Honestly watching people’s eyes light up when they see all this, or hold a bare glass optical fiber in their hand, has got to be one of the very best parts of this whole gig.

Lest we grow too accustomed to the technology that profoundly changed my life around age 8 or so.

NOC tours seem like a very 1990's thing, that and 'datacenter tours'.

"Oh you like seeing people at computers and you can't get enough of
that at your home workplace?"
"Oh, you also like cages? me too!! sometimes we put 'racks' in them...
or heavens to gertrude! 'computers'!!"

almost all of this seems like ... really not worth the time for
external people to bother with.
which is maybe why: "Sure, you wanna visit? pay me" (Oh, now you dont'
want to visit? ok, cool!)

On Thu, Jan 7, 2021 at 1:09 PM Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> wrote:

Department of Commerce OIG review of FirstNet request to tour AT&T GNOC

https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/DOC/OIG-21-016-I.pdf

Continued FirstNet Authority Management Attention is Needed to Address

Control Environment Weaknesses

[...]

FirstNet Authority disagreed that the request for a GNOC tour “constituted

a request for ‘additional contract services outside the scope of the

contract.’” In its response, FirstNet Authority stated, “GNOC tours are

not governed or limited by the [NPSBN] contract as these kinds of tours

are commonplace for AT&T to provide to outside parties.”  However, we

found that the contractor only offers a multi-media presentation regarding

the GNOC at its Corporate Briefing Center. FirstNet Authority requested a

visit and tour of the GNOC, which is neither included in the contract nor

offered widely to the public. We reaffirm that the tour was not in the

contract and could be viewed as exerting indirect pressure for the

contractor to perform unreimbursed services outside the contract.

[...]