Telecom's priorities

When Czechs woke up yesterday, they all had new phone numbers. After a successful conversion that increased the number of available combinations to 900m, only a few customers with their own exchanges or with telephone-based alarm systems are expected to have any trouble. The smoothness with which Český Telecom handled the renumbering contrasts sharply with the problems it had with the "migration" this month of its email system. Although Telecom promised its email users in advance that they wouldn't notice the change, they endured 1-2 weeks of limited or non- existent service. No apologies, and no credit for scores of failed attempts to send or retrieve email. A telecoms analyst told us that the phone company still considers the internet to be a necessary evil and not something that warrants its utmost attention or resources.