Jean:
I don't know about PrimeCo but they're still in cahoots on the
wireless side with Airtouch (ATI) which I personally think is
another untimely investment because of the looming cellular wars
coming to its home turf of California and, since the Street's price
of ATI has dropped from over 35 to about 24, I'd say that's the
current sentiment.
Staying long on T may be a wise move...like I say, I don't think
T is a "timely" investment for the short term but in the long run
it may end up as the dominant telco in the world. It'll never be
"Ma Bell" again but neither will any of the others.
Yes, indeed, the old timers in the telco businesses were trained
to give their all but, unfortunately, AT&T has never been very good
to its employees as witnessed by those mass layoffs while, at the
same time, T's CEO was awarding himself record bonuses and options.
But Ma Bell got to be Ma Bell because of its ruthless strategies
of the past: if you've never read a good history of how the Bell
system was put together, it makes for some good cloak-and-dagger
stuff. The folks who put Ma Bell together fit the bill of the old
"robber barons" in the mold of old Joe Kennedy and Andrew Carnegie.
That's another reason why I like PAC and SBC and AIT and even NYN--
they've operated on a "we value the individual" credo and have done
so for many years. That is definitely NOT the case with AT&T and
GTE (which has treated its employees with particular shoddiness over
the last couple of years).
My references to GTE must sound like sour grapes but I have nothing
personal to do with that outfit other than being a forced customer
with no choice (except to move to another area) and a technician who's
had to deal with that unfortunate organization in the past. Ask any
tech who's had to shoot trouble through GTE territory and they'll be
able to clarify my "opinion."
Just consider yourself fortunate, as you mentioned, that you're served
by one of the Regional Bells and AT&T. And you don't always get what
you pay for--GTE in this area gets to charge $6 more for its basic rate than PacBell does and that's another gyp as far as we're concerned since PAC's territory starts less than a mile from us. The
CPUC's justification for awarding GTE the higher rates is to say that
GTE has fewer local customers and therefore their "cost basis" is
higher. Right: higher cost for poorer service! As I said, many of
us think that when true competition comes in, GTE's customers will
leave in droves.
As always, that's just an opinion and, by the way, I don't work for
PAC or GTE or any other big telco so I don't have any personal
scores with any of them...those opinions are just from what I've seen
and heard and had to deal with over my years as a tech.
OH YEAH! It just hit me...PCS Primeco is the consortium that ATI is
involved in so, yes, that is correct! |
