Verizon rant

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On Tuesday 25 October 2005 12:14 pm, Bill Horne wrote:
> Some time ago, I attended a management course that included a session on
> the history of AT&T.
>
> During the early part of the 20th century, AT&T's stock became so widely
> distributed that, for practical purposes, nobody owned the company. It
> was, therefore, responsible only to itself, and the corporate attitude
> that persists to this day is that "Ma Bell" is able to dictate the way
> it does business.
>
> So long as the majority of customers don't know about/seek out/care
> about alternatives, Ma Bell will continue to be responsible only to
> itself.
This tends to be true of many companies. 
Today, the successors of AT&T (such as Verizon and SBC) have inherited that 
attitude. The industry is changing as more people switch to competitive 
means, such as Cell Phone (still controlled by some of the baby bells), 
Cable digital phone services (standard phone via cable TV cable), and VOIP. 
Today, the local phone company owns the last mile. If you want DSL, the 
physical cable belongs to Verizon in our area. 
-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
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