Allied Telesis @ Yokota Rocks/Sucks

Allied Telesis Yokota is giving away up to $500+ in free calling away every month to Residential Premium Phone customers that provides 100 free minutes of calling anywhere in the world for only $49.95.  Would you believe it?  I did not even have a clue until I pulled up their new international calling rates looking at what the new costs were to call my family.  Oddly, the most expensive calls are to a phone system that my spouse and I have been considering purchasing at some point in the near future for an upcoming trip of mine.

Of course, not everyone has a reason to have access to these types of phones, but they are in high use at deployed locations for both official and unofficial use.

My bet is that Allied Telesis Yokota is counting on most of us not having family or friends who would have phones that garner such extreme costs to call.  Would love to know if anyone is taking them to cleaners with this call plan.  Shoot me a line at webmaster@alliedtelesissucks.org and tell us your story.

I don’t know what is different about Allied Telesis Yokota today vs. the last couple of weeks, but I have been able to sustain faster speeds than I have seen a while, ever since they instituted bandwidth shaping.  My service has been moving along smoothly and allowing me to pull a consistently high bandwidth number, though I still manually throttle my connection to avoid overstaying my welcome (30GB monthly limit).  Hopefully the current trend of performance remains steady through the night, but I am not putting any bets on it.

One news worthy item though, CUGY.net is apparently offline for some reason.  If their webmaster is having difficulties and requires assistance, my spouse will lend his assistance if called upon.  You can contact him at the webmaster@alliedtelesissucks.org e-mail account.  While I may check the account much more often than him, he is really the brains behind the scene that keeps this page running and keeps me on track and off any potential liable posts.

As Allied Telesis Yokota gives you a Japan based internet protocol address (IP address) which NetFlix does not recognize as an eligible Watch It Now customer, you have to do some minor work to get it to operate here while stationed at Yokota Air Base.  Granted, at first this may seem like a bit of a pain, but in the end it is worth it and could potentially save you about $40 a month in Cable TV subscription fees as Allied Telesis Yokota does not really carry any channels that on a whole worth paying $40 let alone $49.95 a month for.

For months now, we have been hearing rumors of NetFlix working steadily to increase its customer base by partnering with companies such as TiVO and Microsoft to add in the ability to stream NetFlix movies to their machines.  Just recently, Microsoft updated its Xbox 360 software opening up the possibility to our household.  Essentially we now have our own Premium channels that lets us watch a large library of TV-Shows and Movies anytime we want for a little less than $10 a month.  Pretty big savings if you ask me.

**WARNING**WARNING**WARNING**WARNING**WARNING**WARNING**

Allied Telesis Yokota institutes bandwidth shaping/limiting protocols sometime after 1700 daily.  While your speed tests may appear to show you as having more than enough bandwidth available to play at the best quality, it will not.  Their bandwidth shaper is configured to allow short duration high bandwidth use at night, but as you stream from NetFlix or any other streaming type device (TFC and Korean IPTV viewers) your bandwidth will be way less than nominal and thus cause a video lag or as my spouse prefers, gag.

Typical ISP sustainable bandwidth to customer is almost nearly 70%~80% of nominal during high bandwidth use, but Allied Telesis Yokota may have reduced their available bandwidth to reduce strain on their budget.  This would explain the less than 10% maximum sustainable bandwidth over for a single streaming connection for a 10Mb/s customer after 1700 daily.

**WARNING**WARNING**WARNING**WARNING**WARNING**WARNING**

Part I of setting up:

1. Go to www.torproject.org and install the software of your choice.
2. Configure TOR via Start-Programs-Vadalia bundle-tor->TORRC.txt by appending the bottom of the file with this info:

StrictExitNodes 1
exitnodes
desync,whistlersmother,lefkada,bettyboop,croeso,TorLuwakOrg,nixnix,inap1, redpineapple,cronic,sasquat ch,slowturtle2,moria1,moria2,torxmission,augrime, err,sasquatch,foundry,peertechdata

Doing this forces TOR to use based proxies as your exit nodes.

Part II of setting up:

1. Configure your browser to use TOR for surfing. (You can always shut it down later by removing the configuration or shutting down TOR and Privoxy)

*Take care to configure your browser to use the proxy or it will not work correctly.

1. Make sure TOR and privoxy are running and go to www.netflix.com
   Create yourself an account and then login. (I chose the 1 DVD at a time and unlimited on demand)
2. Go to “Your Account” link and select Netflix Ready Device Activation
   If you get the message about only being available in the CONUS bit, then you missed something and need to check your settings on explorer and TOR apps.
3. Turn on your Xbox and make sure you have a Gold membership in place.
4. Go to Video Market Place and choose the netflix icon.
5. Install the app and subsequent update.
6. Take the auth code from the Xbox and put it on the Netflix site at the previously mentioned Netflix Ready Device Activation.
7. Once there, you can now add movies to your Instant Que and they will begin to appear on your Xbox Netflix que.

For customers who are experiencing the bandwidth shortage nightly as we do, please make sure that you have signed the petition as we are actively seeking to have Allied Telesis’s contract enforced as written.

Sign Our Petition. Adding Your Support Helps Keep Allied Telesis On Track!

After my spouse roused me out of a near dead sleep, dreaming of a better Allied Telesis Yokota, to discuss his conversation with Mr. Sewell, VP of Resilian Communications as well as to get me thawing the turkey for dinner tonight.  First and foremost, he said that Mr. Sewell and him had a very productive conversation about not only the petition, but other areas of concern as well such as the limited FOIA responses.  My spouse said that in the very near future, probably after I wake up again, we’ll have a postable response from Mr. Sewell regarding the petition and when he hopes to have an answer to the members of Yokota.

The one thing thing that my spouse did pass on to Mr. Sewell regarding our web site was that he was eager for the day where he could shut down this site vs. having a constant battle to obtain information and/or services as contracted/promised.  He also indicated that he realized that this site has been a blemish on the record, but wants to ensure that there is a fair and balanced (not the Fox News type of balance) approach when writing stories.  This is primarily why we take note of successes as well as failures.  We have written about Allied Telesis’s ever improving customer service support as well as their failures in several areas, we all know those.  However, because there is decidedly more failures than successes our posts tend to be a more one sided and we yearn for the day where even 50/50 representation of good and bad is there for us to write about.  After all, this site is aptly named Allied Telesis @ Yokota Rocks/Sucks and not just Sucks, though at this current moment that seems about right on target.

Mr. Sewell, and not to put words in his mouth as he will providing us a response soon, indicated that they are looking into addressing every concern we submitted in the petition as well as how important the customers of Yokota are.  My spouse indicated that Mr. Sewell even sounded like he meant it too unlike how sometimes we all at one point or another get the impression that “Serving the best customers in the world” is more of a slogan rather than how actions are really carried out.  Mind you, we just said sometimes.

Until we get a response and action from Mr. Sewell and his divisions keep on signing the petition.  Every signature helps and promotes the need for change and reform of the Allied Telesis Yokota contract.

Sign Our Petition. Adding Your Support Helps Keep Allied Telesis On Track!

After the AAFES self-imposed deadline to provide more Allied Telesis Yokota contract related Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) data to us has come and gone, we are again at a loss as to how we are to better understand what is going on.  It has been suggested to us that if we really knew what was going on in detail that we would not be as harsh with our criticisms.  Unfortunately, every attempt we have made to better understand to refine our opinion has met with a startling lack of communication.  Sure there has been a lot of message traffic back and forth, but aside from the generic information, there is no hard information available to explain why contract commitments were made, but not kept.  In a recent FOIA requests we requested additional data about the recent phone outages and about further clarification of many issues on Yokota.

1. AAFES/Allied Telesis Vendor contract (Contract# 01-001-06-45) contract modifications dated from January 1, 2008 until present.
2. Letters of Agreement, Memorandums of Agreement, Memorandums For Record, and any other official correspondence between Allied Telesis and AAFES dated between September 2, 2006 until present.
3. Letters of Agreement, Memorandums of Agreement, Memorandums For Record, and any other official between AAFES and/or the 374^th Air Wing (or its subordinates) dated between September 2, 2006 until present regarding Allied Telesis and/or any of its related activities involving with Yokota Air Base and/or its Geographically Separated Units (GSU’s).
4. Letters of Agreement, Memorandums of Agreement, Memorandums For Record, and any other official between AAFES and/or the 374^th Air Wing (or its subordinates) dated between September 2, 2006 until present regarding Allied Telesis and/or any of its related activities involving with Yokota Air Base and/or its Geographically Separated Units (GSU’s) regarding the use of the installations Coaxial System/Infrastructure by Allied Telesis.
5. Copies of all meeting minutes between Allied Telesis and AAFES dated between September 2, 2006 until present, to include all Video Teleconferences.
6. Copies of recorded Video Teleconferences regarding Allied Telesis activities at Yokota Air Base and/or its Geographically Separated Units (GSU’s).
7. Copies of all meeting minutes between AAFES and/or the 374^th Air Wing (or its subordinates) dated between September 2, 2006 until present regarding Allied Telesis and/or any of its related activities involving with Yokota Air Base and/or its Geographically Separated Units (GSU’s).
8. Name and contact information AAFES/Allied Telesis Vendor contract (Contract# 01-001-06-45) contract officer.
9. Results of any official and unofficial review of AAFES/Allied Telesis Vendor contract (Contract# 01-001-06-45) by an oversight agency such as the Office of the Inspector General and the Air Force Office of Special Investigation.  If any are pending, provide results when available.
10. Copies of all meeting minutes and/or correspondence between Allied Telesis and AAFES dated between September 2, 2006 until present where the name XXXXXXXXX or any of its derivatives were discussed in relation to Allied Telesis and/or any of its related activities involving with Yokota Air Base and/or its Geographically Separated Units (GSU’s).
11. Copies of all meeting minutes and/or correspondence between Allied Telesis and AAFES dated between September 2, 2006 until present where the name XXXXXXXXX or any of its derivatives were discussed in relation to Allied Telesis and/or any of its related activities involving with Yokota Air Base and/or its Geographically Separated Units (GSU’s).
12. Copies of all meeting minutes and/or correspondence between Allied Telesis and AAFES dated between September 2, 2006 until present where the website named alliedtelesissucks.org or any of its derivatives were discussed in relation to Allied Telesis and/or any of its related activities involving with Yokota Air Base and/or its Geographically Separated Units (GSU’s).
13. Copies of all meeting minutes and/or correspondence between Allied Telesis and AAFES dated between August 1, 2008 until present where the website named alliedtelesisrocks.org or any of its derivatives were discussed in relation to Allied Telesis and/or any of its related activities involving with Yokota Air Base and/or its Geographically Separated Units (GSU’s).
14. Copies of other offeror proposals to Solicitation #01-001-06-45 for IVVD services at Yokota Air Base, Japan.
15. Copies of all received ICE (Interactive Customer Evaluation) comments and Allied Telesis’s response to the comment since its first use.  (ie. Was it resolved and how?)
16. Number of complaints received by AAFES management regarding Allied Telesis services along with the date received, current status, findings, resolutions, date resolved, ETIC.
17. Copy of all Quality Assurance / Contracting Officer findings during their inspection(s) and along with any remediation plans/actions taken to resolve problems.
18. Copy of original and current AAFES Quality Assurance Plan for Contract# 01-001-06-45.
19. Copy of the current timeline depicting the status of the IVVD project and its components broken out with an updated estimated date of completion.
20. Copy of East Side Housing @ Yokota Air Base fiber optic installation plan along with its timeline for installation and estimated date of completion.
21. Copy of Digital Television Content Delivery plan for Yokota Air Base along with its timeline for compliance and estimated date of completion.
22. Copy of Market Surveys that were completed once a quarter between dated between September 2, 2006 until present in accordance with Exhibit E Paragraph 7 Amendment 3 Page 1, the contractor’s evaluation of the discrepancies, the notifications to the CO of actions taken, and the subsequent mutual agreement between AAFES and the Contractor.
23. The name of the current long distance VoIP provider for the Allied Telesis Contract #01-001-06-45.
24. The contingency plan established by AAFES to ensure that no future outages between US mainland and Yokota Air Base occur as it did during the month(s) of September/October.
25. Copy of updated Settlement Reports dated from January 1, 2008 until present.

We also requested additional information for allegations we received about employed spouses not receiving payment for work at appropriate times as well as any other contractors supposedly not receiving payment.  We have heard rumors/allegations of other companies such as SAIC, but not firm proof has been presented as of yet.

1. Data regarding the number of dependant employees, contract or otherwise, employed by Allied Telesis from September 2, 2006 until present.
2. Data regarding the number of dependant employees, contract or otherwise, employed by Allied Telesis from September 2, 2006 until present correlated the number of paychecks distributed for the same group broken across each month for services rendered.
3. Data regarding the separated median salaries paid to positions held by dependant employees, contract or otherwise, employed by Allied Telesis from September 2, 2006 until present.  Please break out by position and provided detailed description of role/responsibilities.
4. Data regarding any outstanding claims (current or settled) by dependant employees, contract or otherwise, employed by Allied Telesis from September 2, 2006 until present.
5. Copy of actions taken by the Contracting Officer or other AAFES officials due to the business failure associated with disrupted phone services during September ~ October of 2008.
6. Data regarding dates/times of E911 updates provided to Yokota Air Base and its entities such as SFS and FD.

AAFES response to the above requests for information was as follows:

We really want to understand what it is we supposedly do not understand at the moment.  We want to be able to understand why it is supposedly very complicated to ask Allied Telesis Yokota to meet the contracted requirements and its promises to the Yokota personnel.  If collecting payment for services rendered has been uncomplicated for both AAFES and Allied Telesis, then this should be relatively easy to enforce the contract in the spirit it has been made.  It is just disappointing not to have the supposed information that could help either validate or negate an opinion and thus remain in a state of less than complete understanding and confusion.

In the mean time, please take a moment to request that our site be unblocked by the Yokota NIPR net as it is considered a news source that discusses services rendered on Yokota.  We are aware that readers from 5AF and USFJ can still reach our site, but we were disappointed to find we were blocked from our other readers.

Thank you all for your continued support of our efforts.  Please continue to send us your opinions/comments as you have time at webmaster@alliedtelesissucks.org.