sundance-communications.com Forums Member Forums Phone Booth RECENT HISTORY OF TELCO BUSINESS

I made a post recently asking for Comdial Success stories. It drew some interesting comments, both positive and negative. One kind of got me thinking, I'm one of the older guys here and can remember when many products were made in the USA. For example, AT&T (American Bell, Lucent, Avaya), ITT, and Comdial. Does anyone out there remember any of the reasons that forced these guys to go off-shore to get their equipment made by contactors? I remember it well. This is a history test. The year was 1988. Congress passed legislation specifically to head off unfair trade practices in a futile attempt to save the last remaining American telecom manufacturer's. Give me the details. 5 best responses get's a brand new pocket knife (has my company name and phone number on it).

------------------

Ya got me and I was working for them. All I can think of is the ISO standards that other countries were trying to force us into. AT&T spent big bucks on that, we took all kinds of training than it just died. When I asked that very question of AT&T I was told it was because to grow in the foreign markets, we were requited to makes a certain percentage of product in other countries. Which was just the beginning of outsourcing. Now most of the work done by AT&T is outsourced or contracted out, mainly to overseas competitors. Guess when everyone is flippen burgers and no one can afford there products they'll come back, but not until the bucks make um. That's all our corporate un-America
my 2 cents.

Hi,
As I remember, ATT & Comdial accused foreign manufacturers of "dumping" their product in the USA. (Selling for less here, than overseas.) In order to not have their equipment tariffed at more than 100%, the manufacturers had to prove that they weren't dumping. I think most of them did. Panasonic equipment become unavailable until the manufacturing was moved to the UK. Some went out of business, the Galaxy "Delta" comes to mind immediately.

Vern

i put in a few of theose deltas.......not bad of a system in its time.....

faded away just like the Extrom......

What I remember was the big Buy American Act. If it didnt have parts that were made in America it could not be be licted with the Buy America Act. Telrad equipment is made in Isreal and used Motorola parts and thus qualifed. BUt were talking 88-92. Then the stickers just went away.

------------------
ssimpson@oneringtelecom.com Need a Telrad Programmer Kit? Telrad Programmer Kits

I think sbdcom is right....
1988 - Congress passes the Telecom Trade Act of 1988 in response to alleged dumping of telecom systems in the U.S. by foreign manufacturers. One aspect was the requirement of all imported telecom equipment to comply with all applicable FCC requirements.


[This message has been edited by telsetrepair (edited March 21, 2005).]

>>i put in a few of theose deltas.......not bad of a system in its time.....

The worst thing I remember about those is having to re-intialize the system after programming changes. Got yelled at a few times for bumping people off important calls.
That still was better than waiting 30 minutes for all the calls to be terminated.
I did laugh out loud the first time I saw a keyset, it looked like a toy. By that time though, I was used to Panasonic's programming via a LCD set, and pretty much hated anything else that didn't.

Sent out a couple of knives. You guys get them ok?

------------------

Wasn't there something else around 1992 or 3 about "Anti-Trusting" ??

If this isn't right Mark can I have a knife anyway??

[This message has been edited by Punch Down (edited April 02, 2005).]

Comeon down for a beer. I'll take you to a place that will search you first before letting you in. If you don't have a knife, they'll give you one.

I'll drop you one in the mail in the mean time.

------------------