If both think it’s the other one’s fault, neither one fixes it

I worked with a new telecommunications service provider that had started to send large volumes of voice traffic to China. As part of their buildup, they installed additional equipment and software from a third-party vendor. Initial computer-automated tests showed good call quality to selected cities and so they initiated the switchover early. The launch was a total flop.

The telecommunications service provider received many complaints about calls that did not connect and they had to replace the new service with a more expensive alternative. Accusations flew. The service provider said it was the fault of the equipment and software vendor. The equipment and software vendor said it was the fault of the service provider or even their customers who were dialing incorrect phone numbers. Both pointed to the initial successful tests as a reason for why it was the fault of the other. Nothing happened.

I didn't know who was at fault. I simply made 100 phone calls using the problematic telecom system. I made several calls to every province in the country over a couple of days.

About 1/2 of the calls failed. I knew that something was wrong so I looked at the location of the calls that failed; they were all in the same set of provinces. The successful calls were in the remaining provinces. Could it be as simple as that?

I talked to both the service provider and equipment/software vendor. We eventually discovered a slight difference in the way equipment across Chinese provinces handled the calls that led to the high failure rate. A slight tweak and call completion rate almost doubled.

Problems sometimes have simple solutions; taking an open approach without assigning blame can help us solve them.