On February 28, 1998, one of my phones was out again and I called an AT&T operator for help. I was given a repair service person who ran a test and reported that the problem was due to a cable failure in my area (see panel 4 of transcript). She explained that a cable failure might or might not affect all the lines at once. She told me it should be fixed by March 2, 6:00 p.m.

When I said I had experienced many cable failure outages in the past 2 years and asked if anything could be done to remedy the situation, she explained that AT&T runs off of Pacific Bell's cables and it would be up to Pacific Bell to replace them, which would be the only way to stop all the cable failure outages. But she points out this would be very costly for Pacific Bell.

I came across the article below in our local newspaper recently. I wonder how Pacific Bell and AT&T Management feel about Ameritech's solution to unreliable service due to lack of repairs and upgrades on its system. It certainly seems as if they are in complete agreement, wouldn't you say? When I joined AT&T I thought they would back me up when cable failures occurred, since Pacific Bell's poor cables reflect on them too, but AT&T's management doesn't seem to care any more than Pacific Bell's.

I say again that it is mainly the management and the attorneys who seem to have this attitude. Operators and repair technicians of both companies have been courteous and helpful, and seem to care about doing their best to provide a good service.