The game is on

Got a silly e-mail from a friend asking me to describe her in a single word and then, naturally, send the e-mail to 4000 of my best friends and ask them the same thing about myself. I deleted it.

I told her I deleted it because one-word descriptions are difficult and exclude so many good qualities. That was a lie. I deleted it because I know better than to ask people what they think of me. Rule No. 1: Never solicit information you aren't ready to hear.

Besides, one-word descriptions of people are easy. We throw them around all the time. They're often rude, inaccurate and misinformed, but we live in a rude, misinformed, sound-bite world, and that's what we get.

To get my mind around an issue, I sometimes apply a one-word label. In the last issue, it was nationalism. In this issue, it is gamesmanship.

Part of the Dossier on Roger Conklin (page 8) fell on the editing room floor. It was, however, swept up and used here to illustrate how the games we play are not new. Gamesmanship is part of telecom culture. It is what we do when we fear our competitive advantage is inadequate. And we have been doing it for years.

Conklin belongs to an organization called Telephone Collectors International. But he is more than a collector; he is a historian. During a conversation for the article, he began to wax nostalgic — as old telephone guys are wont to do — and I was struck by how little the gamesmanship of large phone companies has changed over the years.

Conklin: “The Automatic Electric Company was a pioneer in the dial telephone system back around 1910, but the Bell System wouldn't touch the technology because they didn't invent it. They considered it a toy. They would buy companies with automatic service then take it out and put in their manual switchboards. Wasn't until the 1919 operators' strike in Boston that they re-evaluated their position on automatic telephones. They realized how vulnerable they were and finally started a massive program in the Bell System to convert to automatic operations.” That could have been 1919, but it might as well be 2019.

Carol Wilson's cover story on page 18 is another example of gamesmanship. Wilson explores the rift between a group of independent Iowa telcos who found a way to exploit termination rules and make themselves millions and the carriers who think it's a rip-off. Gamesmanship at its best — or worst, depending on your view.

While telephone companies practice gamesmanship, their customers are in it for the fun and games. Kevin Fitchard's story on page 15 and Ken Pyle's back page column illustrate the impact of music and video games on capacity. And less gamey, but no less interesting, is Ed Gubbins' story on page 28 about the reality of bandwidth: You can never have too much — at least not for long. Game on.