The good old days.

How long will it be before we return to the days of the good old GPO
Telephones, when engineers understood what they were doing, quite capable of
coping with emergencies, and staff were not wasted on automated complaints
departments, support newsgroups, help lines, and spam.

We are at present in the hands of dishonest directors and presidents of
un-regulated, unscrupulous International Corporations who are themselves, by
definition, always at casualty-causing war with each other.

All we want is a reliable non-competitive communications service, like gas,
electricity and water supplies. And a simple understandable bill.

Impeach Blair, Bush and Sir Mark Thatcher, and signal-to-noise ratios and
error rates, given time, will then eventually happily look after themselves.
----
Reg, a retired communications engineer.

Graham wrote:
> "Reg Edwards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:cgl5q9$8n2$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> How long will it be before we return to the days of the good old
>> GPO Telephones, when engineers understood what they were doing,
>> quite capable of coping with emergencies, and staff were not
>> wasted on automated complaints departments, support newsgroups,
>> help lines, and spam.
>>
>> We are at present in the hands of dishonest directors and
>> presidents of un-regulated, unscrupulous International
>> Corporations who are themselves, by definition, always at
>> casualty-causing war with each other.
>>
>> All we want is a reliable non-competitive communications service,
>> like gas, electricity and water supplies. And a simple
>> understandable bill.
>>
>> Impeach Blair, Bush and Sir Mark Thatcher, and signal-to-noise
>> ratios and error rates, given time, will then eventually happily
>> look after themselves. ----
>> Reg, a retired communications engineer.
>>
>
>
> Good old days?
>
> My grandmother had her phone in the hall, she actually wanted it in
> the lounge but apparently the PO engineer told her that it was "too
> far from where the wires came in to the house" and also "it was
> usual to have it in the hall"
>
> Needless to say it was on a Party Line
>
> P.s. does anyone make an ADSL router with a 404 plug ?

You forgot the 6 to 9 months wait before they installed it as well...

Reg it would be nice to live in the past, but unfortunately it isn't
possible,I am a multiskilled engineer for bt, most of my time is taken up on
installing and repairing ADSL lines, I spent 2 years at nightschool getting
my ccna, partly funded by bt.and other engineers have a real interest in
pc's broadband etc....we try our hardest to provide a good service, just
remember the comments seen on this newsgroup are from people for who the
"experience" hasn't been very good, but this is a small percentage of the
many thousands of customers that have had a positive experience of broadband
and the new technology Bt have released over the past few years, I for one
wouldn't want to go back to the days of mechanical exchanges and 746 dial
phones that had to be hard wired.
As for emergencies, we are still on 24 hour call, so I don't really
understand this?

Mark.



"Reg Edwards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cgl5q9$8n2$(E-Mail Removed)...
> How long will it be before we return to the days of the good old GPO
> Telephones, when engineers understood what they were doing, quite capable
of
> coping with emergencies, and staff were not wasted on automated complaints
> departments, support newsgroups, help lines, and spam.
>
> We are at present in the hands of dishonest directors and presidents of
> un-regulated, unscrupulous International Corporations who are themselves,
by
> definition, always at casualty-causing war with each other.
>
> All we want is a reliable non-competitive communications service, like
gas,
> electricity and water supplies. And a simple understandable bill.
>
> Impeach Blair, Bush and Sir Mark Thatcher, and signal-to-noise ratios and
> error rates, given time, will then eventually happily look after
themselves.
> ----
> Reg, a retired communications engineer.
>
>

"Kráftéé" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:412e3264$0$79355$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Graham wrote:
> > "Reg Edwards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:cgl5q9$8n2$(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> How long will it be before we return to the days of the good old
> >> GPO Telephones,
<snip>
> > Good old days?
> >
> > My grandmother had her phone in the hall, she actually wanted it in
> > the lounge but apparently the PO engineer told her that it was "too
> > far from where the wires came in to the house" and also "it was
> > usual to have it in the hall"
> >
> > Needless to say it was on a Party Line
> >
> > P.s. does anyone make an ADSL router with a 404 plug ?
>
> You forgot the 6 to 9 months wait before they installed it as well...
>

Or the abundance of public 'call boxes' on every other road.

Perhaps not everything was good about the 'Good Old Days', but it was as a
service and not just a means of paying directors expencive bonuses...

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 20:34:01 +0100, Graham wrote:

> Good old days?
>
> My grandmother had her phone in the hall, she actually wanted it in the
> lounge but apparently the PO engineer told her that it was "too far from
> where the wires came in to the house" and also "it was usual to have it in
> the hall"
>
> Needless to say it was on a Party Line
>
> P.s. does anyone make an ADSL router with a 404 plug ?

*plug*??? that's a bit modern isn't it???

"Reg Edwards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cgl5q9$8n2$(E-Mail Removed)...
> How long will it be before we return to the days of the good old GPO
> Telephones, when engineers understood what they were doing, quite capable
of
> coping with emergencies, and staff were not wasted on automated complaints
> departments, support newsgroups, help lines, and spam.
>
> We are at present in the hands of dishonest directors and presidents of
> un-regulated, unscrupulous International Corporations who are themselves,
by
> definition, always at casualty-causing war with each other.
>
> All we want is a reliable non-competitive communications service, like
gas,
> electricity and water supplies. And a simple understandable bill.
>
> Impeach Blair, Bush and Sir Mark Thatcher, and signal-to-noise ratios and
> error rates, given time, will then eventually happily look after
themselves.
> ----
> Reg, a retired communications engineer.
>


Good old days?

My grandmother had her phone in the hall, she actually wanted it in the
lounge but apparently the PO engineer told her that it was "too far from
where the wires came in to the house" and also "it was usual to have it in
the hall"

Needless to say it was on a Party Line

P.s. does anyone make an ADSL router with a 404 plug ?

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 19:58:40 +0100, "Kráftéé"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>You forgot the 6 to 9 months wait before they installed it as well...
You must be getting rather long in the tooth then it was 1961 before
we ever had a phone in the house and it only took about three weeks
then .
Wombat .

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 19:58:40 +0100, "Kráftéé"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> >You forgot the 6 to 9 months wait before they installed it as well...
> You must be getting rather long in the tooth then it was 1961 before
> we ever had a phone in the house and it only took about three weeks
> then .

Yeh, but you had an exchange in the neighbourhood already !... :~)

"marky" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cglco7$2rl$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Reg it would be nice to live in the past, but unfortunately it isn't
> possible,I am a multiskilled engineer for bt, most of my time is taken up
on
> installing and repairing ADSL lines, I spent 2 years at nightschool
getting
> my ccna, partly funded by bt.and other engineers have a real interest in
> pc's broadband etc....we try our hardest to provide a good service, just
> remember the comments seen on this newsgroup are from people for who the
> "experience" hasn't been very good, but this is a small percentage of the
> many thousands of customers that have had a positive experience of
broadband
> and the new technology Bt have released over the past few years, I for
one
> wouldn't want to go back to the days of mechanical exchanges and 746 dial
> phones that had to be hard wired.
> As for emergencies, we are still on 24 hour call, so I don't really
> understand this?
>
===================================

Hi Marky, very pleased to be in communication with one of my successors.

I reallise we cannot get back to pole-climbing and carrier system crosstalk
re-balancing days. Nobody wants to. Those days went when the transistor,
electronic exchanges and Shannon's mathematics took over. And the daily work
of engineering staff must be just as conscientious as it ever was. I was for
some years available at zero hours notice liable to be called to foreign
countries even when family members were due for hospital operations. All
for no extra pay. Nevertheless I enjoyed it.

I retired at about the right time (I am now 78). But what has changed since
then is the attitude of senior management which is politically dependent. It
is more serious than just placing shareholders interests above those of the
customer. Because these days the customers are also shareholders. It affects
lifestyles - even personal safely. We are ruled by International
corporations rather than by so-called democratic governments.

The relatively few people who complain about service quality on walls such
as these are just the tip of the iceburg.

But keep up the good work. My pension depends on it. ;o)
----
Reg.

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 20:13:36 +0100, ":::Jerry::::" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:
>Or the abundance of public 'call boxes' on every other road.
>
>Perhaps not everything was good about the 'Good Old Days', but it was as a
>service and not just a means of paying directors expencive bonuses...
There is a lot to be said for the life we had back in the pre sixties
it was a much better life than we have today pubs closing at a
reasonable hour police out on the streets at all hours of the day and
night ON FOOT . Firemen willing to work putting out fires without the
though's of striking seeing your GP was no problem and no appointment
times that they where unable to keep either no large queues waiting in
the A & E at the hospital no VAT no being told what to do by Brussels
and children where taught how to read write and add up and not taught
how to play with damn computers .
Wombat .