Once Is Not Enough

Bell Atlantic was recently fined several million dollars for failing to cooperate with competitors during the installation process in New York. Rather than deal with the problem by requiring employees to do their job, they hired a consulting firm. (I met one of the consultants at a recent Washington reception.) The amount and the frequency of the fines must keep growing in order to get Bell Atlantic's attention. And that requires everyone's participation in reporting their 'rope a dope' tactics to appropriate authorities. Here's a typical example of their behavior: I decided to move my voice mail to a telephone line supplied by a CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier) and ordered that calls ringing 4 times at my Bell Atlantic number without an answer be forwarded to that new number. Here's what happened

1) First, they ignored the order, despite an order number and delivery date.

2) Next, they took my trouble report and promised it would be fixed by 8PM that evening.

3) The next day, a company representative called to check "if I had dial tone", the alleged symptoms on his trouble ticket.

4) I then called to re-report the trouble, since Bell Atlantic seemed not to 'get it'. That representative advised me she would 'send a technician'. 

5) Finally, after several deep breaths, I called again and asked to escalate the trouble to a supervisor. At that juncture, I referred to the Public Service Commission, and how odd it was that my connection to a competitor's service was all that difficult. Her response: an apology that they lost the order.

6) After more false starts, I had my voice mail restored by the end of the day. It was working as of this writing, but I know it is only a matter of time.

The 'security issue' I recently referred to (OTE 1/2000: Goodbye Track It! Hello Interactive Advantage) has still not been solved. In an exclusive interview with Mr. Chuck Isaac, AT&T Product Manager, he shared the following information:

He agrees there is a problem that needs to be fixed. They are studying the costs associated with a fix, and expect to schedule it within the next 3 months. There are approximately 150 customers receiving call data via ftp delivery to a ~ (tilde) directory. AT&T chose this method to prevent interruptions in service when the system was converted at year end. Unfortunately, the ~ directory, analogous to the *.* file designation, acts much like a global command, allowing wide directory access, unless protected by a firewall or other sophisticated network means. 

Interactive Advantage is working well. In fact, its popularity causes some congestion at month end and beginning periods, when most users prefer to retrieve their call data. AT&T plans to add resources to reduce delays, and e-mail reports are scheduled to begin this month.

If the security issue is allowed to persist, the resultant action recommended is similar to migration to the next level of hardware or software when your old system lacks support in the marketplace. Develop new 'global' reports in Interactive Advantage that allow you to manipulate the data the way you would with 'raw' ftp files. Avoid the heavy congestion periods. Eliminate ftp delivery of call data, closing the potential security problems associated with unauthorized access to your server directory.

W. E. Miller, Jr.
Editor

All Articles Copyright  2000 Hattrick Publishing Group ã

back to top