WIRETAP: boycotts

[George A. Gleason]

Re boycotting AT&T: Eric's proposal is great (cancel your AT&T long distance
anyway) but I would suggest a more aggressive approach toward AT&T business
telephone systems and consumer phone products.   

First of all, their equipment is mediocre at best. Their main business phone
product, Merlin, is obsolete and truly nasty (details on request); System 75
(mid-sized PBX) is little better; their low-end key system (AT&T Spirit) is
cheapy stuff, and although their Partner system is decent there are a number
of better alternatives (Panasonic KXT-Hybrid is our favorite though if you
want made in USA there's Comdial).  AT&T have been pursuing an aggressive
policy on initial pricing to try to kill off independent phone contractors,
but their service doesn't measure up: expensive rates, delays, etc.  So even
if they drop their price by half on something to try to edge out a
competitor, don't take the bait.  

Second, you can bet that they'll start introducing Tapper in their cordless
phones pretty quickly, to try to win a market advantage based on having any
kind of encryption at all.   There are some cordless business phones
available (one is designed for Merlin) and some new ones coming out soon.
These will probably have Tapper in them.  Ericsson have a cordless business
phone system now, called FreeSet, which is essentially micro-cellular, and
it uses a stronger European crypto standard if I'm not mistaken (I can go
look up details if anyone wants to know).  North Supply Premier is another
version of same with some other encryption routine (ANYthing is better than
Tapper at the moment) though not as adaptable as the Ericsson FreeSet
system.  

For every AT&T phone set or system, there are plenty of better alternatives,
and the time to start shifting your purchasing power is now.  (oh BTW to
clarify, what I meant by "new ones coming out soon" is that AT&T will
probably try to jump on the Ericsson & North Premier bandwagon soon with
their own version, with Tapper.  

"AT&T: phones with Big Brother Built Inside!"

-gg