Unsubstantiated Rumors
Benjamin Franklin
Now, as then, most of the problems can be directly linked to short sighted goals and mismanagement of corporate resources.
Who woulda thought that keeping the maintenance forces from doing their jobs might actually come back to bite you some day.
I loved the news on Channel 2 the other night about 300 residents of the town of Woodside being out of service for a week. Customers that were interviewed told the cameras that they were frustrated because there is no cellular service in this rural community, and when they drove to where they could make a call, all they ended up with is a never ending loop in the phone tree.
When Channel 2 called good ole AT&T to inquire when service might be restored, they were told that the company was not aware of any outage.
In the “great race” for global competitiveness, economic development equals broadband connectivity and broadband connectivity equals jobs. The fuel for broadband connectivity is the need for speed. That’s all the consumer needs to know. In fact, that’s all politicians need to know.
Project Lightspeed offers data speeds that are nothing out of the ordinary and are not being well received by those in the know. Staying with copper to the door (CTTD) instead of upgrading to fiber to the premise (FTTP, which is also referred to as fiber to the home or FTTH) is like saying you’re going to put in a stagecoach to run a 500-mile NASCAR race.
They may slap all the fancy decals on your wagon and even give you a silver buggy whip, but in the long run, you will be far behind the competition if you even finish the race at all.
The misconceptions out there are rampant. Take, for example, one blog that talks about “switching to high-speed, fiber-optic DSL”. DSL is a copper-based technology and saying it is a “high-speed” solution is not true. A fiber backbone does not give you fiber speeds at the premise. In fact, 6 Mbps is not that fast compared to 1 Gbps. Now that is high speed.
A six-horse hitch is not going to compare with Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s supercharged horsepower. It sure isn’t going to keep up in a race. Copper “giddy up” just doesn’t cut it.
As asked in an earlier column this spring: “After all the fuss, is 6 Mbps enough bandwidth?” Most of this Project Lightspeed architecture is not even deployed yet and 6 Mbps speeds are starting to look like a far cry from state of the art.
In another example, this is the concern: “What if the demand for speed overcomes the limitation of Project Lightspeed’s hardware?” This is a valid concern about customers outgrowing the max speed of 25 Mbps to 30 Mbps. This apprehension is very real. The maximum will probably be hit faster than the anticipated lifespan of the network infrastructure.
Some would argue that we are already surpassing that as states set objectives like “1 gigabit or bust by 2010”. If any state is looking at establishing a broadband initiative at this point, it should be setting the bar at 1 gigabit. Take note, Illinois and others. There are no concessions for anything less.
For all the hype and fanfare as well as the proposed magnitude of capital expenditures on Project Lightspeed, I truly expected the three levels of speed to be more like 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps and 2 Gbps to the premise. If this were the case, AT&T would have blown the doors off its competition as well as its global rivals in this great race.
Not Only did AT&T fail to recognize that the intended bandwidth is woefully inadequate, but it also failed to recognize that its copper network is badly in need of repair.
In its push to get lightspeed in, it has failed to maintain proper assignment records, maintain its copper network, and utilize its existing workforce.
Instead, it has contracted out much of the conditioning work to outside sources, and all but abandoned its maintenance organization. The copper network that remains needs to be pristine, and it is anything but.
Many employees with decades of experience have spoken out, but their words have fallen on deaf ears. It seems that the corporation has for better or for worse, decided on a plan, and lower levels of management are scared to death to tell the emperor that he has no clothes.
Instead of laying out the capitol to provide fiber to the prem, and allowing for speeds of 1 gbps, the three service levels of speed are:
1. Express at 1.5 Mbps
2. Pro at 3 Mbps
3. Elite at 6 Mbps
These are all the downstream speeds with a common upstream speed of 1 Mbps or less. You can get that and more on cable today and do better with some wireless services.
None of these “elite” services provide premium fuel for futuristic speeds. More important, the physical connection to your house is still copper. CTTD is not only your father’s copper connection but it was also your great grandfather’s connection.
Disappointingly, Project Lightspeed does nothing to push the global competitiveness of the U.S. network infrastructure. In fact, it puts us more behind other countries.
Korea just announced plans to build 60 ubiquitous cities by 2015. This approach includes high-speed networks as well as integrating RFID tags and smart cards that will impact the integration of supply-chain management within that country. This sounds more substantial than replicating cable and delivering 200 TV channels.
Setting the standard is the sign of an industry leader. Playing catch up or succumbing to providing mediocrity is the sign of a member of the trailing pack.
This lack of leadership does not adhere with the basic principle I established in 1984 for all organizations applying technology: “Leading-edge organizations do not maintain their positions using trailing-edge technology.” That statement still rings very true some two decades later. We are in a much bigger race today as global pressure has upped the stakes for everyone.
Is Project Lightspeed Project Flashlight in Disguise?
Fiber to the node (FTTN) might as well be called “fiber that touches nothing” because it doesn’t even come close to being FTTH or FTTP. The node could be 3,000 feet away from your house. That means you still have more than a half mile of copper in the last mile. This copper can’t be just any copper.
A huge issue that doesn’t get much press is that the copper “must be pristine,” according to an installation expert. If Project Lightspeed is to work, the copper connecting to your house has to be really good. That in itself should be a red flag. Will they have to replace old copper with new copper?
They might as well go with new fiber because copper as a commodity has shot up in price. Is it still a cost-effective solution? I don’t think so. Project Lightspeed just perpetuates Project SCHMOE, which stands for stagecoach-era communications that hinder municipalities, organizations and employees.
In order to be globally competitive, some municipalities and industrial parks already understand that they need gigabit infrastructures today. For example, look at the 800-acre DuPage National Technology Park where they have 10 Gbps connectivity. Project Lightspeed does not promise that at all. The limitation is in the last mile of copper wire.
Why doesn’t AT&T want to spend the money to build the infrastructure right? This is the same company that when it was a monopoly and had locked-in profits would specify platinum connections instead of copper in central offices in order to ensure the highest quality connectivity and quality returns to themselves.
There is also an issue of jobs. How many more jobs could be created if AT&T took the right approach and made Project Lightspeed a full FTTH initiative? If you look at the IBEW in Illinois, they have lost more than 3,000 jobs since 2001. Making Project Lightspeed an FTTH or FTTP project would help create more jobs.
Will AT&T pressure Illinois for concessions by dangling a couple hundred jobs they could transfer out of state? Maybe Illinois should play hardball and say FTTP is a stipulation before any concessions are even considered. That way, everyone wins. Illinois gets a commitment for a real broadband infrastructure, more jobs get created to implement it and AT&T gets its concessions.
I doubt they’ll go for that that, though, as AT&T vice president Mike Tye clearly stated in a recent city council meeting in Naperville, Ill. that full “build out is a deal killer for AT&T”.
Is Project Lightspeed Project Slightspeed?
Let’s cut through all the marketing hype, the industry expert analyses and the bleating of company shills at municipal meetings and go directly to the last mile. In any race, this is very important to winning or ending as the first loser.
This is telecom 101. No matter what people pitch, copper does not come close to fiber in delivering bandwidth to the door. Twisted pair does not even match coaxial cable. Any new construction should be looking at FTTP. If they are cabling areas again, they should be pulling fiber – not copper – as fiber has a much longer useful life as a basic component of the network infrastructure of the future.
The average consumer doesn’t care about the physical wire that comes to the house until it becomes the deciding factor in terms of what speeds they can get.
The average consumer has gotten to be fairly sophisticated in knowing that copper DSL is better than dial-up but not as good as broadband. People back winners. They don’t back whiners. If you want to lead the pack, you have to offer a winning car with heavy horsepower. In this case, it’s heavy bandwidth rather than a stagecoach with flashy decals.
Benefits would like to double check to ensure that your dependants are actually eligible to receive benefits.
You will be receiving a package soon that is going to ask you to provide verification. According to rumors, this package is going to ask you for such things as marriage certificates, birth certificates, and perhaps an income tax return....but not to worry, it also contains information on how to black out information that may not be pertinent.
According to the letter, there will be a chance for you to review your dependants, and make any... ummm... necessary adjustments.
Following that, there will be a short amnesty period.
Following that you will be asked to repay any benefits improperly paid for by the company.
Following that, disciplinary action up to and including dismissal will be implemented.
I hope you are properly outraged, and don't be shy about letting the company know.
A couple of months ago, volunteers were asked for and received to fly down to the Gulf Coast to lend a hand with the hurricane assistance.
Two days before they were to leave, all plans wer cancelled. Despite the fact the employees had cancelled personal plans, gotten vacinations, and already had the airline tickets in hand.
That was only the beginning. The old bait and switch is alive and well today, with volunteers asked for and received to work out of the area locally for a specified period of time, with a specified amount of overtime being told to return early.
The official story is that the work at home is getting out of control with so many people loaned out. But if this is the case, then why is there a cap placed on the Saturday work here, and why are another 20 technicians being asked to leave the area again? Either the work at "home" is out of control and needs to be put away with all hands...or it's not.
Apparently promises made and promises kept are two differnt things, and at least here at the new at&t, a managers word is pretty much worthless.
Management is quick to point out that generally speaking, none of these expecations are really new, but the company wanted to combine them all into one document, and present it to outside employees so that nobody could give the lame excuse of "I didn't know".
Management at all levels also are also quick to point out that they don't actually expect technicians to follow "all" of the rules "all" of the time, because they realize that productivity would grind to a halt if everyone actually followed all of the guidelines.
However, our managers refuse to point out which rules we are expected to follow, and which ones we are not.
They would much prefer for the technicians to decide, and then, if they disagree, they can whip out the "book" and proudly point to the guideline that was not followed, and promptly hand out some unknown level of discipline, that is described in several locations in the document as up to and including dismissal.
In view of the fact that the ultimate penalty for failure to follow the rules is dismissal, and in view of the fact that management does not want to tell us which rules they expect us to abide by and which ones they do not...CWA is recommending that all employees follow all of the rules and expectations outlined in the document 100% of the time.
As you know, it's been our practice for years to offer managers a discount on our products and services. With the broad range of new products, technologies and packages we've launched in the past couple of years, we're now able to offer a new and more comprehensive plan.
In keeping with our commitment to you, and to ensure that our managers always receive a great deal on SBC products and services, starting in March, eligible managers in all 13 states will pay nothing beyond taxes and surcharges to receive:
The SBC@home wireline package, which includes unlimited long distance and all available vertical services, plus
SBC Yahoo! DSL service (where it's available) or SBC Yahoo! Dial service. To help us keep costs down, it's necessary that billing be handled electronically through eBill. Most managers have already signed up for eBill; if you have not, please do so.
The value of this plan is more than $1,000 a year, and we offer it out of appreciation for the great job you do for SBC. I am excited about this well-deserved benefit, and I know that I can count on you to continue spreading the word about SBC's terrific lineup of products.
Thank you for your hard work and continued commitment to SBC.
Managers soon will receive more details on how and when this new concession will be made available. Until then, please do not contact SBC@home or other SBC consumer representatives for information.
Ed Whitacre
In September of 2003, the State of California Department of Industrial Relations Division of Labor Standards Enforcement made a signifigant ruling against SBC.
CWA had filed a grievance on behalf of a member, and also filed a complaint with the Labor Comissioner. The basis of the grievance is that a woman had called in sick on two seperate occasions in order to take her ill daughter to the doctor. SBC had marked her with two unexcused and unpaid absences, and was eventually suspended for not meeting attendance standards.
CWA maintained that this was a violation of State Labor Code Section 233, and the company maintained that this section of the labor code did not apply to them.
The Labor Commissioner ruled on 9/9/03 SBC was indeed in violation of the Labor Code, and was ordered to cease and desisit from discriminating against it's employees because they engaged in protected activities pursuant to Labor Code Section 233.
In addition, they were ordered to make the complainant whole for any loss of pay, benefits, and other economic losses, plus interest.
In it's conclusion, the Labor Commissioner wrote the "While the respondent does not have accured increments of compensated leave, it's ploicy does provide informal paid sick leave for it's employees. Respondent's contention that this policy does not extend to employees' family members as defined in Labor Code Section 233(b)(1)(3) is a subterfudge to evade the requirements of Labor Code Section 233".
Since that time, SBC has continued to refuse to allow it's employees to use paid sick leave in order to attend to an ill family member, in direct violation of the Commissioners decision.
CWA needs to know of any of it's members who have been affected by the company's policy. You are entitled to paid sick leave in order to attend to an ill family member, if SBC has denied you this right, please contact the local each and every time it happens so that we may file additional charges.
Below is the complete text of Labor Code 233
(b) As used in this section:
(1) “Child” means biological, foster, or adopted child, a stepchild, a legal ward, a child of a domestic partner, or a child of a person standing in loco parentis.
(2) “Employer” means any person employing another under any appointment or contract of hire and includes the state, political subdivisions of the state, and municipalities.
(3) “Parent” means a biological, foster, or adoptive parent, a stepparent, or a legal guardian.
(4) “Sick leave” means accrued increments of compensated leave provided by an employer to an employee as a benefit of the employment for use by the employee during an absence from the employment for any of the following reasons:
(A) The employee is physically or mentally unable to perform his or her duties due to illness, injury, or a medical condition of the employee.
(B) The absence is for the purpose of obtaining professional diagnosis or treatment for a medical condition of the employee.
(C) The absence is for other medical reasons of the employee, such as pregnancy or obtaining a physical examination.
“Sick leave” does not include any benefit provided under an employee welfare benefit plan subject to the Federal Income Security Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-406, as amended) and does not include any insurance benefit, workers compensation benefit, unemployment compensation disability benefit, or benefit not payable from the employer’s general assets.
(c) No employer shall deny an employee the right to use sick leave or discharge, demote, suspend, or in any manner discriminate against an employee for using, or attempting to exercise the right to use sick leave to attend to an illness of a child, parent, spouse, or domestic partner of the employee.
(d) Any employee aggrieved by a violation of this section shall be entitled to reinstatement and actual damages, or one day’s pay, whichever is greater, and to appropriate equitable relief.
(e) Upon the filing of a complaint by an employee, the Labor Commissioner shall enforce the provisions of this section in accordance with the provisions of Chapter (commencing with Section 79) of Division 1, including, but not limited to Sections 92, 96.7, 98, and 98.1 to 98.8, inclusive. Alternatively, an employee may bring a civil action for the remedies provided by this section in a court of competent jurisdiction. If the employee prevails, the court may award reasonable attorney’s fees.
(f) The rights and remedies specified in this section are cumulative and nonexclusive and are in addition to any other rights or remedies afforded by contract or under other provisions of law.
2. If you request an emergency partial PDO to visit a physician because you are not feeling well, you will be asked to bring in a note from your doctor stating that you were actually there.
3. If you request time off to attend a funeral for a family member, you will be asked to bring in something from the funeral home in order to prove that you were actually there.
Partial PDO's will no longer be allowed for medical appointments, either use your ADO, or suffer an occurrence on your attendance as an unexcused absence.
Time off to attend a funeral will no longer be granted if the vacation schedule is full.
All of this only makes me wonder if any of these people have actually read the contract, or if they bother to discuss these proposed changes with either Human Resources or the District Level Manager?
By the way, on October 31, 2002 Mr. Whitacre acquired 11,917 shares of SBC stock at an estimated value of $305,790.00. For the
year so far, Ed graciously accepted in excess of 223,000 shares in addition to his rather robust salary. We don't know what Ed paid himself this year, but for year 2001, he received
a salary of $21,000,000.00 God only knows that he is worth every cent.
In total for the year 2002, SBC officers rewarded themselves with the acquisition of shares of SBC stock with market values in excess of
$1,740,004.00 It must be nice to be at the top of the food chain.
"Forty Hour Work Week - The American Way"
"Hirin’ Enough People To Do The Job"
"Treatin’ Employees with Respect Dignity and Trust"
"Providin’ an Adequate Number of Available Cable Facilities"
"Modesty in the Face of Incompetence"
"Ethics, Morals and Fair Play"
These classes will no doubt be offered under the auspices of Chuck
Smith’s "School of Gettin’ Your Head Out of Your Ass Academy."
Passing these classes prior to teaching them is a requisite. There
will be some delays.
About 40 people complaining of burning eyes and respiratory irritation
were evacuated from a Pacific Bell office building in San Francisco yesterday.
One person was taken to a hospital for further observation and the rest
returned to work or went home, said city paramedic division spokesman Peter
Howes.
Howes said paramedics received a call about a possible gas leak at
666 Folsom St. at 3:15 p.m.
Pacific Bell employees said a powerful gaseous or onion like odor permeated
several floors of the building.
``It was extremely strong,'' said one office worker who asked not to
be identified. ``I was getting dizzy -- I had to get out of there.'' Gas
has not been established as a cause of the complaints, said paramedic division
assistant chief Sebastian Wong.
``We're still calling it an unknown substance,'' Wong said.
Seven ambulances and at least one fire engine responded to the incident.
The numerous emergency vehicles slowed an already congested afternoon commute
to the Bay Bridge.
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