Providing PBX, VOIP and Unified Communications solutions to businesses in California since 1979.
Telco
Behemoth AT&T vs Rickety CWA Union
At the clang of the Midnight bell on Saturday, March 4th, the contract between AT&T West and the District 9 chapter of the Communications Workers Of America expired. Today the organizations are working without a contract and the union has staged a work slowdown. I don’t know much about the machinations of unions but I think I know how to interpret this excerpt from one of their latest news releases: “We encourage all members to work...
Brace for an AT&T Strike
Here’s the latest report from the Communications Workers Of America website regarding their union negotiations with AT&T: Today the subcommittees met in an attempt to resolve some of our differences around Article 2 and Work Rules/Appendices. In today’s formal session the Company rejected the Union proposal for time off. Our proposal included language that a minimum of 25% of a work group could be off at any given time. The Company passed two more retrogressive...
Service In The Time Of Recession
Yesterday a business associate and I were lamenting the state of customer service in our industry. The discussion got around to AT&T and their perpetual poor service, now compounded by their recent layoffs. We agreed that many of our customers don’t mind getting poor service from “the phone company”. However, they have a much higher expectation when it comes to Teledynamic and other telecom providers. Instead of whining...
Hosted VOIP PBX Industry Experiencing Growing Pains
Over the past few weeks, I've heard of numerous stories of hosted VOIP providers who are experiencing business problems. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a critic of the PBX-as-a-service industry. For certain applications and customers, it's the perfect solution. In fact, our company sells hosted VOIP for specific applications. However, much like its analog predecessor Centrex, it's a one-size-fits-all product, with very little capability to customize the service to...
Carrier Salespeople Launch Competitor Sniping Attacks
Over the past couple of weeks, I've received a number of emails from CLEC and LEC carrier salespeople. They all have a common theme - Their competitors are all doing horrible in this recession. The meaning, although usually unstated, is that the email author works for the only telephone company in the industry that will survive today's dire straits. Here's an excerpt from one of the missives: Sprint Losing a lot of lines, especially...