[32280] in North American Network Operators' Group
Qwest fiber contractor hiring practices
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean Donelan)
Thu Nov 16 01:12:37 2000
Date: 15 Nov 2000 22:10:35 -0800
Message-ID: <20001116061035.17703.cpmta@c004.sfo.cp.net>
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To: nanog@merit.edu
From: Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
I hope besides appealling the verdict, Qwest considers revamping its
contractor hiring, training and oversight practices.
Reporting on the Qwest/AT&T fiber lawsuit, Newsbytes had this paragraph.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/00/158214.html
> But it wasn't three outages that bugged the jury. What they didn't
> like, one juror said, was Qwest's attitude, according to the Austin
> American-Statesman. Attorney Joe Latting, who represented AT&T, said
> a Qwest supervisor testified at trial, "We just hire these people
> from the neck down," the paper said. AT&T had accused Qwest of hiring
> unqualified personnel.
Here was my message on Qwest's fiber trenching operations last year.
>Subject: Call for Qwest to conduct a training stand-down
>From: Sean Donelan <SEAN@SDG.DRA.COM>
>Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 23:48:22 -0500
>Delivered-To: nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
>Sender: owner-nanog@merit.edu
>
>I'm seeing a disturbing pattern develop. Qwest contractors seem to be
>involved in an unusual number of cases of damaging other providers
>fiber. I understand that everyone makes mistakes, and a wide-variety of
>other equipment operators have caused many fiber cuts. But Qwest's name
>seems to show up with unusual frequency in the last year. Here are the
>ones I found in my notes.
>
>Milwaukee-to-Chicago May 4, 1999
>Smyrna, GA March 11, 1999
>Gurnee, IL November 19, 1998 (drilled fiber three times over
> a mile)
>
>Anyone have notes about others? I have a vague recollection of a couple
>of more, but couldn't find them in my notes.
>
>I don't know who Qwest is hiring to bury its fiber, but I would like
>to call on Qwest to conduct an immediate stand-down until it can review
>its fiber installation practices, training and supervision with its
>contractors. Including review of safe digging/drilling practices around
>other providers' fiber.
>--
>Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO
> Affiliation given for identification not representation
