 company sales department would then call to talk the customer out of mak- ing this big mistake connecting "foreign" equipment to the Bell System lines. I can remember getting queasy at the thought of someone being foolish enough to do this. That good old Bell System training included a fair amount of brainwashing as well! The world of telecommunications began to change. Not everyone's entrepreneurial skills had been dulled by the Bell Sys- tem. More business people were discovering the economic advantages of purchasing telephone systems rather than renting from Ma Bell. In 1976, the interconnect industry was taking off thanks to the way being paved by Tom Carter several years earlier. Inter- connect companies sold, installed and maintained telephone systems and competed directly with the local telephone company who continued to rent systems. You could purchase a system for $100,000 that replaced the system you were renting from the tele- phone company for $10,000 per month. From a financial perspective, the 10-month break-even point was a no-brainer. What businesses did not realize was that by buying their own telephone systems they were being pioneers. They often had a rocky road ahead. It was around this time that I went to work for a consulting firm, back in New York City. Our specialty was showing busi- nesses how to save a lot of money by purchasing their own telephone systems. We then proceeded to help them make the purchase and to manage the project. My job was project man- agement. My Bell System background was what got me the job, but it did little to prepare me for overseeing the installation of large business telephone systems. I started learning from the very first day when I was directed to show up at a cutover (this refers to the process of changing over from the old to the new telephone system). 308 * The Telecom Handbook CHAPTER 14 I learned at that time that the local Bell telephone company was not very helpful to customers who had left the fold to buy their own telephone systems. The local Bell