TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Buyouts of AT&T, MCI Sign of Long Distance's Demise


Re: Buyouts of AT&T, MCI Sign of Long Distance's Demise


Dave Close (dave@compata.com)
27 Feb 2005 21:11:08 -0800

> This has also happened in the computer world. Once programmers had to
> carefully track every character to avoid wasting scarce computer
> memory, but today memory is so cheap those tracking skills (and
> products) aren't as important anymore either.

I don't think the parallels are very close. The impact of telco
changes are almost purely economic, the cost of carrying a call keeps
going down, but the impact of cheap computer memory has been sloppy
programming. Yes, it gets done more quickly, but it often doesn't work
quite right and no one knows it well enough to fix it.

Of course, "long distance" may be dead, but we still have those, some
of them on this list, who continue to insist on toll-alerting. Any
possible value of that system gets less every day. I say to the
advocates: isn't it about time to admit toll-alerting is a dead-end?

Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA "Politics is the business of getting
dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359 power and privilege without
dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu possessing merit." - P. J. O'Rourke

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