Bill, I read your one-liner about two hours ago, and I'm still laughing:
>if we think the carriers are slow to grasp new concepts, the regulators are in a different century.<
If you think about it, plumbers are licensed after they demonstrate wiping skills, and they have to renew those licenses periodically by taking tests; doctors and lawyers must pass their boards; electrical workers in the IBEW must demonstrate proficiency. But resellers and integrators, never mind the larger players, are home free if they can come up with the cost of the license fees. Once the carrier is in, they are immune, they act with impunity, and no one checks their product performance out on a regular basis (here I'm referring to present-day and emerging techs, not rotary phone dial operation and electro-mechanical cross-bar switches) to see if they perform as advertised. This is indisputable, as it is precisely what we've been discussing here in the past couple of posts.
Public outcries and howls of grief are sometimes the only measures that the regulators have at their disposal to test the performance of providers, as in the case of cable operators whose lines keep going down, or telephone lines that don't work during rain storms.
Any thoughts on this topic of accountability on the parts of the regulators and the service providers? I say the regulators, too, because they are earning taxpayer dollars as compensation for the services they render, and if they are not able to measure the carriers, are they actually earning their keep? Comments?
Regards, Frank C. |
