Corporations: The Bell Is Ringing

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critics "breaker-uppers" and "glorified publicity seekers." Fortnight ago, at the Business Council's meeting in Hot Springs, Va., he deplored increasing regulation of business by Government, and he believes that A.T.&T. could have moved much faster toward creating a large network of Telstars if the Government had only given it permission to go ahead. As it is, the ownership of Comsat Corp.—whose shares were approved for listing two weeks ago by the New York Stock Exchange—will be divided among the public and the nation's communications companies. The size of A.T.&T.'s stake has not yet been determined, but it will be substantial.

Hotter Meetings. When it comes to the customers, Kappel is often more puzzled than angered by complaints. He admits that A.T.&T. made a tactical error in pushing all-numeral dialing without a public educational campaign. By abandoning the familiar exchange prefixes (Klondike, Pennypacker, Gypsy) and forcing users to dial seven numbers, A.T.&T. raised the possible total of phone numbers in any area by 50%. But it also raised an uproar, was soon accused on all sides of an Orwellian scheme to dehumanize everyday life—even though it would really have had to dehumanize life by ultimately limiting service if it did not have the new system. "We've got to do it if the country is going to grow," says Kappel. "But I don't believe we did very well when we started explaining it. We took the attitude it's something we've got to do, and why the hell bother to explain." The fuss has since died down, and the advent of direct distance dialing will, within the next decade, enable telephone users to call any major country in the world by dialing twelve digits.

Other telephone customers complain that A.T.&T., which owns all its equipment and only rents it to subscribers, will not permit them to hook up antique phones, and that it charges them 500 a month extra for an unlisted number in New York City and Philadelphia; Cinemactor Tony Randall, who can well afford it, has dodged the charge by listing his number under a phony name, Irvine W. Tishman. As in many another company, A.T.&T.'s officers also are getting more and more harassment at annual meetings. Kappel has special controls behind the rostrum at which he stands to cut off any speaker who becomes too windy or unruly. But he delivered his most effective cut with out benefit of switch at the April 15 annual meeting, where a professional meeting-goer asked a seemingly endless round of questions, including one seeking to know how much A.T.&T. gave to charity. Told that the amount was $10 million last year, the woman said: "Mr. Chairman, I think I'm going to faint." Replied Kappel coolly: "That would be helpful."

Hooray! For all the complaints, big and small, A.T.&T. has given the U.S. the world's least frustrating telephone service with the world's most trouble-free gadget. Kappel points out that the average U.S. phone needs a repair only once every five years; except in times of flood or other natural disasters, no A.T.&T. switching office in the past 40 years has been out of order for as long as ten minutes. No place is too inaccessible, no service request too small for A.T.&T.'s telephone men. They have put up phone booths in the middle