Friday, November 04, 2005
More R&D from AT&T and MCI mergers? No way.
I'm at the annual Marconi Foundation Symposium, where Gordon Moore, Bob Lucky, Jack Goldman (founder of Xerox PARC), Len Kleinrock, Whit Diffie, and other founders of our field are bemoaning the demise of (mostly U.S.) telecommunications R&D.
Amid this concern with R&D, the FCC press release (.doc) approving Verizon-MCI and AT&T-SBC mergers says
Amid this concern with R&D, the FCC press release (.doc) approving Verizon-MCI and AT&T-SBC mergers says
. . . the mergers will give the companies increased economies of scale and scope, which should [should? -- DI] increase their incentives and resources to engage in basic research and development.I'll eat my hat if duopoly scale and scope alone actually yields more research. I think the new telco giants need a bigger bone to chase, such as rate of return regulation that gives them a financial reward for increasing the expense side of the ledger. That'd be back to the future.
Technorati Tags: AT&T, MCI, SBC, Science, USLosingLead, Verizon
Comments:
On the whole I have to agree with you. On the other hand, friends at AT&T Labs seemed pretty upbeat shortly after the merger was announced... claims in the Star Ledger to the contrary :). Guess we'll see soon!
They won't do research unless required - it is vendor management as well as being managed by the vendors.
Most of the good people are gone and it is hard to imagine them being attracted back - quality will suffer. Of course some of these folks might consider writing perl scripts to automate billing reports research.
Most of the good people are gone and it is hard to imagine them being attracted back - quality will suffer. Of course some of these folks might consider writing perl scripts to automate billing reports research.
Greetings,
I really need someone to help me with my situation in Southern California. 5 years ago, I was involved in a 5 static IP DSL account and have been a very satisfied customer for over 20 years with SBC, particularly PAC BELL. Last year I downgraded my 5 IP acct to a dynamic account only to desire it back to 5 Static IPs. Currently, I talked to George (employee id JL9263) at SBC DSL and he could not explain to me the $250 setup fee I had to pay in detail. He told me it was company policy and refused to explain the reasons behind the $250 setup fee, especially when 1 year ago, I had no issues with the existing 5 Static IP service nor understand any changes that should take place in my place of residence. My question, why should I be punished for a fee like this when I had it for years in the past? It is not fare for a consumer to be faced with a penalty, punishment or new policy without explaination and reason for developing a better policy or change. If you are not the person to receive this e-mail but you do know who are the movers and shakers at SBC, please forward this e-mail to them and have them contact me. I would like to resolve this issue and continue to be a very satisfied customer ... as I have been over the past 20 years.
If you know Edward E. Whitacre Jr. or even have his e-mail address, please forward this to him.
Thank you,
Ed Bangle
323 / 244-0717
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I really need someone to help me with my situation in Southern California. 5 years ago, I was involved in a 5 static IP DSL account and have been a very satisfied customer for over 20 years with SBC, particularly PAC BELL. Last year I downgraded my 5 IP acct to a dynamic account only to desire it back to 5 Static IPs. Currently, I talked to George (employee id JL9263) at SBC DSL and he could not explain to me the $250 setup fee I had to pay in detail. He told me it was company policy and refused to explain the reasons behind the $250 setup fee, especially when 1 year ago, I had no issues with the existing 5 Static IP service nor understand any changes that should take place in my place of residence. My question, why should I be punished for a fee like this when I had it for years in the past? It is not fare for a consumer to be faced with a penalty, punishment or new policy without explaination and reason for developing a better policy or change. If you are not the person to receive this e-mail but you do know who are the movers and shakers at SBC, please forward this e-mail to them and have them contact me. I would like to resolve this issue and continue to be a very satisfied customer ... as I have been over the past 20 years.
If you know Edward E. Whitacre Jr. or even have his e-mail address, please forward this to him.
Thank you,
Ed Bangle
323 / 244-0717
# posted by 
: 12/02/2005 3:28 PM
: 12/02/2005 3:28 PM
