Conference 7.286::digital

    
    I found this interesting also.  We will be going to Southwestern Bell
    in Texas --- which doesn't have continuous coverage where I do most of
    my driving and I'm averaging 1200 miles per month in my car.  Kind of
    defeats the purpose if I can't use the phone, right?
    
    I wonder what they're going to do once they find out that many people
    have contract cancellation charges associated with their current
    carriers.
    
    Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men...

    They did the same thing with pagers, now 4 providers instead of 97.  I
    can see where some of this makes sense.  Of course, the pagers have to
    be registered by 8/12/94 or service will be cut on the following
    Monday, but are the forms available to register?  Of course not!!
    
    M.
    

OK, there's central billing cross charged to cost center 
which should lower admin costs. But I still have to see
my charges and reimburse the corp for personal calls. 
Our corporate rate in this area is $3/month + calls
which seems hard to beat.

As .1 pointed out my contract cancellation costs more
that the contract! Are we going to take a telecom
restructuring charge this quarter? 

I don't see how this cuts expenses. 

A number of new policies have gone into  effect
Aug 1 with no fanfare or announcements. I wouldn't
be aware of them w/o this conf. 
What Gives?

Most interesting.

Since Southwestern Bell doesn't provide service in the NYC area or in
California or in Florida or in Seattle or ..., will phone users outside
SWBell areas be assigned SWBell numbers in Boston or somewhere, and incur
roaming charges in their home towns?

VTX Cellular says to read RAILRD::SYS$PUBLIC:CELLULAR_REQUEST.* for more
details, but the file is not there...

/john

[In Boston, Chicago, and Washington, Cellular One is a Southwestern Bell
company.  In other cities, Cellular One is usually McCaw, and sometimes
independent.]

    re: .4 and missing files ...
    
    I could understand how many people can read ulterior motives into
    a situtation where you're told to read a document or fill out a
    form that doesn't exist. The idea that management is trying to
    trick us into doing without pagers or cellular phones is natural,
    but ...
    
    Why should they do that? It's simple enough to generate a memo that
    says "No more cellular phones or pagers."
    
    No, it looks like just another case of being incapable of doing simple
    business processes in "The New Digital". We don't have to worry about
    the competition anymore, we're too busy killing ourselves.
    
    Geoffrey
    

    
    I don't think anyone thinks that the intent is that people who need
    cellular phones and/or pagers will go without them.
    
    I personally find it interesting that we continue to make corporate 
    decisions without being ready to implement, nor do we consider all the 
    factors involved in the field.  I suppose that we will know more when
    we actually see all the information that was not available at first
    announcement.
    
    

I've sent mail to the person responsible for this program, asking him
to tell us more about it in the UPSAR::CELLULAR conference.

/john

    The intent of the pager program changes is to pursue the cost savings
    of $1.2M/yr; not frustrate users.  Notification of the changes began
    on 7/21 (Readers Choice), then 7/28 (Live Wire) and 8/1 (Digital
    Today). Phase I is the transition to the 4 contracted suppliers which
    does not require a form.  Phase II is forthcoming which will explain
    the VTX registration process (no form req'd).  A sampling of the user
    requirements were obtained to structure the program; to solicit 12K
    users is not possible.  To date, positive response has been rec'd & 
    the 8/12 deadline has not been a major problem.  We ALL want Digital to
    survive; positive change will help.  We're counting on changes like
    the pager changes to support the company and our future.  I am
    available to discuss issues/concerns; DTN: 550-9288 or TFOSS1::ENSIGN. 

    in short .. the new orangebook policy under Cellular Telephones 
    Section 5.11 states Digital will take your phone .. attach it to 
    a Southwestern Bell service and pay the bill.. you will be responsible
    for your personal calls.
    
    "authorizations"
    
    "Personnel authoried to use cellular within the Corportation will be
    those individuals who are in revene generating jobs with a routine need 
    to make and receive time critial customer calls."
    
    That means, SALES looses there phone privileges......
    SERVICE keeps theirs .....
    Maybe we can make more money (after all.. when you sell 8 billion
    dollars worth of computers but spend 8.5 billion dollars to sell them
    someone had to realize the 500 million dollar lost came from sales 
    using there cellular phones to set up those
    lunch,dinner,breakfast,tennis,sports games,boating...opps..sales
    meeting...
    
    
    
                       HAWK !
    

Not just Southwestern Bell, but four different service providers, which the
person responsible for the program says should cover our needs in all areas.

/john

RE: .8
        
|    That means, SALES looses there phone privileges......
|    SERVICE keeps theirs .....
    
    I'm thinking that you must know 'service' from some OTHER company,
    because the Digital-MultiVendor-Customer-Services that *I* work for has
    absolutely forbidden cellular phones, at least in this office.
    
    Let see now, I have 1 hour callback *requirements* written into
    contracts, 'x' hour REQUIREMENT  to be ONSITE (where 'x'= 2,4,8), and
    there are *TWO* (or less) pay phones to be found on the road to where I'm
    going now. Sorry, I don't stop anymore, let the missed responses fall where
    they may, if my management doesn't feel that my customers need
    callbacks from *ME*, let them do it. Oh right, they aren't technical and
    don't talk to customers. Page me all you want, I'll note the numbers
    and call when I get where I'm going. That looks good too, "Hi, I'm here
    to fix your <widget>, but I have to make 4 (or more) phone calls
    first." Customers just *love* that.
    
    I've always wondered at the inequities between the sales and service
    organizations, I've never gotten any real answers, and I've pretty much
    stopped wondering. 
    
    .mike.