---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20180316020024.GA13722@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2018 22:00:24 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: New LTE study shows T-Mobile and Verizon are the only networks that matter any more By Chris Mills For the last decade, the cell industry was ruled by a duopoly. Verizon and AT&T were the biggest networks with the most subscribers and best coverage, and it wasn't even close. But in the last few years, T-Mobile has spent aggressively to try and bridge the gap between its network and the competitors. According to the latest OpenSignal regional study, the transformation is complete: Verizon and T-Mobile are in a virtual tie for first place, based on availability and speed, while AT&T and Sprint are duking it out for last place. http://bgr.com/2018/03/15/best-cell-network-2018-t-mobile-vs-verizon-speed-coverage/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180316022146.GA13805@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2018 22:21:46 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Shenandoah Telecommunications' (SHEN) CEO Christopher French on Q4 2017 Results Jennifer Belodeau: Good morning and thank you for joining us. The purpose of today's call is to review Shentel's results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2017. Our results were announced in a press release distributed this morning, and the presentation we'll be reviewing is included on our Investor page at our shentel.com website. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4156721-shenandoah-telecommunications-shen-ceo-christopher-french-q4-2017-results-earnings-call -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180316010037.GA13455@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2018 21:00:37 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Re: Verizon Wireless Closing a Third of US Call Centers, Cutting Customer Service Jobs On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 10:23:30PM +0000, Garrett Wollman wrote: > In article <20180314203137.GA10228@telecom.csail.mit.edu>, > Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> wrote: > > >One of the first things the instructor taught us was that we couldn't > >use the company equipment or conference lines or group-chat capability > >unless we were on the clock, and that we were forbidden to talk to > >each other on our own time. > > That sounds to me like a violation of the National Labor Relations > Act. Are they also pretending that you are "independent contractors" > to avoid paying benefits and payroll taxes? I don't know about any of the others, but I was paid on a W-2. The other trainees were mostly 20-somethings who I guessed had kids in school or were tired of McBurger jobs. I didn't get a very good read on any of them. It would be interesting to see if the NLRA mandates that their employer hand over lists of names and addresses or other contact info. I left after the third week, when I realized that I was being set up to fail - something like 12 separate systems, each with different login credentials and automatic time-outs on a login, so that I would have been constantly struggling just to get the information that I needed to be competent at the job. If that was designed that way, then someone might have a case for age discrimination, although I'm too old. I decided to pull the plug when I was a week away from my 66th birthday. I'm now retired and collecting Social Security, and overjoyed that I can ignore the B.S. that the other trainees are now screen-deep in. Bill -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <p8c7d2$14dl$1@grapevine.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2018 22:23:30 +0000 (UTC) From: wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Verizon Wireless Closing a Third of US Call Centers, Cutting Customer Service Jobs In article <20180314203137.GA10228@telecom.csail.mit.edu>, Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> wrote: >One of the first things the instructor taught us was that we couldn't >use the company equipment or conference lines or group-chat capability >unless we were on the clock, and that we were forbidden to talk to >each other on our own time. That sounds to me like a violation of the National Labor Relations Act. Are they also pretending that you are "independent contractors" to avoid paying benefits and payroll taxes? -GAWollman -- Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together." my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Fri, 16 Mar 2018