They ate the whole thing.... At 02:56 PM 5/6/97 -0400, Eric D. Madison wrote:

That's very true, GTE is very lacking in customer service, but not as bad as some of the RBOC's. GTE used to be a good phone company, I know, I used to work for them, but since they have started contracting out all of it's outside plant operations they have really went down hill. GTE buying some large NSP shouldn't come to any surprise to anyone though. GTE is still the largest LEC in the US (barring the NYNEX/Bell Atlantic merger). Eventually all the large NSP's will be bought by a facilities based carrier, it is the only economical way to offer service and be competitive. Don't be surprised if some other large NSP's get acquired in the near future. Free enterprise is and always has been based on the motto, "If you can't compete with a company, buy it." It's the same thing that has been happening in the Software/Hardware world.

One question though, did GTE acquire BBN totally, or just Planet/Saturn? BBN is mainly research, BBN Planet and BBN Saturn is just part of the BBN company as a whole.

Eric

_______________________________________________________ Eric D. Madison - Senior Network Engineer - ACSI - Advanced Data Services - ATM/IP Backbone Group 24 Hour NMC/NOC (800)291-7889 Email: noc@acsi.net

On Tue, 6 May 1997, Chris Steinke wrote:

...

As a long time customer of GTE for both personal and business services I really feel sorry for BBN and it's customers. Hopefully BBN will not let GTE get too involved with BBN's operations. GTE has got to be the worst telco in the world. Their service is horrific, their billing is a mess, and I have serious doubts about the competence of their technicians. I can't tell you how many times they have screwed up a simple frame relay installation or even plain old telephone services! There completely clueless!

-- Chris Steinke Systems Engineer Cinenet Communications ____/| cjs@cinenet.net \o.0 | Oop ACK Ptpthptpt =(_)= U

Ken Gray || || ISP Systems Engineer || || Reston, Virginia USA |||| |||| tel: +1.703.397.5942 ..:||||||:..:||||||:.. e-mail: kegray@cisco.com c i s c o S y s t e m s fax: +1.703.397.5999