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September 13, 2004

Just in! 3:00 p.m. (PST) update

The Wall Street Journal reports Qwest's former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio could face civil charges for the accounting scandal at the telco. Good. J.R. Snyder Jr. (internal link) says it's really difficult to appreciate from a distance how much resentment customers now have against the Qwest, the renamed, former regional Bell System telephone company. What went on?

Corporate raiding came to telecom, tearing down what had been carefully built up over decades. It's what happened when the Roman Empire finally fell. People in formerly conquered territories did nothing to surpass Roman building, they did the opposite, pulling carefully laid stones out of well made Roman roads to use for their own houses and walls. Public infrastructure fell apart and would not be improved on until the 18th century.

Two years ago U.S. Representative Diana DeGette laid out the Qwest story before a House subcommittee:

"As most of my colleagues know, US West, the predecessor to Qwest, was created with the break-up of Ma Bell, as one of the Baby Bells serving the Rocky Mountain region. US West was a solid, profitable, and traditional company with strong ties to the community. The stock certainly wasn't the riskiest, but the company was a valuable part of the community and a good corporate citizen. Exactly what you'd want your grandmother to invest in."

"In June 2000, in the waning days of the go-go Internet boom, a group of cowboys by the name of Qwest rode into town and acquired US West. These cowboys promised big changes. Higher profits. New innovation. Instead of a traditional telephone company they would turn the new Qwest into a model of the so-called new economy. This led to a corporate transition bumpier than most. The top management changed almost completely. Service problems abounded. There were painful layoffs and an almost complete halt of corporate charitable giving. This led to a dramatic change in corporate culture that had a serious affect on morale."

"In the years since Qwest's new management took over, their bad business decisions have had a significant impact on our local economy, the local workforce and the community as a whole. And now it appears that the problems might be much worse than simply poor business decisions. That is why we are here today. Not to belittle anyone or condemn without proof of wrongdoing, but rather to determine whether we are dealing with another instance of corporate malfeasance."

An anonymous source tells me:

"An AP report says the story was broken by a Qwest union (Communications Workers of America) official. As you can see there is no mention of that in the WSJ article.:

"Officially Qwest is not acknowledging any of the Wells notices to former executives because they are no longer a part of the company. I'm sure there's legal reasons also. Additionally, and this is alluded to in the WSJ story ("Qwest continues to face shareholder lawsuits and an investigation by the Justice Department. Qwest recently set aside $300 million in addition to an existing $200 million reserve for litigation."), Qwest faces some of it's own legal problems which I'm now hearing from inside that are even deeper than I thought."

"I am relieved, of only slightly to read: "To live up to high expectations, Qwest senior executives and staff participated in a culture in which fraud and hype were pervasive, according to people with knowledge of the SEC's final draft complaint against the company. The report also says Qwest hyped communications about its performance with investors." I was corporate staff and I was becoming so stressed out from the conflicts with my values that it was making me ill. I didn't participate in supporting any of those things, to the detriment of my employment, which I'm way beyond dwelling over."

"In any case, the CWA Union VP, John Thompson, who made the announcement in a formal press conference, naturally infuriated current Qwest execs. CWA is laying the groundwork, in their own inimitable way, for labor negotiations, a la the major airline carriers, because Qwest is about to start asking for concessions from the union."

September 11, 2004

Let's pause to remember, this day. Okay? This is a very good read about September 11th. (internal link)

Q. What's the employment outlook for telecom? I have a military background with radar. (This answer compiled from several sources.)

A.Telecom has been pretty down for a while, but it's starting to recover. You might look into going into the cellular biz as a cell tech. Maintenance work of cellular transmittting equipment. The pay seems to be decent, and benefits are good. The downside is that there is nightwork from time to time, and if you really like getting into trouble shooting circuits, forget it. It's board swapping. They seem to like ex-military radar guys. Many telecoms (wireline and wireless) use a lot of microwave, so your radar background would stand you in good stead.

There are various jobs posted by Verizon Wireless right now:

https://careers.verizonwireless.com/erphrprd/home/

careerhome1.html(external link)

Select the "Network" box and an area if you want to be picky, and see what they have.

There are also positions in the NOC, or Network Operations Center. These are folks that watch screens for alarms on various pieces of the network. The pay won't be as good as a cell tech, but it is more of an entry level job. It could be a foot in the door kind of thing, if they think you aren't qualified for cell tech. But I suspect you are.

Cingular just bought AT&T Wireless, so I don't know what will happen with AT&T from one market to the next. In a few places there may be some layoffs, but I expect that will happen mostly in management and sales/marketing. Until the paperwork is complete, they're probably not hiring anyway.

Sprint PCS is a lousy company - they can never make up their minds and have had frequent layoffs.

Nextel is a possibility, though their future is a bit uncertain.

SureWest Wireless out of Roseville, California is excellent. On the wireline side Roseville Telephone are the same good people.

Alltel is a regional company scattered around the south. HQ in Little Rock. I hear they are good to work for.

Stay away from small companies - you won't get training. And speaking of which, don't ever quit learning. Grab as much training as you can. I've seen what happens to people who rest on their laurels. Dead end jobs. Technology moves fast, especially in telecom. Stay up to date or get left behind. WHATEVER YOU DO, LEARN ABOUT NETWORKING. TCP/IP IS THE FUTURE (internal link) OF ALL COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS. At least for the next 5-10 years, anyway.

I wish you well - I know what unemployment is like!

September 10, 2004

Question for Mark van der Hoek

Mark: I understand mergers between carriers might cause a cell site to shut down. Any other factors?

Two rare instances, one policy, the other technical. Qwest Wireless decided to shut down their network and become a reseller on Sprint's network. Some of their sites were sold to Sprint, some to Verizon, and some were decommissioned. That's a unique event in wireless. Sometimes a carrier will have a 'boomer' site -- a site that was put up early in the network, at a high elevation. Now it covers too far, and a half dozen sites are built to replace it and the boomer is eradicated. That's a 'time to time' kind of thing.

The fantasy phone for the fashion-conscious

A cell phone with a dial!? "The sleek and sexy Nokia 7280 offers a completely new mobile phone design, foregoing the traditional keypad for a discreet keyless dial." Whatever. Nokia hasn't released a closeup photograph of this new/old interface but they sure have marketing nonsense to share. This is very funny:

"When twilight falls, prowl the night with the mysterious Nokia 7280 phone. Shrouded in the mystery is a passion that will only reveal itself as you slide it open. Its sublime form is exquisitely crafted, leaving you with a slim, sleek object of beauty, unmatched by any other. You and the Nokia 7280 phone, a combination that's as compelling as the night."

September 9, 2004

The itchy and scratchy show

I've developed several spots of poison oak from my hiking last weekend. I may spend some time today in a creek or river, seeking some cooling, calming water. The prescription cream Fluocinonide works well enough for me before the poison oak breaks out and starts running, ice packs are my only relief when it does. Not getting it means covering up: long sleeve shirts and pants even in hot weather. You cannot depend on preventative medicines to work; they do for some people, others will not be helped.

Our resident curmudgeon checks in

Smarty Jones, Ace Emergency Dispatcher, sounds off on the problem of 911 and VOIP:

"In spite of all the FCC orders and proclamations of bureaucrats, politicians, business people and so on, wireless ALI or automatic line identification, is nowhere near meeting the deadline for the vast majority. Implementing it is fraught with problems. Realistically it's not going to happen for a long time. The problems are way too complex to go into here. But check the article below. VoIP? Hah! 911 people are totally against it because it inconveniences them even more than wireless. . . " (internal link, continues here with an article from Slate.com.)

Alcatel Telecommunications Review

Their latest issue is excellent. Instead of their typical thematic approach, Alcatel this quarter publishes a variety of topics about communication systems all over the world:

http://www.alcatel.com/atr/ (external link)

One fascinating article is entitled "High speed Internet in sparsely populated areas." It's a must read, I think this satellite based solution will be coming to America soon, providing web access and VOIP to many areas too small to afford broadband or to those off the grid completely. Perhaps a franchise opportunity?

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