[AusNOG] OT: Regulator rings the changes for telcos, isps

[Royce Ausburn]

I'm not sure that lack of innovation, technical training, or telco to telco cooperation is what they're trying to address here.  Looking at the statistics (http://www.tio.com.au/statisticsQtr.htm) it's pretty clear that the problem is at the business process end.  A vast majority of the complaints are customer service/billing related.  Faults + provisioning comes in at 14% in Dec 2009, the rest are billing and customer service.  Seems the technical people are doing a comparatively fine job ;) 

I wonder whether this is reaction is a product of the mere presence of statistics.... AFAIK there are few other industries that are subjected to the same sort of scrutiny.  Personally I've had more billing/customer service problems with non telco utilities - it'd be interesting to compare statistics.  If we really think we're being treated unfairly by the regulators/government, I think we should push to start collecting stats on other utilities as well.

--Royce

On 22/04/2010, at 8:52 AM, Daniel Hood wrote:

> I think so telco's are lazy though. (Note, the I think... My opinion).
> How much training did Telstra used to provide their techs 20 years ago
> before they were allowed to touch an exchange by themselves as opposed
> to today? How many times have you called an SP customer service desk
> (except for a minor few) and had someone answer who doesn't understand
> the products the SP you are calling is offering? (E.G, being asked
> "Whats ISDN?" is not what I want to hear calling an SP's phone
> business support line) How can some customers make informed decisions
> when the "tech" on the other end of the phone has no idea what they're
> asking you?
> 
> Otherwise, I agree with the previous statements.
> 
> Daniel
> 
> On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 1:12 AM, Mark Newton <newton at internode.com.au> wrote:
>> 
>> On 21/04/2010, at 10:41 PM, Sean K. Finn wrote:
>> 
>> Exactly what problem is this fixing? How many rouge network operators or
>> ISP’s even exist here?
>> 
>> Understand that we have a Government who perceives telcos as enemies
>> who need to be vanquished, and who will use legislation as weaponry to
>> reach that goal.
>> They have a picture in their minds about what an ISP/Telco is supposed to
>> be.  Our industry currently doesn't match that picture, largely because they
>> don't know what they're doing and they've just made the picture up.  Their
>> world view says that Telcos are lazy and recalcitrant for making no moves
>> towards conforming with that picture over the last two decades, and since
>> we're clearly not going to do it voluntarily they will continue to attack
>> this
>> industry through regulation until we line up with the picture, or
>> until they're
>> made to stop for some other reason.
>> Anyway, it's easy to attack us, because Telcos never fight back.  Free kicks
>> all 'round.
>> Fundamentally, they view us as gatekeepers to the network, with a
>> responsibility to control it.
>> From that standpoint, they hold us responsible for our customers making
>> uneducated decisions against their best interests;  For our customers
>> breaching copyright;  For our customers viewing websites that offend them;
>> For our customers running insecure malware-infested systems at home.
>> In each instance we say, "We try our best to help them, but at the end of
>> the day we're just conduits, providing internet access. Customers decide
>> how they use it, we have no control over that."
>> And, at a very deep level, this Government simply doesn't agree.
>>   - mark
>> 
>> --
>> Mark Newton                               Email:  newton at internode.com.au
>> (W)
>> Network Engineer                          Email:  newton at atdot.dotat.org
>>  (H)
>> Internode Pty Ltd                         Desk:   +61-8-82282999
>> "Network Man" - Anagram of "Mark Newton"  Mobile: +61-416-202-223
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> AusNOG mailing list
>> AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net
>> http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog
>> 
>> 
> _______________________________________________
> AusNOG mailing list
> AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net
> http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog
>