In what is a very good report from Dawn Kawamoto and Ben Charney, AT&T CEO Dave Dorman reveals the missteps of his predecessors, shows a great affinity for the cable guys, and takes a swipe at the RBOC’s who sell DSL and don’t get VoIP.
The story, which is one of the best to come from CNET’s News.com on VoIP in a while really brings together many of the factors we have been covering here on VoIPWatch. So, while much of the story is more of what WE already know, it’s great that the story is getting out to the masses, which is what AT&T wants to accomplish.
The “make the enemy my friend” line is classic too and likely comes from Tsun Tsau, The Art of War. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
Also, Dorman’s candor about the ills of the past speak volumes for the future. AT&T did miss the boat under his predecessors. Sure the marketer in Dorman is at work, but its the kind of delivery that should reassure Wall Street and consumers both, and those are really the two audiences that matter.
I have had a terrible experience with AT&T service with respect to callvaltage. I signed up for CallVantage in early August 2004. Lately, I realized that very often when someone tries to call my number, it goes directly to voice mail (even though I have call waiting). I called my number using my cell phone a number of times and confirmed the problem. callvantage claims that if the ISP is sending any upgrades or if some information packet is lost, then it disconnects the phone and there is no way for me to know that the phone is not receiving calls unless I keep checking frequently. Incidentally, I have DSL service from AT&T. CallVantage refuses to speak to their sister DSL dept and sort out the problem. I don’t see any reason why the ISP should stop sending upgrades. It should be callvantage’s responsibility to make sure that the phone works. They cannot assume that the consumer will know when an upgrade is made or when an information packet is lost. They also do not respond to questions in mail. They insist on having the consumer call them up, and if you do call, you will have to wait for a long time before someone answers your phone. Incidentally, if you encounter a problem over the weekend, do not bother to call them. They don’t work on weekends. I had the problem and called them from my cell phone (not serviced by AT&T) and got a message that they are closed over the weekends. I had VOIP earlier with cablevision and never had any problem.