imminent collapse, critics called Pac
Bell's startling statistic a trumped-up charge designed to scare the
public and pressure federal regulators into ending a price break
Internet service providers enjoy when tying into Pac Bell's network.
''The Internet is a baby and Pac Bell has been in this game since
Alexander Graham Bell's bar mitzvah. Now they're saying that in the
last three weeks, we broke the phone system? Come on,'' said the head
of a service provider who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal
by Pac Bell. ''We had a good year, but let's put our thinking caps on
here.''
Delicate position
The issue of phone system overload puts the ISPs in a delicate
position because while they may have strong disagreements with Pac
Bell, they also depend on connections to Pac Bell's network for their
success.
The telephone system was built to handle phone calls averaging four
minutes long, Parker said. But most people connecting to the Net or an
online service do so for an average of 22 minutes. In fact, Pac Bell
said its research showed that 10 percent of all Net connections last
an hour or more.
In a Pac Bell central office in Santa Clara, 2.5 percent of phone
lines accounted for 20 percent to 36 percent of the office's total
traffic, the company said. Much of the slowdown takes place between 7
p.m. and 11 p.m. -- a clear indication that it's Internet use, not
normal business calling, that is responsible.
The result is a slow but steady breakdown of regular telephone
service, the company said. Customers see the problem when getting
''fast'' busy signals, or messages advising that all circuits are busy
or that a call didn't go through, the company said.
Workforce cutbacks
But one ISP executive said the real issue is Pac Bell's own cutbacks
in its workforce. Over the past year, the company has made
considerable reductions, which, some charge, has hurt service.
''This may, or may not be, a crisis that can be rapidly resolved. This
may, or may not be, a crisis that exists at all,'' the executive said.
''Pac Bell is to blame with its poor planning, huge bureaucracy,
untimely layoffs and poor execution in its operation.''
At the heart of the issue is a pricing conflict between Pac Bell and
the ISPs. In 1983, the Federal Communications Commission gave
companies that offered Internet services, and other ''enhanced service
providers,'' an exemption from the per-minute fees that other
companies, such as long-distance telephone companies, pay to use Pac
Bell's network.
The reasoning behind the exemption was to protect start-up companies
from high up-front access charges that would stunt growth of a brand
new industry.
Cutting the subsidy
But now that the Internet access business is booming, and with some of
the companies offering Net access being some of the largest in the
world, such as AT&T, Pac Bell and other local phone providers across
the nation want the FCC to eliminate the exemption. By ending the
subsidy, Parker said Pac Bell could then take the added revenue it
would receive from the service providers and reinvest it in the phone
network to prevent a collapse.
Wiping out the subsidy would force Internet companies to find new,
more efficient ways of pricing that better reflect actual usage,
Parker said.
In all likelihood, Net service prices would increase for consumers.
The critics noted that at the same time Pac Bell is warning of
disaster, the company also has been trumpeting its own success. Dave
Dorman, Pac Bell's president and chief executive, said in July that
during the first five months of the year, Pac Bell added 368,000 new
customer lines, 132 percent more than the average for the same period
over the last five years. Two-thirds of those lines serve residential
customers, he said.
''We expect 1996 to be a very good year, comparable to our all-time
highs during California's boom time,'' Dorman said.
The company also has been pushing its own Internet access service and
boasting of how quickly it has signed on customers.
It's those statements and statistics that lead Pac Bell's critics to
question the severity or validity of a crisis.
''This is clearly a ruse,'' said Dick Severy, director of public
policy for MCI. ''They've added 691,000 access lines this year.
Business lines are up. It's curious.''