Have not seen this posted here yet either. Make sure you read the bolded paragraph.
Looks like GBLX is stealing customers from Q.
Fez
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INFORMATION WEEK
February 14, 2000, Issue: 773
Section: Services
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Qwest Pays Price For Rapid Growth -- Carrier Struggles With Service Problems; Some Customers Look For Other Options
Bob Wallace
Building a customer base too quickly sometimes can backfire. Take Qwest Communications International Inc., which has gained so many new customers that its network hasn't been able to keep up with demand. In the last two months alone, problems in Qwest's network have resulted in extensive frame relay service slowdowns and circuit outages, the latest spanning 11 days.
The carrier also confirmed customer complaints that circuit setup is taking several weeks, and that space is short in one of its hosting centers.
The problems are the result of Qwest's failure to plan and engineer its network to meet soaring demand for services, says Lisa Pierce, a telecom program manager at Giga Information Group. "Because they're a newer carrier, they've been fixed on promoting themselves," she says. "Their ability to throw money and people at service problems is limited, so they have to plan right the first time. If they fail to service their customers, they won't have to worry about upgrading their network."
One user says poor customer service, long provisioning times, and service interruptions made him switch to Global Crossing Ltd. Low prices, producing $35,000 to $40,000 in annual savings, attracted Argents Express Group Ltd., an international shipping-coordination firm, to Qwest, says IT manager John Dogger. The company had been using Qwest's frame relay service to link five U.S. cities. "We're thankfully in the process of converting [to Global Crossing] after 14 months with Qwest," he says.
During an outage last month, Dogger logged more than 50 outages on two circuits. He sent Qwest details on the service shutdowns and requested compensation for not meeting service-level agreements. Dogger hasn't heard from Qwest, but a spokeswoman says Qwest will honor the agreements.
Qwest says the outage was caused by a faulty processor on a Lucent Technologies Inc. frame relay/ATM switch in Los Angeles. For 10 days in late January, an undisclosed number of customers had periodic outages of frame relay connections and service slowdowns. Qwest decided the quickest way to solve the problem was to replace the switch.
Qwest says it doesn't have systematic maintenance or provisioning problems, but is building an all-optical network that will cut setup times by 95% and dramatically reduce network complexity.
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