What's new in telecom? It's a digital world Telecom News AT&T, (formerly SWB Corp) of San Antonio, the most muscular of the "Baby Bell" surviviors from the infamous break-up of the old Bell System in 1984 has purchased Bellsouth. The new company is now operating under the AT&T name. By buying Bellsouth, they will add the Cingular wireless arm to the mix. Recently, AT&T asked the NC Utilities Commission to no longer regulate their rates and to no longer hold them to service quality standards that involve fines for violations. Several consumer advocate groups are opposed to the idea. Their contention is that it will lead to lousy service at higher prices.....we agree. It's a bad idea. ...speaking of lousy service, Nextel figured out how to not have to do anything about 1000 of their customers who were reporting troubles - they disconnected them! They blamed customers for clogging up their customer service department and said they could not satisfy them, so they had probably best move on.....doesn't sound like the proper way to handle a customer's complaint to us..they are complaining for a reason! Concord-based CTC Communications has been bought for $585M by Little Rock-based Windstream Communications(the old Alltel), and the sale is final pending shareholder approval. This was a family-owned telco founded in 1897. There is still no word on whether the name will change. Consider a telephone system capable of VoIP (voice over IP) especially if you do a lot of international or long distance calling or have branch offices. With a flat rate monthly account with one of the Internet telephony service providers - the best known is Vonage, but there are others. You can often save enough to offset the price of the system. You just have to do the math - or we'll do the math. A short analysis can help determine if a VoIP system would save you money. 90% of the inquiries about new telephone systems that we get are customers shopping for VoIP! Reporting a telephone trouble....first things first. Is it a telephone line trouble that needs to be reported to the telephone company, or an telephone equipment trouble that needs to be reported to DTEL? Here's a couple of things you can do to isolate it and give us a more accurate report. If a phone is acting up, try moving it to another jack that is working. If the trouble follows the phone, it is most likely the phone that is bad. If in doubt, call us here and we'll try to help you sort it before you call your telephone company unnecessarily and get billed unnecessarily. If a line is dead or noisy, is it dead or noisy at all phones? If so, it could be a line trouble. Report it and have the telephone company test it (which they will do for free). Do not authorize a dispatch (which they will not do for free) if they tell you they think their line is good. If this occurs, you have effectively isolated the trouble; call DTEL and we'll take it from there. Back up power for your phone system is not only convenient when a thunderstorm rolls through, it also acts as a last layer of protection from surges, brownouts, and other minor power fluctuations and feeds a nice, clean 120v/60hz to your system. A UPS, or uninterruptibe power supply (also called a battery back-up) will extend the life of your system and protect it from "dirty" power. They do need the batteries changed out periodically - usually at 3 yr intervals, and the batteries are inexpensive. Start a "TELEPHONE" file, either paper or electronic, that the person responsible for the phone system can maintain. Nothing fancy - a folder in the equipment room will do fine - just some general configuration information for the phones and the voice mail, and will create a historical paper trail of service calls by DTEL, the telephone company, software upgrades, expansions, moves, and changes. This type of info can save a tech time by very quickly orienting them to your individual setup. DTEL techs can make back-up discs on most systems for disaster recovery also.