My regular person cell phone experience

[ScottM]

I have had a cellphone for 20 years. I was an early adopter, and not once in those 20 years have I ever had the experience of a regular person getting service, I always had the latest and greatest phone with all the features unlocked, all the accessories, and access to stuff that consumers never see.

But yesterday I had a regular person experience.

In mid December, just before my Florida trip, my cellphone broke. The keyboard driver went bad and half the keyboard would not work. I have been using a regular phone ever since and miss my smart phone which was running on T-Mobile.

So I started the process to acquire a replacement. With the current state of re-organization and the splitting off of my sources into their own company this proved to be impossible. So for the first time I had to order a phone through normal channels. That was ok, but as I started to review my options and all of the things I was going to have to do to the phone to get onto T-Mobile I finally said the heck with it and I'll switch my operator to AT&T. They will do all the work and once I get an account perhaps I can figure a way to get a hold of the highly prohibited iPhone as a replacement.

So I started to order the replacement with AT&T and decide to switch my number. I had experience with number portability as one of the groups I chaired was responsible for developing parts of the feature. I even wrote some of the layer two signal flows to make it happen. So this could be the great big get even of my career if this does not work. Just as an FYI I am always been on the advanced technology side where I have responsibility to get new technology out into the field but none of the accountability if it does not work. A great place to be I might add.

So I fill out the form and submit the order.

24 hours later I get an email from AT&T telling me the phone has been shipped and that I am to follow the directions to get my number transferred.

I get to my office yesterday and the phone is sitting on my desk. I open it, put the battery in and start charging it up while I review what I fear are complicated directions.

Instead they say to call an 800 number, have my phone number, IMEI, and SIM ID available. So I set all that up and start the call.

First, do I speak English, yep, then I am asked to select the option, I hit the right button and they ask is this a number transfer. So I say yes and I am prompted to enter my 10-digit phone number. I do that and I get an auto responce to wait 5 mintues and then turn on the phone and it will be working. 'Yeah right ' I think to myself.

10 minutes later I turn on my phone and much to my surprise it is working!!!
30 minutes later I have it provisioned to my enterprise email and synched with my calendar and contacts!!! Woo Hoo I am back in business!!!

Kudo to AT&T that it all worked very easily.

Geesh this celluar stuff actually works!!

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Hmmmm-

The same AT&T that sold me a phone that used a protocol that didn't exist where I lived? They would change time zones as I went around the country- they had the phone set to Mountain time when I was in Las angeles, CA.

Either they know how important you are in telecom or AT&T has really changed.

 

[Ted]

What, Scott, you didn't think that they actually paid you to do anything?

I've had a cell phone for the past 10 years or so. I remember playing around with the old Motorolas (and a few other brands). Really, I've not had many significant complaints. I've generally gotten good service and not had many problems.

I have a friend who's tended to go for the unlocked smart phone thing - paying 2-3 times as much for the phone. I've not been convinced that it's really that much better, but then again the most advanced thing I do with my Treo is listen to MP3s while flying.

 

[vontresc]

Welcome to the Dark Side, Scott....Enjoy the Kool-Aid

 

[wbarnhill]

Congrats on your easy port. When I helped my girlfriend's family switch to ATT (1 from VZW, 3 from Sprint/Embarq), the port from Verizon went perfectly. The other three numbers? Hah. Two weeks of ATT and Embarq claiming each other was to blame. In the end it was actually Embarq who apparently started putting numbers at the end of the account holder name to differentiate lines... so like "Joe Smith2" instead of "Joe Smith". Since the port requires the accurate name, the port was failing. Still have no clue why they had the numbers on the names.

 

[wsuffa]

I have a friend who's tended to go for the unlocked smart phone thing

If you travel overseas or use sim cards from different carriers (I do), you'll understand why "unlocked" is necessary for some of us.

 

[ScottM]

If you travel overseas or use sim cards from different carriers (I do), you'll understand why "unlocked" is necessary for some of us.

I'll still get my phone unlocked. That is not hard to od, just need to know the right software engineer

But I am noticing that this phone will not allow me to use ringtones that are more than 600k big. I will have to see what that is all about. I can see from one of our online engineering sites it is a "feature" that AT&T requested. That means there is a way to turn that off.

I have used T-Mobile from long before it was T-Mobile. The sim card in my old phone still said Voicestream on it and even then that was not the original SIM. The first one said Omnipoint. They did not have an official Chicago system when I first signed on board. My phone number was a New Jersey one. The Chicago system was only used by them for roaming customers.

 

[mantakos]

My last cell phone was an HTC Mogul from Sprint, with a number transferred over from AT&T. It took me hours on the phone with Sprint to get it working. On the fifth or sixth customer service rep I talked to, I got lucky, and discovered a guy who actually knew how to fix what was broken. He stepped me through a fairly obscure process of entering long code numbers into my phone to get it working.

Yesterday, I just got a new iphone from AT&T, and so needed my number ported over from Sprint. I used AT&T's web interface to activate the phone. It gave me something like "this operation was not successful due to failure on our system, try again later". When I tried again later, it said "this phone is already activated". Shrug. It was.

The reason they need to outsource mobile phone customer service to India is because the US doesn't have a population large enough to do it.
-harry

 

[ScottM]

Hmmmm-

The same AT&T that sold me a phone that used a protocol that didn't exist where I lived? They would change time zones as I went around the country- they had the phone set to Mountain time when I was in Las angeles, CA.

Either they know how important you are in telecom or AT&T has really changed.

Yeah that technology changover they did was pretty rough. But they had to do it. Cingular, AT&T's predecessor, had picked a technology that had no evolutionary path.

 

[Ted]

If you travel overseas or use sim cards from different carriers (I do), you'll understand why "unlocked" is necessary for some of us.

Yep, that makes sense. My friend that I was referring to is not one of those people, however.

Whenever I've traveled internationally it's been for pleasure, so not having a cell phone hasn't been as big of a deal.

 

[mikea]

I didn't even mention it.

When I activated my iPhone on my existing AT&T account, it wasn't more than supplying the phone number and one other piece of ID into a screen, allegedly in iTunes. It said my phone would be working in a few minutes but I called it immediately and it answered!

Yesterday the neighbor who's husband I reluctantly set up with an iPhone told me she loves it.

 

[ScottM]

I didn't even mention it.

When I activated my iPhone on my existing AT&T account, it wasn't more than supplying the phone number and one other piece of ID into a screen, allegedly in iTunes. It said my phone would be working in a few minutes but I called it immediately and it answered!

Yesterday the neighbor who's husband I reluctantly set up with an iPhone told me she loves it.

Well my big plan is to get my hands on an iPhone and get it activated with the mother ship still paying for it. So getting onto AT&T was step one.

Also T-Mobile is deploying their 3G but on a unique frequency band that makes getting equipment hard. AT&T is using the standard IMT-2000 bands. So equipment is easy to get and operates globally. With my travels that is important.

 

[CJones]

Glad they're finally getting things figured out. When Rachel and I first got married (3 years ago), we wanted to combine plans. We were both Verizon, but she had a different area code which she wanted to keep. I go to a VZW store. They say that can only be done with VZW Cust. Service. I call Cust Service they say it can only be done at a store. I go to another store (VZW only) and they get about half-way through telling me that I need to call and I interrupt them and call b.s. on the whole thing. Being 6'7" with a deeper than average voice helps sometimes, especially when dealing with weasely pipsqueaks behind a cust. service counter that don't want to deal with you. I finally worked my way up to talking to someone that knew what the heck was going on and they said "We're sorry. We're in the process of being able to retain phone numbers through different areas. We should be able to do this within a few months, please try again." We pretty much gave up on it until about a month ago (2.5 years later than the first go-around). We went to a VZW store, completely ready to argue with them and they had the whole process done within 10 minutes.

Thanks, Scott!

 

[wsuffa]

I have used T-Mobile from long before it was T-Mobile. The sim card in my old phone still said Voicestream on it and even then that was not the original SIM. The first one said Omnipoint. They did not have an official Chicago system when I first signed on board. My phone number was a New Jersey one. The Chicago system was only used by them for roaming customers.

Feh. I used to use IMTS when I was in New York before cell launched.

I had one of the first Sprint Spectrum PCS phones when they launched in DC (Erickson phone). SIM card worked great in unlocked phones on int'l systems. There was limited roaming because there were only a handful of systems (and I was traveling to a bunch of cities where there was no service outside analog cellular.... some of those RSAs were pretty, well, rural). Heck, I still use a VZ phone that has analog rollover - and it's rolled over to analog in a few places I've been in the last year.

I interviewed for a top management job at Aerial Communications way back when....

 

[ScottM]

Feh. I used to use IMTS when I was in New York before cell launched.

IMTS, ah how I miss ya! I used to use and support IMTS. Just think a phone system with 10 whole voice channels for all of New York!! Equipment that took up about half of your trunk too!

Trivia, Malaysia was the last country to give up IMTS and they did it in the mid 1990's. I used to support SE Asia and I would collect used IMTS gear and just freight it over to the operator there to help them out.

 

[ScottM]

They completed an entire WLNP request in 30 minutes?? How the hell did they do that?

When I submitted the order I had to give them all the info for the number transfer. So I think the feature was all staged and was waiting for me to activate it. I say that as all that AT&T asked for was the phone number.

My GUESS (for the word parsers) is that AT&T did all the provision work and number portability request as part of the order processing and only shipped the phone once that was complete.

 

[ScottM]

That's an excellent way for them to do it. It appears seamless that way. Other companies should take note.

I imagine that had I walked into an AT&T store and wanted to buy a phone and do a number transfer I would have had a whole different experience.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Glad they're finally getting things figured out. When Rachel and I first got married (3 years ago), we wanted to combine plans. We were both Verizon, but she had a different area code which she wanted to keep. I go to a VZW store. They say that can only be done with VZW Cust. Service. I call Cust Service they say it can only be done at a store. I go to another store (VZW only) and they get about half-way through telling me that I need to call and I interrupt them and call b.s. on the whole thing. Being 6'7" with a deeper than average voice helps sometimes, especially when dealing with weasely pipsqueaks behind a cust. service counter that don't want to deal with you. I finally worked my way up to talking to someone that knew what the heck was going on and they said "We're sorry. We're in the process of being able to retain phone numbers through different areas. We should be able to do this within a few months, please try again." We pretty much gave up on it until about a month ago (2.5 years later than the first go-around). We went to a VZW store, completely ready to argue with them and they had the whole process done within 10 minutes.

Wow, finally...

I used to be with Verizon. Now, Verizon Wireless was formed from 4 previous carriers, one of which was PrimeCo which itself was an LLP consisting of three more formerly independent. (I was a PrimeCo customer before the Verizon mashup). They did a terrible job of integrating the computer systems of the various carriers.

This caused an issue when I was on the road several years ago. My phone broke, and I needed a new one. I was in Iowa, and the Verizon store in Iowa couldn't give me a new phone with my existing (Milwaukee) number. Same issue in De Kalb, IL. It wasn't until I was in Dallas, a former PrimeCo market, that I could get my phone replaced. What a pain!

 

[ScottM]

Wow, finally...

I used to be with Verizon. Now, Verizon Wireless was formed from 4 previous carriers, one of which was PrimeCo which itself was an LLP consisting of three more formerly independent. (I was a PrimeCo customer before the Verizon mashup). They did a terrible job of integrating the computer systems of the various carriers.

This caused an issue when I was on the road several years ago. My phone broke, and I needed a new one. I was in Iowa, and the Verizon store in Iowa couldn't give me a new phone with my existing (Milwaukee) number. Same issue in De Kalb, IL. It wasn't until I was in Dallas, a former PrimeCo market, that I could get my phone replaced. What a pain!

Sort of Kent

PrimeCo came from four carriers; Bell Atlantic, Nynex, Airtouch, and Western Wireless. BA aquired NYnex and Airtouch Aquired Western Wireless.

This was all done to take advantage of the PCS licenses as specified in FCC Part 24 at 1.9GHz. PrimeCo launched in the Milwaukee, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Miami, and Honolulu MTAs. Chicago, Milwaukee, Dallas and Hawaii were all Motorola systems and the rest were Lucent. They picked CDMA as their air interface and were the first commercial CDMA operators in the US.

Their systems did expand. I know the Midwest system the best as I was the Systems RF Manager of the the whole thing for the equipment vendor that was selling to them at the time. It did eventually covered Madison, Green Bay and downstate Illinois to Champain and Bloomington.

When the partners, now all one company, finally decided to pull the plug. They divided the markets up. The way licensing was done Airtouch and BA, now known as Verizon took over PrimeCo systems where there was no Verizon footprint, like in Milwaukee. But in Chicago Verizon had a system so PrimeCo was left as an interdependent company eventually being bought by US Cellular. AT&T bought and took over other markets and Hawaii was sold to Sprint PCS.

 

[mikea]

I imagine that had I walked into an AT&T store and wanted to buy a phone and do a number transfer I would have had a whole different experience.

Wasn't it matter of 4 hours worse case in the early days, after the initial birthing pains?

 

[john smith]

SNIP
They will do all the work and once I get an account perhaps I can figure a way to get a hold of the highly prohibited iPhone as a replacement.
SNIP
I get to my office yesterday and the phone is sitting on my desk. I open it, put the battery in and start charging it up while I review what I fear are complicated directions.

Tell us, how do you put the battery in an iPhone?

 

[mikea]

Tell us, how do you put the battery in an iPhone?

He didn't get an iPhone (yet.)

We still don't know if he'll suffer cuts in the office cafeteria line, though, until the office culture catches up to the new business situation.

 

[mikea]

Hey, Scott?

Does this pass the smell test?
http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/03/1818206

I picked a heckuva time to go 2G, but I can jump direct to 4G. :smile:

 

[ScottM]

Wasn't it matter of 4 hours worse case in the early days, after the initial birthing pains?

I really don't know. I never did a number transfer the way a customer would. If I needed my number ported I either walked into the switch room or I called one of my guys who had access to the AC and had them manually put my info in. took about 5 minutes. But that was when I was working very closely with systems engineering who were in several operator locations. That just is not the case any longer. Even when I had been dealing with T-Mobile I had a contact inside T-Mobile, no it was not Nick, who would help me out.

 

[vontresc]

My number port was kind of a pain, mainly because the sales droid at the first AT&T store didn't want my business. I really wanted to keep my existing 847 area code phone number, and the guy told me that he couldn't port my number since I now lived in WI. So I just decided to go to the west side AT&T store, and the guy behind the counter said no problem. I think my new phone worked within an hour or so after initial purchase.

So Scott, is number portability supposed to only work if you stay in the same local market?

 

[ScottM]

So Scott, is number portability supposed to only work if you stay in the same local market?

Nope. You can take it anywhere you want. It is part of the person=number instead of number = geographic region paradigm that is coming to be the norm for wireless. I have heard of some operators not having a corporate policy of porting out of area numbers. But there is not technology nor regulatory reason that I am aware of for that policy as long as the number is NANPA US number.

 

[Ghery]

I have had a cellphone for 20 years. I was an early adopter, and not once in those 20 years have I ever had the experience of a regular person getting service, I always had the latest and greatest phone with all the features unlocked, all the accessories, and access to stuff that consumers never see.

But yesterday I had a regular person experience.

In mid December, just before my Florida trip, my cellphone broke. The keyboard driver went bad and half the keyboard would not work. I have been using a regular phone ever since and miss my smart phone which was running on T-Mobile.

So I started the process to acquire a replacement. With the current state of re-organization and the splitting off of my sources into their own company this proved to be impossible. So for the first time I had to order a phone through normal channels. That was ok, but as I started to review my options and all of the things I was going to have to do to the phone to get onto T-Mobile I finally said the heck with it and I'll switch my operator to AT&T. They will do all the work and once I get an account perhaps I can figure a way to get a hold of the highly prohibited iPhone as a replacement.

So I started to order the replacement with AT&T and decide to switch my number. I had experience with number portability as one of the groups I chaired was responsible for developing parts of the feature. I even wrote some of the layer two signal flows to make it happen. So this could be the great big get even of my career if this does not work. Just as an FYI I am always been on the advanced technology side where I have responsibility to get new technology out into the field but none of the accountability if it does not work. A great place to be I might add.

So I fill out the form and submit the order.

24 hours later I get an email from AT&T telling me the phone has been shipped and that I am to follow the directions to get my number transferred.

I get to my office yesterday and the phone is sitting on my desk. I open it, put the battery in and start charging it up while I review what I fear are complicated directions.

Instead they say to call an 800 number, have my phone number, IMEI, and SIM ID available. So I set all that up and start the call.

First, do I speak English, yep, then I am asked to select the option, I hit the right button and they ask is this a number transfer. So I say yes and I am prompted to enter my 10-digit phone number. I do that and I get an auto responce to wait 5 mintues and then turn on the phone and it will be working. 'Yeah right ' I think to myself.

10 minutes later I turn on my phone and much to my surprise it is working!!!
30 minutes later I have it provisioned to my enterprise email and synched with my calendar and contacts!!! Woo Hoo I am back in business!!!

Kudo to AT&T that it all worked very easily.

Geesh this celluar stuff actually works!!

As a stockholder in AT&T I'm glad to have you as a happy customer. Of course, my phone is from Verizon, but what the heck.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

PrimeCo came from four carriers; Bell Atlantic, Nynex, Airtouch, and Western Wireless. BA aquired NYnex and Airtouch Aquired Western Wireless.

Interesting, Scott. I remember GTE being a part of that scheme somewhere too.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Tell us, how do you put the battery in an iPhone?

Don't have to... They do it for you.

 

[ScottM]

Interesting, Scott. I remember GTE being a part of that scheme somewhere too.

GTE merged with Bell Atlantic.

At that period in time there were so many mergers it was hard to keep up

 

[wsuffa]

So Scott, is number portability supposed to only work if you stay in the same local market?

As Scott said, "nope".

I got a new 703- area code phone on T-Mo from the store in San Antonio.

Some affiliated carriers (Cincy Bell, for example) don't want you to be out of market, and nearly all the carriers have a provision for cancellation if you roam too much, but all the national players can set you up and handle you everywhere.

 

[bluesky74656]

I got my Verizon Blackberry Storm for Christmas this year. I tried to do the online activation, but it failed with no further explanation and told me to call customer service. I called, expecting to hear that they were closed on Christmas day and that I wouldn't be able to play with my new phone, but to my surprise my call was answered. Even more, that person wasn't in India. Kudos to Verizon for that! He had me set up and ready to go in no time.

 

[jason]

When my wife and I got our iPhones in July, we both walked in to the Apple store with working Sprint phones in our pocket. Neither provider had any notice that we were switching. I had read the AT&T site so I had all relevant information for the Apple guy when he started asking. He punched the info into his little handheld dealio right there on the floor (our sprint account number, the info for setting up the AT&T account, performing the credit check, etc.). We walked over to a macbook and opened the boxes about five minutes later. He plugged the phones in and fired up iTunes. He said it could take a couple of hours. I made my first call as an AT&T customer three minutes later.

The process was smooth. Thanks, Scott.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I got my Verizon Blackberry Storm for Christmas this year. I tried to do the online activation, but it failed with no further explanation and told me to call customer service. I called, expecting to hear that they were closed on Christmas day and that I wouldn't be able to play with my new phone, but to my surprise my call was answered. Even more, that person wasn't in India. Kudos to Verizon for that! He had me set up and ready to go in no time.

They set up a call customer service center in Lincoln, NE last year

 

[mikea]

When my wife and I got our iPhones in July, we both walked in to the Apple store with working Sprint phones in our pocket. Neither provider had any notice that we were switching. I had read the AT&T site so I had all relevant information for the Apple guy when he started asking. He punched the info into his little handheld dealio right there on the floor (our sprint account number, the info for setting up the AT&T account, performing the credit check, etc.). We walked over to a macbook and opened the boxes about five minutes later. He plugged the phones in and fired up iTunes. He said it could take a couple of hours. I made my first call as an AT&T customer three minutes later.

The process was smooth. Thanks, Scott.

Thanks, Scott? Hundreds of AT&T Mobile and Apple employees walking around like zombies due to lack of sleep, their families forgetting what they look like, and you thank SCOTT?

 

[jason]

Thanks, Scott? Hundreds of AT&T Mobile and Apple employees walking around like zombies due to lack of sleep, their families forgetting what they look like, and you thank SCOTT?

I've thanked all of them personally in different threads.

 

[CT Arrow]

Scott, did you expect anything different from AT&T?
My experience w/ AT&T has been nothing been stellar!
I suspose we could share stories... I sold some of the first EFJ Dial in base and GE Stars back in 86'. Oh how I miss 3 watt AMP. My, how things have changed!

 

[ScottM]

Thanks, Scott? Hundreds of AT&T Mobile and Apple employees walking around like zombies due to lack of sleep, their families forgetting what they look like, and you thank SCOTT?

I am ok with that. Us standards guys had a lot away from home drinking session 'till the wee hours of the morning and then having to fill out expense reports to make it happen oh so smoothly.