Sunday, February 10, 2008

The Verizon Intelligence Agency?

Fixing a problem without getting rid of the underlying cause is a blueprint for disaster. An unwillingness on the part of one company to share even the most inane of information with another company is what led in part to the disasters of 9-11. Information sharing between our nation's two covert agencies, the Fedral Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency proved fatal as each jealously held onto their own pieces of a puzzle. And just as in a jig-saw puzzle if one or more parts are missing the final picture may never be seen.
Naturally the following story is nowhere near as momentous as the events of that September day but in a small way it shows that big business has not learned from others' mistakes and probably never will. Their only line is the bottom one.
In the Newsday’s Community Watchdog section of Sunday February 10, 2008 it was reported that a problem had been fixed. A large overgrown tree in someone's back yard had to be cut down as it was embedded in the overhead phone lines. Unfortunately after the tree was removed wood remnants remained stuck on the lines. To make matters worse the wood occasionally showed signs of smooldering.
Aside from being a fire hazard the wood posed a danger to anyone unlucky enough to be under it when gravity took over. This included children playing in the back yard.
Repeated calls to Verizon produced no results and it was not until the home owner found out that the lines were actually owned by Cablevision that the wood was removed.
It seems that when Verizon originally sent their people to examine the problem they discovered that the lines belonged to Cablevision so they chose to do nothing. A simple inexpensive phone call between the two giant companies would have removed the danger immediately as was subsequently shown by Cablevision’s prompt response. I am certain that the lady who had made the original complaint would have been glad to foot the bill on that call.
Granted that the two companies are competitors but one would hope that Verizon would think of the consumer and safety first instead of behaving like the FBI or the CIA.

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