Qwest fiber contractor hiring practices

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

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