This is a comment on the recent exchange between your columnist Benjie Watts and the BellSouth manager in Asheville, Mr. Spooner, regarding the performance or lack thereof by BellSouth in moving Mr. Watts' phone service. Mr. Spooner thought Mr. Watts' comments a little over the line about what he perceived as poor service. They may have been.
President Theodore Roosevelt, Mr. Watts, once explained his foreign policy this way: "I'll speak softly and carry a big stick." That should be Mr. Watts' approach to BellSouth. You don't have to read too deeply between the lines to see the source of Mr. Watts' irritation. First, there's the "Asheville" part; nothing in the phone business is "local" any more. In my 15 years as North Carolina public relations manager for the company that became Sprint, I saw "local" go away. The lines we served more than doubled, while our work force shrunk by about 60 percent.
Second is just the arrogance of big companies,especially big utilities. Mr. Spooner noted that Mr. Watts' protests "will not change the process." Amen; let me share a quick story about something that might.
Last summer, Sprint came to my property and buried a perpendicular line across me and two neighbors,connecting two parallel pole lines to serve a fourth party. They had no easement, they didn't ask anyone's permission, and they buried the line anyway--didn't matter that they already had an aerial line overhead.
In the ensuing war of words, they reneged on a promise to buy a proper easement and pulled out a 32-year-old Blue Ridge Electric easement that they claimed gave them the right to do anything they wanted. Even that
document clearly required them to use "existing" pole lines and trenches or to stay "along roads, streets and highways"--which they didn't.
In effect, they told three families--all good-paying customers--where they could go. They wouldn't pay for an easement, but they eventually abandoned their ill-gotten line, and spent thousands of dollars more to relocate their facilities about 50 yards away. It was pure arrogance on Sprint's part that defied all logic.
Mr. Watts, you are not powerless with BellSouth, nor was I with Sprint.
My first "big stick" was to rid myself of a $110-per-month Sprint phone bill, including DSL and long distance. I discontinued my DSL and bought high-speed broadband service from a local company called North Carolina Wireless. Now, my internet comes to an antenna on my chimney from a tower on Hibriten Mountain, 4.7 miles away.
"Big stick" number two was a call to Sprint's corporate headquarters, instructing them to start my pension payments July 1. Although 18 months sooner than I had planned, it felt good to see Sprint paying me a lot more per month than I had been paying them.
The third "big stick" was to replace my regular Sprint phone service with VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), a service like widely advertized Vonage. I pay $19.99 per month for phone service that piggybacks on my broadband, and I get 21 services, including unlimited coast-to-coast long distance. I kept my same phones and phone number, and I program the services I want on my home computer. I especially like having calls I miss at home connected to my cell phone.
My fourth "big stick" is I tell everyone I can about my experiences with an arrogant phone company and what some of their options are should they need to "fight back" themselves. I also tell folks that my total phone and internet bill is $35 per month less than it was with Sprint. I think about that at least once a month when I eat out with my wife.
Believe me, Mr. Watts, you can change your phone service to new providers and get BellSouth's attention a lot quicker than your column apparently did. I love to tell people about their communications options in a modern world, and Sprint pays me now.
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