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What Has Number Portability Done For You?
Coldeagle writes "Number portability has been around for a few days now, I was wondering; have any of you fellow Slashdot readers switched carriers? How was your experience, and have you seen any price warring since it went into place?" Or is number portability so far more hype than happenin'?
nothing! but thanks for asking!
Of course it doesn't do anything for me. I am locked into a two-year agreement. I can't change carriers, look into other carriers, or even think about other carriers without first being charged $170.00.
.02,
Number portability... The commercials seem to point at the fact that you can now have your home phone number moved to a cell phone. While I do use my cell phone more than my land line I must say that having an actual phone plugged into the wall not really requiring any batteries, chargers, or antennas is nice.
My cell phone doesn't work all that well in my apartment, it rarely gets a call through on the first four or five times on the weekend, and it drops calls like mad when a plane flies overhead.
Honestly, it's just a gimmick. Something that was mandated for no real reason. It looks like something good but it just isn't what the advertisements and media claim. I liken it to the hype over the gold dollar. They went through all this trouble to design it, market it, and make sure coke machines took it and no one really cared.
As far as price-warring. The only service that I see with reasonable services and prices is T-mobile. They look fantastic until you pull up their coverage area... Here in the Twin Cities Metro area they have great coverage... Problem is I routinely travel outside of the metro area into western and southern MN along with western WI. No coverage there. Sad...
Until my cell service is mandated not to drop calls, not to require as much recharging, and not to have locked in contracts of 2 years, it won't do me any good.
Just my worthless
...and it seems like the process is relatively painless.
One tip for those who are thinking of trying to port their number. Do *not* do the process online. I ordered my new phone that way and the number ported two days before my new phone arrived. As soon as your number ports, your old phone stops working for anything besides 911 calls. Needless to say, I was without a cell phone for two days while I waited for my new phone to arrive.
Other than that, everything went pretty smoothly.
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"
Number portability has made me pay silly monthly fees for a service I do not need.
This is me angry at America's cell phone company culture -> RAWWRR!!!..Ow! Why are you wringing me like a wet towel?
I'm a person, not a revenue source!
RD
I have verizion as my phone... they're the best in the market I live in and I have no need to change.
maybe someday someone will come along and offer a better network... until then, this is a pointless action (for me).
The price we pay for immortality... is death. Narnia The Great Fall
With my current carrier, I called them and told them I was thinking about switching and they chopped $15 off my bill if I would stay.
It can't hurt to ask!
..is that Sprint is charging me $2.20/month for it.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
Have you noticed how every carrier has a commercial now, saying that if you switch to them, you can keep your old number? As if they came up with this and are the only carrier with which you can do that...
A modern day witchhunt.
...and I've made use of it taking my mobile number with me when switching GSM providers and also when switching from POTS to VoIP/cable.
(oh, and, yes, I'm talking about Europe here 8=)
I've been using Sprint for a couple years and coverage where I am (rochester, ny), is spotty at best. I have been thinking about switching to Verizon, but I have yet to speak with anyone who has actually switched carriers. I see Radio Shack ads that say that I can simply bring in my bill and pick a carrier/phone and I'm set. Can it really be this simple? How can I do it and avoid RadioShack?
I had a pager from Airtouch originally. Airtouch was absorbed into the Verizon monstrosity. A few months ago, the pager broke. When my yearly renewal came up (paying for service a year at a time) I tried to get them to switch the phone number, which was really spiffy, over to a cell phone, and they wouldn't. They wouldn't even entertain the possibility. Now, I know that it means reassigning what T-1 it comes in on, but c'mon people! This isn't exactly rocket science...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
not in the top 100 markets, we can't do the whole switch your home number to the cell number thing until may of 2004. Oh well, I didn't want those telemarketers anyways.
Maybe you can move numbers around.
However, for most of us who don't change our phones with the changing of the seasons, it just means it costs us more!
It has cost me 50 cents a month for several years. All the time that the phone companies have been collecting this fee to cover the costs of providing number portability they fought tooth-and-nail against it. Yeah, they're real happy to collect a fee for a service, but they're not exactly thrilled about providing said service.
-- Will program for bandwidth
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Most people I know are just hoarding those like aging dragons sitting atop a pile of treasure. How many years before they increase in value? I don't know, but my small collection of Susan B. Anthony dollars isn't doing much, and that was quite a while ago.
I really think the price competition started a long time ago. I pay $50 a month for flat rate (land) phone service, includes unlimited domestic long distance. I've known quite a few people who didn't have land phones at all. I don't think that number portability will have all that great of an effect.
Now, if they could get 911 calls to trace to a location on cell phone, they'd have something.
My Ass hurts.
It'd be cool to be able to transfer my home number to my cell and carry it with me wherever, not to mention cutting out the cost of my phone line, but I'm concerned that the system is not quite working properly yet. I think I'll wait until I hear more success stories.
The other issue that I am wondering about is telemarketing. It's illegal for telemarketers to call your cell phone, but if I take my land line number and give it to my cell phone, how will the telemarketers know not to call it? Did the FCC ever say anything about this?
-R
After a 6 day hassle with T-Mobile refusing to give up my phone #, Verizon finally got them to release the #. I am so much happier on Verizons network than the local GSM networks at least in my area.
Number portability GOOOOD
T-Mobile BAAAAAAAAAAD
It's been my experience that most people using cell phones are in contracts and unable to leave their current carrier even if they wanted to. Of those who have gone past their contracts, they are reluctant to change because they don't want to be stuck in another contract for a year or two years. Most providers will do anything and everything they can to slap you back into a contract.
Sprint is charging me $1.10/mo for it.
I thought changing your number was a BENIFIT. This way it lets me get rid of everyone who happens to have my number and shouldn't, like my ex.
"The road from legitimate suspicion to rampant paranoia is very much shorter than we think." - Picard
The fcc has plenty of info:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/numbport.ht ml
Background: What is Telephone Number Portability
Telephone number portability is a service that provides residential and business telephone customers with the ability to retain, at the same location, their existing local telephone numbers when switching from one local telephone service provider to another.
In 1996 Congress reexamined and changed the Telecommunications Act to promote competition and reduce regulation in all telecommunications markets. Before that time, a major barrier to competition was the inability of customers to switch from one telephone company to another while retaining the same telephone number. Congress directed local telephone companies to offer "telephone number portability."
In order to provide the kind of telephone number portability envisioned by Congress, telephone companies had to invest in upgrades to their networks. In 1998 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) evaluated the cost involved in local number portability and determined that existing local telephone companies were allowed, but not required, to recover the costs of implementing and providing telephone number portability through two kinds of charges: (1) charges paid by other telephone companies that use a telephone company's number portability facilities to process their own calls; and (2) a small, fixed monthly charge assessed on telephone customers or "end users."
What is the Long-Term Telephone Number Portability End-Use Charge?
The long-term number portability end-user charge is a fixed, monthly charge through which local telephone companies may recover certain costs of providing long-term number portability service. Recoverable costs include those for creating new facilities, physically upgrading or improving the existing public switched telephone network, and performing the ongoing functions associated with providing long-term number portability. FCC rules state that incumbent local telephone companies may, but are not required to, recover certain costs of providing number portability by charging their customer a monthly fee.
Am I Required to Pay the Long-Term Portability Charge if I Am a Lifeline Assistance Program Customer?
Carriers can not impose the monthly long-term number portability charge on customers of the Lifeline Assistance Program.
Does Long-Term Telephone Number Portability Mean That I Can Keep the Same Telephone Number if I Move Across Town or to Another State?
The type of telephone number portability that local telephone companies must provide is called "service provider portability." Service provider portability allows a customer to keep his telephone number when changing local telephone companies. It does not allow customers to take their telephone numbers with them when they move.
Can I Keep the Same Wireline Telephone Number if I Switch My Local Telephone Service to a Cellular or Personal Communications Service (PCS) Telephone Service Provider or Vice-Versa?
Cellular and other wireless carriers are not required to provide telephone number portability at this time. For this reason, customers cannot retain the same local telephone number if they change their local service from a wireline local telephone company to a wireless carrier, like a cellular or PCS service provider. Likewise, customers cannot switch from a cellular or PCS service provider to a local wireline service provider and keep the same cellular or PCS telephone number.
Will All Telephone Customers Be Charged for Telephone Number Portability?
Local telephone companies can only charge customers in areas where local telephone number portability is available to all consumers. Telephone number portability may not be available in all service areas.
Does the FCC Require Local Telephone Companies to Bill Consumers for Long-term Telephone Number Portability?
The FCC allows, but does not require, local telephone c
So I got my number switched a few days ago, and,
lo and behold i stopped receiving my phone calls.
At last I called my provider and complained, hence the sent out a technician to come
solve the problem.
He came to look at my phone and twiddled with some sort of
device for a while, but couldn't seem to get the thing to work. I though that perhaps it might be because I have an
old phone. Who knows.
The scary thing is that the companies can't seem to get the technology working!!
Should I have to suggest it to anyone else,
Unless you absolutely must, don't switch
Carriers!!!!! The3 will just try to screw you. I want to
Kill them now!!! First the charge me like $50 a month and then they can't even make their
Service work!!
needless to say, i am mad
I just finished squeezing my current provider to giving me a better plan, at a better rate with a free phone thrown in ta boot! They seem to be taking customer retention more seriously now, becuase they know how easy it is to walk.
Sure you can take your number, but what good does that do you when you are stuck in a 2 year contract? Most carriers require at least a 1 year commitment for a free/discounted handset. I think this will become more popular as people's contracts expire and such.
I guess the only nice thing about the contract is that it does give you some leverage. I have called my carrier (T-mobile) for dropped calls, and they always credit my account per the contract (Read carefully). Additionally, the contract ending gives you a bargaining chip with your carrier, especially w/number portability. When I wanted a new phone, I went to T-mobile, noticed that my contract expired, and told them I was going to cancel. They then transferred me to one of their "retention specialists", or somesuch, and gave me a killer deal on a new Sidekick to stick with them for another year.
Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
I, for one, welcome our new phone digit toting overlords
Portability from one cellphone carrier to the other seems alright with me. It's easy and you don't have to tell everyone you know, including a giant business, your new number. I've had numerous experiences with switching my business lines to add fax, modem, voice mail, and telephone. I've switched these around a bit within the last ten years, and it can be a real pain to tell everyone your new number, especially when co-workers call you up at 2 AM, trying to send a fax to your home phone which was previously your fax line.
However, switching your landline to cell, I don't know. I always like to know I can have a good connection with the person I'm talking to, and not have to rely on minutes, cell phoneo outages, and bad quality. I just don't see how some people can live with *just* cellphone.
I mean, isn't getting a new number always a great opportunity of getting rid of those callers you never want to speak with?
At least that's how I see it.
Went to change my carrier on the 25th of last month. The curteous sales clerk at Cingular told me it should take between 4 and 24 hours for the service to be switched from AT&T (who gets horrific GSM signal where I live). It's the 3rd of December now. Still no shift in service.
But at least Cingular paid me $80 for the privelage of getting a (useless) new phone and service plan with them.
I'm going back to smoke signals.
WAKE UP
I've been a long time TMobile/VoiceStream/Powertel customer and I received a letter the other day stating that my previous Tzones restrictions and Pay Per Megabyte are now Free. No limits, No fees. Seems that In an effort to keep customers they are offering more of the services as a courtesy rather than an exclusive pay service. I have also received "Extra Minutes" as a "courtesy". I think that companies will now try very hard to make sure that you see a better value in your service since they cannot hold the "You'll have to change your number, OH NO!" over you anymore.
I'm happy with my service but it will help out if I ever decide I want to change in the future.
I've been trying to get the he11 off Nextel for four straight days. They will not let my number go! Call Nextel and they say yes go, my new carrier says that NExtel has an optional "numbergaurd" enab led on this number and will nto release it. . . Loop to infinity+1!!!!!!
;)
I just wanna LEAVE!
So four straight days and I think I'll just get a new number. I run a large network and have had this number for 4 years. I pitty the fool that gets it after me
Ian
to verify that I could keep my old number would take from 3 days to 7 months. Thanks, I'll take a new phone number then.
I work for a certain wireless company with a particularly emphasized logo.
:)
We are pushing off the go-live date of at least one major project until early next year because customer service has been getting a LOT of WLNP calls (WLNP = wireless local number portability), way more than expected, and don't want any releases that will further increase call volume. So I don't know if slashdotters are porting, but a lot of people are. I just hope they are porting TO us and not FROM us
Heck, my own mother, who is as non-tech-saavy as they come, is considering porting her home phone number to a wireless phone and just getting rid of the landline. This law is going to shake up the industry. You may even see one or two wireless carriers going under as a result. They've been predicting for years that the 5 major carriers would eventually boil down to 3. This may be the catalyst to make that happen.
- Vincit qui patitur.
I'm a person, not a revenue source!
Stream, you are countless numbers of revenue streams....think you're not. Think it at the gas station on your way to work, think in line at the grocer. Think it at Tax time...LOL 'citizen'...nope not today, citizen = revenue stream.
I am with Sprint. Before last month or so I planned to switch to ATT; the total cost and cost per minute would have been less. But then Sprint brought out the big guns and allowed nights to start at 7pm. They officially say that you have to upgrade (i.e. pay more per month) and sign a two year contract to get the new nights time if you are an existing customer. I said I wouldn't accept that and I wanted the new time schedules or they would receive a number portability request from ATT *today*. Since I've been there for 5 years now already, they were happy to accommodate me.
sig
I don't know where you are trying it, but I get great coverage in the Twin Cities, especially Eden Prairie and Apple Valley
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Though you can switch carriers and keep your phone number, you still have to change phones. The service providers lock the phones to their service when it comes from the factory, so it makes it harder to switch. I also bet, if you buy (or given)) a phone from someone who is stiff'd the provider, they won't let you have service on that phone.
Fight Spammers!
I don't have a cell phone myself, but I have a good friend who's phone had been broken for some time. She called the company asking for another one, and they told her it would be $80 (her warranty had just expired). As her contract was coming to an end in January, and number portability had just come into play, she told them that she couldn't afford $80 and she would switch to another carrier. That other carrier would give her a phone for free, since she would be a new customer. As soon as she threatened to leave they quickly apologized and sent her a brand new phone within a few days. And the new model is better than her old one (it has a color screen).
I'm not totally sure that number portability was the deciding factor here, but it certainly didn't hurt. It gives the consumers more leverage when they are demanding higher quality service, replacement parts, etc.
Maybe partying will help...
Make sure that the new carrier gets your name right with the old carrier, otherwise you won't exist. On top of that, cingular put the request into AT&T as a wireLINE to wireLESS port, rather than a wireLESS to wireLESS. I waited a week to get the new phone working, and I am not all that jazzed about the quality of service.
I am sticking with T-Mobile since they are the only ones not putting additional fees on my bill for this. I was seriously considering Sprint but quite frankly, the only thing T-Mobile doesn't have is coverage in rural areas like Sprint does with analog roam.
More minutes, cheaper, not nickle and dimed to death for features, and I don't have to pay just to play a stupid game on my cell phone.
I was hoping T-Mobile would give me like a free month for renewing my contract but they said neh so I said "well poo poo on you you" but I am sticking with them.
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
as in "Number portability has been here for a few years", because frankly here it has. Yes, I've taken my numbers between carriers and can barely even remember what it was like to change numbers when you changed carriers.
Well, good luck on that. It's a logical step and you too will one day forget about life in the stone age.
"I tend to think of OS X as Linux with QA and Taste", James Gosling, creator of Java
Remember: The old adage "fight fire with fire" does not apply to non-metaphorical fires.
;-)
Actually it does -- a wildfire sucks air from earth surface like crazy, so if you ignite another fire just at the right place at the right time it will be propagating towards the original fire and when they collide both will have no more fuel to burn.
Learned from some cowboys/indians book when I was a kid
Paul B.
Nothing.
It is simply too early to tell. Most of us are locked into contracts and are simply waiting for them to expire. I say, give it about 6 months and check back, not days.
I know as soon as my Verizon account contract dies, I am going to look real hard and see what is out there.
Linux O Muerte!
Cell Phones. Number Portability. Moving my land-line to the cell phone....
Great. Now noone can call me on my new land-line turned cell phone number too! I used to just imagine that women would call me when I wasn't there and were too shy to leave messages. Now I get to learn the cold, hard truth.
What they did was take about 50 calls I had made and re-dated them to be 3 months later. Their customer support people repeatedly said "we wouldn't do that, that's illegal". I had proof of it but they didn't care.
I even complained to the FCC, who just referred me back to AT&T, just more proof that corporations really do control the government.
Real life example:
They phone spammed me (picked up by my sweetie, which annoys me to no end) trying to sell their incredible landline services at incredible prices, this despite the fact that all my numbers are marked as don't spam me. It's not a "do not call list" in the strict sense, but the directoriy entries are marked as don't call this number if you intend to sell shit. This is usually repected.
I called to complain and of course the call center drone is not authorized to connect me with the marketing department, but promises a return call. Needless to say that this never materialized.
Deary me, fire up Mozilla, find the vice prez for marketing and communications and send her personally a letter hinting that they'll lose one of their first customers if they don't stop that shit pronto.
Before portability: "Hoho! yeah, fuck you too sir and good luck distributing your new number" (this is assumed, but you know the spiel)
After portability: "Well, we're dreadfully sorry Sir. Your privacy is our paramount concern and here are two vouchers for movie tickets for any theatre in the country for the best category..."
Number portability? Works for me.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
ive gotten numerous deals including $150 free phone, and im up to a pretty nice number of minutes now. they will bend over backwards to keep you. well, except at&t. they wont. ive got sprint. and teh deal i have costs at least 50% less than what you would have to pay for it, and i have a new phone
i sell illegal drugs
I'm stuck in a two-year contract, you insensitive clod.
No really, I see the benefit of saving your number if you are seriously being screwed, but cell phone companies like to lock you in for at least a year. If there were month-to-month contracts more readily available this would be a great benefit, imo.
Switch my phone carriet just last weekend, actually. Much better, and much cheaper, service now, plus I have a nice new phone with features my old providor didn't support. And I still get to keep my very fun number. (Which I won't post here for obvious reasons. It is comprised of a rather interesting pattern of numbers, tho, very easy to remember, and I always get strange looks, like, "you're kidding," when I tell people my cell number.)
i've been trying to get myself on at&t wireless for the last 3 days. i'm currently a nextel customer in grand rapids, michigan. i'm trying to get myself into a spiffy new GSM phone from at&t wireless using my old nextel number. problem is, at&t says my old number isn't portable (despite nextel's insistance that it is). additionally, they say my nextel number is actually a detroit number (200 miles and a couple area codes away). not sure why it would matter, as both grand rapids and detroit are MSA markets so i should be able to switch anyway. returning the phone to amazon.com is damn near impossible, so i've been on the phone with at&t for the last 3 days totaling over 6 HOURS trying to get somebody to make it happen. people that say they will call back never do, the drones on the phones can't do anything that isn't coming straight off their screen, and the managers that say they'll make things happen so far haven't made anything happen.
my best advice on this is to wait a while until things settle out. my experience so far has been enough to make everyone i work with forget about it entirely.
somebody else has mentioned this but it bears repeating - if you're out of contract (that is, you've fullfilled the terms of your original contract), call up your phone provider and tell them you're switching. they'll throw phones and better plan pricing at you like you won't believe.
The law says that phone companies have to allow for number portability. The law does NOT say the phone companies have to make it easy for the consumer.
For instance, when switching from AT&T to Verizon (while keeping your number the same) in my area you are forced to carry both your old phone and your new phone until May 2004. You place calls on your new phone but you still receive them on your old phone.
Call me crazy but I'll wait a good year or so until it's at least a bit more customer friendly.
The only thing keeping them from making it worse is that no one wants to get the worst press. So it appears they're going to drag their feet and make things as difficult as possible for as long as possible, and they're going to do it just up to the point that they can't get slammed any worse than anyone else in the industry. Like some inverse version of competition.
Q-"How poorly can we comply?"
A-"What are our competitors getting away with?"
Operator, give me the number for 911!
Not done it yet, but I plan on moving my service from Sprint to Xingular since Sprint has no GSM support and Nokia gave me this very nice GSM phone at the last dev con I went to. Would be a shame to waste the phone for just dev work so I figure I'll hook myself up.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
In the case of phone/cable lines I have to pay $5 extra a month so I have the *option* of switching to a carrier who charges more than the monopoly (because the monopoly in question charges higher rates to competitors to lease their line). I realize the cellular network is not a monopoly, but honestly all this really did was give all the cell companies an excuse to charge more.
To all the people that pushed for number portability in the first place... why?? When you move, you have to get a new phone number anyway! why should switching cell phone carriers be any different?
While deregulation, in theory, sounds great... in real life it always seems to result in extra fees. ...
The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.
He wanted to move from Qwest to ATT. Bought the ATT phone, ATT requested the number from Qwest, twice. Qwest denied the request both times, because the request specified a window of 3 hours, and Qwest requires a 24hr window to make the change.
He now carries 2 cell phones: 1 (qwest) to receive calls, and 1 (ATT) to make calls. This has been over a week, and they still can't get it straightened out. He's even gone to the local news and been interviewed for a story, hoping the bad publicity will prompt some action. It seems like, for all of the warning the phone co's had, they still haven't worked out a lot of the systems necessary to make the switch.
The funny thing is, the FCC only 'recommends' a timeframe for making a switch, but states right on their site that there is no required time limit. Talk about a loophole the cellphone companies can drive a truck full of cash through! My coworker could end up paying for two phones indeffinately.
Need a simple, easy to use data tier generator? http://www.gryphinsoftware.com/
Number portability is absolutely essential if customers really want to do something about crappy US cell coverage. Whining does nothing, the status quo proves that, however changing carrier really gets a cell companies attention. The process of people swaping cell phone service is called 'churn' in the buisness and it is very expensive for the cell phone companies, thus they want to stop it at any cost. Thus you change carrier and tell them it because your phone is unreliable in your home area, and hey! they get motivated to find a way to fix it. I understand peoples frustration with contracts, however what you have to realise is that they also are going away, the rest of the world has number portability and a majority of customers are contract free paying either monthly or against pre-paid credit and own there own unlocked phones
.. with AT&T Wireless, at least.
The day after the portability law went into effect, I headed to Verizon to get the new LG VX6000 and to switch over from ATT Wireless to Verizon Wireless.
Verizon seemed to do their part pretty quickly. Activation was quick, I was able to call out in 15 minutes. While I am able to call out on my new phone, I still (and remember, it's been a WEEK) cannot receive phone calls because ATT Wireless is taking their sweet ass time to finish their portion of the porting.
I read the law for the portability, and I expected a major loophole. No timeline or period was stated in the law claiming the maximum amount of time a company is allowed to take with the process. I've called AT&T Wireless a numerous amount of times and they keep telling me the same thing.. "Systems are down". When asked for an explanation, the representative can't even elaborate on the reason because, well honestly, i don't think they have any clue what the hell is going.
I don't know if anyone else is experiencing this (I live in metro New York), but this sure as hell is frustrating. After this post I am planning to call AT&T Wireless, again, and if they dare say "systems are down" I think I'll flip out.. something I rarely do.
So yeah, don't expect everything to work right away, especially with AT&T Wireless.
"The ones who dont do anything are always the ones who try to pull you down" -- Henry Rollins
I have had verizon wireless for years and I've been waiting for the "Can you hear me now? Good." guy to come around my area so they could improve the coverage. Well with number porting allowed I switched to T-Mobile and now have much better coverage where I need it! I did borrow my sisters T-Mobile phone before so I knew I would get signal. The process was painless. I called verizon and made sure I wasn't under a contract anymore and then walked into a T-Mobile store. Took a bit of time for them to do the paperwork since it was the first number port that the manager who was helping me had done. A little less then 24 hours later my new Sony Ericsson T-610 phone was working.
-- Slashdot, making the Left look conservative since 1997.
Please mod parent up.
s hdot ...
He's right. We're all 'revenue streams'.
Telco
Electric
Cable
Inet
Grocer
Fuel
Sla
wbs.
Huh?
I will not yet, however, for two reasons. First I want to make sure the bugs are out of the system. So far everybody's story is painless, which is good, but I want to make sure there are no horror stories of "My phone didn't work and I got charged by both companies for months..." sort of thing.
Second, I want the price war to take effect so I can get a really good deal. :)
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
We've had it for a half year or so in Germany. Switched providers myself and elected NOT to take over my old number. Yes it was a very nice, easy to remember number that I've had for years. However, I decided that it's actually good to get a new number every so often. It helps keep the people at bay that I regret ever giving my number. :)
I can now use the same numbers under both Windows and Linux. What will they think of next?
I recently tried to get my home number (with Bell Canada) changed to a cell (with Bell Mobility). No can do. Bell Canada sells blocks of phone numbers to the various phone companies and by law cannot show partiality to Bell Mobility customers. I was only able to keep the final four digits (lots of people found 9110 easy to remember), and that's just because they hadn't already been taken.
Stupid Americans with their outdated technology... In Europe, we've had number portability for years!
Morons.
since my town isn't in one of the "Top 100" markets or some such nonsense, I won't have number portability for another six months or so...
Providers (T-mobile, at least) have plans available that aren't listed online. I was able to get a plan over the phone that wasn't advertised and it fits me just fine. The only problem is what a pain it is to spend 10-20 minutes on the phone with a customer rep.
By the way, I do not work for any provider, and in fact, I completely hated T-mobile (kinda still do) -- but the price was right.
You can't ride two horses with one ass
4 hours! He was f-ing lucky.
My wife's phone was in TX only mode (RX on the old handset) for 24 hours (T-Mobile), and my phone number STILL hasn't been transferred (after 6 days)! I've been on the phone with T-Mobile customer service every friggin day!
The only reason we have the rights we have is that people just like us died to gain those rights. -- Cheerio Boy
I figure that most of the 'switch to us' plans right now are designed for customers who are desperate to leave their current service, and will trap the desperate customers into bad, year-long contracts.
I haven't found any plans that are very different then their old plans. I don't need 2000 minutes for $50 bucks a month, with 10 pages of tiny print discussing how I must give them my first born if I leave the contract. I just want inexpensive, reliable phone service.
I'll wait a while for the plans to become more competitive. I want to put 2 cells on a single plan for under $30 a month, with decent minutes (But I don't need any of those '2000 minutes a month' plans), and a new, small phone for cheap/free.
So I'll hold off for now.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
I agree with everything you said except I need a point of clarification from you. What is this cell phone you speak of?
I love it. I can write and compile code using a c integer type on a Sun Sparc and then re-compile it for my intel x86 box at home and I don't have to worry about whether I'm *actually* getting an int or a short, and if I'm...wait, what? Phone numbers?
Sorry, nevermind!
I don't have a phone number; I can make outgoing calls from my room via a calling card, but I can't get incoming calls.
If you want to contact me, send me an email.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
While I was happy with the actual cell service Sprint provided, they were both expensive, and the support PEOPLE were not at all helpful. So, I switched to Qwest. (Qwest is soon going to switch over to the Sprint network, so I'll get the same good network, but what I thought were the better Qwest people.)
So, I opened up a Qwest account, and on the 24th, called to have the process started.
I've gotten a few calls telling me of 'unknown' delays, then last Friday I was told it would be all switched over by yesterday (Tuesday) at 3:00 PM.
As of right now, (Wednesday at noon) my Qwest phone still doesn't have service, and my Sprint phone is still using it's old number. I haven't gotten any updates since Friday.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
We switched last week. After doing some research about what we needed from our cel phone company, we went to T-Mobile. We dont do alot of travelling in the countryside around where we live, we only need coverage along interstates and major cities. GSM was important, beacuse we do alot of international travel, and T-Mobile also has a liberal policy of simunlocking their phones, so we can switch to prepaid sims while are out of the country. Switching from Sprint took about a day, AT&T was about three days. The call to switch was fine. The call to check status after it took more than 24 hours to port, sucked. 1 hour on hold, and no straight answers in sight. That being said, I'm glad its done, my wife and I are finally on the same company and family plan, with no number changes.
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
There was a lot of hoopla about this before it went into effect about how the mobile phone service providers were scared about losing customers, and how lots of people would want to jump ship immediately - Hong Kong was used as a case study.
I read a recent article in the Economist, though, that said a more appropriate comaprison was with Australia. Hong Kong's market is already saturated, and much fewer people are locked into contracts. So, the only way mobile companies can get new customers is by poaching them from the competition. In the US, on the other hand, the market is far from saturated, most of the market is locked into contracts, and there's more room for growth by attracting people who don't currently own a mobile.
So, it doesn't seem as if this law will really hurt US providers that much.
Im switching from ATT to Sprint. The rep @ the Sprint store told me it would take a few days for AT&T to release my number. I can call out on the Sprint phone with my new number, but can only receive calls on my old phone. Its expected to take 2.5 days total, as AT&T are claiming "system problems".
If you do go to the store to switch, bring your last phone bill, if they enter Street instead of St. (or vice-versa) it can delay your switch another few days. It has to be EXACT
...frankly, I wouldn't want to move my landline number to my cell phone. The LAST thing I want is all of those telemarketers calling my cell phone making me pay for their calls!
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
The primary purpose of LNP and WLNP is not to benefit the home user. The rationale behind LNP and WLNP is to lower costs of changing phone carriers to businesses.
If, for example, Microsoft, with god only knows how many employees in one location, were to decide to change carriers and LNP did not exist, the move would cost them untold thousands of dollars in reprinting stationary and business cards, as well as making sure that customers were made aware that support numbers had changed.
However, with LNP, it makes it possible for a customer to simply call up a new carrier and say "Hey, I hate XYZ, I love you ABC, take over my phone business."
The FCC saw past the complaining of the telecom industry and realized that number portability will save businesses a great deal of money. And, hopefully, some of that savings will return to the economy in the form of increased investments/
I'll be moving in a couple months, and was considering transfering my home phone number to my cell phone, so I could keep my old number. In my new place, I wouldn't bother installing a land line. Of course, since now all the telemarketers (in spite of being on the do-not-call list) will be bugging me on my cell, that may not be such a good idea.
I don't know about any price warring, but I've certainly seen a sharp increase in the number of advertisements for cell networks. In the past week, I've received at least one advertisement in the mail from every major provider. I don't remember seeing more than one per month before then.
Is this the same Verizon that couldn't switch my landline number from my apartment to my new house five miles away?
Yeah, I believe they'd mess that up. I know two things about cellular phones in the United States:
1) The best carrier for customer service, technical support, and calling area is Verizon.
2) Verizon has really shitty customer service, technical support, and calling area.
Verizon, BTW, has not correctly billed me since March. Every month they've refused to bill my credit card and charged me $24 for the right. See, I changed my credit card number to one that actually worked...and their automated system has yet to realize it. Despite my having called every month since to have it fixed.
American cellular service will not get better until all the opportunist companies have been bankrupted by their own stupidity, and a company with the old school telecommunications mentality (that same one Time Warner seems to have adopted, btw) takes over. But there's still too much money to be had in shady deals and shiny phones for pragmatism to prevail.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Does this finally mean that this will be the end of telemarkers?
AFAIK, telemarkers cannot call cell phones. Telemarkers cannot tell what number a cell phone is anymore. Ergo, telemarkers cannot make calls.
Am I missing something?
A few months ago, the mandatory contract length with O2-UK expired, meaning I could get a subsidised upgrade. When I asked about ugrading, they said that I'd be better off with a new contrract, and that I could keep my number if I moved onto a new deal and I'd also get the phone I wanted for much less. After being messed around with trying to do this, I decided enough was enough and that I'd move to T-Mobile as they had a slightly cheaper price plan which suited my need.
I went out, brought a new T-Mobile phone and then called O2 to get the code I needed for transfer. They said It'd take 5 days to come by post.
5 days, nothing happened.
Phoned again, they siad it wasn't sent out for some reason and said they'd send another code out and it would be with me in 5 days.
Yet again, nothing happened. I phoned up again, shouted at them, and finally got them to give me the code by phone, but it was an pointless struggle which resulted in O2 billing me for a month of service which I never used. Certainly most annoying.
Then don't turn on your phone. It continually amazes me that people will get a cell phone and then insist on leaving the phone on 24/7. Unless you are a doctor on call or absolutely need to have people get in contact with you, turn off your phone. I've had a cell phone for a few years, and keep it powered off unless I'm using it or expecting a call. The cell phone is there for *my* convenience, and I'll use it when I want to make a call, not when others feel like randomly calling me. Plus it saves the battery. I've been using the same battery in my current phone for a year, and it still gets about 6-8 hrs of talk time per charge.
If you can read this then I forgot to check "Post Anonymously"
I still have 16 months left with my contract to Sprint. :(
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
Locally (Texas), the companies are saying the service is only available if you live in a larger metropolitan area. The smaller burb residents are forced to wait until ?
j.
I've had the exact same experience. I requested my port last Monday and ATT has yet to release my number. I want to leave ATT because their customer service sucks and now I can't leave because their CRM software is hosed. Lame.
I work for a major carrier and currently we are handleing many lnp port in requests and what is happening acrosed the board is this --- This is the consistent wording being used across the enterprise, effective immediately, and will continue to be used until further notice.
"LNP is the biggest technical challenge we've faced in the wireless industry, and we're working hard to meet the FCC guidelines. However, porting involves two companies, so we can't control the entire process. Unfortunately, we are experiencing delays with your old service provider (AT&T, Cingular or Nextel) and we are working with them to resolve the issues as quickly as possible however it may still take several days to complete the request."
I dislike cell-phones, but would not be opposed to checking my email on a regular basis on my Ipaq if it were equiped with wireless internet adapter+service.
I'm a tight-budget college student, and the problem I've seen is all wireless plans are like $60/mo
Anyone have any suggestions/guidance? $20/mo would be nice, and if it helps anything, I live in the San Diego area.
where are the tinfoil theorists pointing out the
"choke point" creating by having a mandated
layer of number-indirection, effectively a
centralized switchboard for ALL non-internet
voice traffic? now the Bureau just need one big
carnivore box instead of lotsa little ones.
matches right up with the single patriot act
replacing many time-consuming court filings...
Remember when that robot ran for president? Now this miserable failure of a site comes along to draft him this year.
The day after this number portability thing went into effect, my wife called our carrier (T-Mobile) to cancel our hotspot service*. When she let them know she wanted to "cancel service", they apparently assumed she meant our entire service plan, rather than just the hotspot part of it, and immediately offered a really good deal: almost double the minutes we had previously, plus the addition of free nights, all for the same price we were already paying.
;)
Needless to say, we stuck with 'em -- just like we were going to anyway.
*Hotspot is T-Mobile's wifi service. We had tried the hotspot service for a month, but it turned out to be unnecessary, as every Starbucks we went to had free service available from somewhere nearby, usually at a strength equal (or almost equal) to the for-pay service.
This seems to be a big hit and is good for the bottom line of a company that had been struggling badly last year. I haven't used this service myself, mind. Losing the landline in favour of a mobile wouldn't work right now for my family.
All number portability means to me is another $5 charge on my land-line phone bill. Thank you FCC. This number portability is just plain stupid. How long before people start demanding that their e-mail addresses be portable when they change ISPs?
....Expect a LONG wait. Moving to Sprint from Verion for business reasons they said 2.5 to 6 hours. A week later, I was still waiting - and you are going to love the reason - the programmers had set the SS number fields as numeric - so anything with a leading zero - would not port.
It's 10 days later and here I sit - without it ported.........what a joke
Human nature never changes.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
One fix was to allocate 1000 phone number blocks instead of 10000 number blocks. With number portability, they all have to share exchanges anyway, so maybe there's less incentive to hoard numbers?
--- Often in error; never in doubt!
I know 2 people switching their landline to Vonage because of the new rule. It's going to shake up more than the cell market.
there's no place like ~
AT&T was a footdragger all along claiming that their systems just weren't ready to handle this, and it turns out they weren't faking it. The FCC may fine them for not being ready to handle outgoing customers, but the biggest penality for not being ready is hitting them naturally from their bugs... they're having equal problems getting numbers into their system as well. That's represents would-be customers who are being told it's not working, some of whom no doubt walked out of the store canceling the purchase and told their friends not to even bother with AT&T Wireless.
I tried to get my verizon number ported to t-mobile (which gives me high speed internet for $20/month instead of $100). Verizon refused to give the number up. I called to find out why; their rep said my number wasn't portable because my 917 area code (New York City) wasn't in the top 100 markets. So, I filed a complaint with the FCC, shrugged, and just got a new phone number.
I live in the SF Bay Area and switched from Cingular to Verizon on Monday. After two years of wretched coverage, there was no force on earth that could have made me stay with Cingular.
I walked into the Verizon store, picked out a phone and a plan and within 2 hours was switched over. I didn't even have to bring in any documentation and I was surprised how painles entire processes was.
It was the best buying experience I've had in a long time. I'd rather not have to pay the $1.75 per month for a service that should be standard, but given the choice between the fee and freedom to switch numbers versus no fee but no choice, go ahead and bill me.
Sorry, but I'm not one of those anal-retentive cellphone-toting
morons who is deathly afraid of being away from a phone for ten minutes.
...about $50K worth of overtime implementing LNP translations in my companie's network. It worked out great for me.
If only I could port out my work number so I could get some better service...*sigh*.
I live in Chicago, and I overheard one half of a woman's conversation at a bus stop. Seems this young lady had been trying for a week to move from Cingular to Verizon. She had been on the phone with Cingular on numerous occasions, and there was always some dumb reason why it was going to take more time to move her number to Verizon. "The form wasn't filled out correctly", "we didn't get the information we need from Verizon", etc. She finally got Verizon and Cingular on the phone together, and Cingular still couldn't make it happen. She ended the conversation saying she was at the point of just giving up her number and moving to Verizon anyway because of her terrible experience with Cingular. She was convinced they were just trying to keep her around so they could bill her more. My take is that Cingular, and perhaps others, are still struggling with the fine details of number transfer.
You could, of course, get one of those cell phone docking systems that tie into your home phone, then move your number to a cell line.
That way you have the conveniance of using your home phones, but you're only paying for your cell phone.
There's this really raelly nifty thing called a power key. Press it for a moment, and viola! No More Calls.... and the really great part is, that when your car breaks down on the drive home, you can call AAA and not die of starvation on the roadside.... then again don't get a phone, and let darwin do his work.
Other countries have had number portability for quite some time you insensitive clod!
Martin
I went from AT&T to Nextel on the first day of the portability option. Nextel said I was the first person to switch from with one of their new zones (forget what they called it) even though I was in one of the top market areas. Originally they said I couldn't do it.
I had to call back and insist for an explanation why I couldn't do it and the guy was very helpful. Took an extra 20 minutes, but no problems. Overall process was 3 days.
Overall, very glad I did it. The Nextel temporary number they gave me apparently previously belonged to a drug dealer based on the calls I received.
Bottom line -- a few kinks to get over, but with a good carrier (Nextel), you'll hopefully get ported over.
"Tax time"?
:)
The joke's on you, I'm a philosopher! Can't pay taxes on what you don't make.
RD
I'm actually on hold trying to get Nextel to release my numbers. Tmobile has tried for 2 days, and Nextel is himming and hawing about letting them go. I'm giving them until 4pm today, then I'm going to get the Feds involved. I'll update/comment as things go along.
BTW, call the Nextel corporate offices. Option 2 is Lawsuits. That ought to tell you something about a company right there.
----- LoboSoft specializes in Digital Language Lab
As far as I can tell, the scenario you talk of is purely urban legend.
AT&T has some delays due to their Siebel software fiasco. But not for months, not at all for most people and not with other carriers.
A scenario you talk of is not complying. The FCC wouldn't stand for it.
I have had Cingular (formerly Pacbell Wireless) since '98. My last contract with Cingular expired in '99. After that I was obviously month-to-month and have been ever since. I can change my rate plan as frequently as I would like without worrying about signing another contract and when I want a phone I just go to one of the reputable resellers online and buy myself a new unlocked phone. I find that most phones are $20-$50 bought at retail than what Cingular would charge me for the phone including the contract.
With and unlocked phone and no contract I am free to switch providers and use number portability whenever I wish. My phone will work with any of the GSM carriers (Cingular, AT&T, T-Mobile) so I don't need to get into a new contract if I change providers. People need to have more foresight into NOT getting sucked into these 'deals' that providers offer for free cell phones and getting tangled in a contract.
-
aphex
I Steal Music!
I find myself thankful every day that the number "1" is still the number "1" no matter where I go.
Thank god for number portability.
give it a rest
nope. number portability hasn't done a thing for me. my contract is up in a month and i'll be switching providers, t-mobile has very poor coverage in the area i moved to recently.
getting a new number is something i actually want. this way i know who has the new number and no calls from people i'm hiding out from who knew the old one.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
I had 13 months left and when I called to change plans they told me I would need to have at least 12 months remaining.
In other words, they let you change plans but do months_remaining=max(12, months_remaining);
have always been portable. all you have to do is write them down and put them in your pocket. there are also these pocket-sized devices that can carry around lots of number.
I think that the people who will benefit most from this are people who use their cell phone for business purposes. While it's relatively painless for a person to change their personal phone number, there are a lot of problems with changing a business number.
I think it's a great idea as long as you are going from Cell phone to Cell phone, or land line to land line (which I've done). But to go land line to cell phone I think is nuts! Why would I transfer all the unwnated calls on my land line to my cell phone? The cell phone is great because only those whom I want to know the number to will call it. And besides, I can't hook up my fax machine to my cell.
What I would really like is cell phone portability, so I can do something with that box of old cell phones I have.
I don't own a cell-phone, you insensitive clod!
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
I called customer service, and after 1 hour of waiting on hold, was told they would look into it and call me back. They never did. Next time I called customer service I was on hold for hours, until my battery was drained. Sprint just does not give a damn about customers.
Sprint has the WORST customer service for its customers. They treat people like crap.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
They used to publish these big books that had people's name and address right there for anyone to see. What an invasion of privacy!! I think they were called phone books, but someone must have made them stop doing that as you never see them anymore.
Actually, the whole idea of number portability is stupid. Are we asking for IP portability from our ISP? No. DNS allows seamless changes (if your ISP tech support is on the ball).
We should have the same thing for telephones, dial by name + identifying hierarchical description. Like:
Joe Doe -> gives local list of Joe Does to select from
Joe Doe @ NY, NY -> gives list from Manhattan + them other boroughs
etc.
Why am I expected to treasure some freaking 10-digit number?
But I still don't have a cell phone. I think the damn things are evil. Even still, I have noticed a change in advertising as a lot of the phone companies try to grab each others' business. "Now switching is easier than ever!" Etc.
~D
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
Me, I didn't change because I did research first, THEN got my phone and I've been a happy customer since early 2000 with Sprint. Why do I have to change simply because everybody else is doing it?
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
Uhhhhhhhhhhh............... weve had this in europa for years now........ usa sux.........
A few months back, AT&T rolled out their GSM network. When I went into the store to inquire about getting a new GSM phone, they told me that I had to change my phone number because the prefix that I had was actually leased from SBC and SBC was reclaiming all of their prefixes since the lease was up on them. So, SBC owns(owned?) the prefix for my phone. But now with wired number portability being an option, who actually owns the numbers?
I should theoretically be able to march into AT&T and demand a GSM phone with my existing phone number now, no?
NOTHING.
I don't have a cellphone, and I'm sorry for all the poor (and sometimes annoying) saps that carry one for the hell of it. It's really not worth the money.
Not that it's not useful for business - but really, who uses a cell for just business? Go to the damn office, really guys.
i'm amazed that i survived - an airbag saved my life.
I was off-contract with T-Mobile, and had experienced many bandwith problems with them. I'm near an interstate interchange-- traveling calls fill the entire tower. I noticed an amazing deal on a treo 600 on amazon, and decided to get it, knowing that I could port it to SprintPCS, where I have another cell phone, and much better service.
I initiated the transfer on Wed, 11/26. I had heard rumblings of portability problems with the wrong information being entered into the system, so I made sure "customer care" specialist repeated all of the information back to me. They gave me an original "due date" of Saturday, 11/30 at Noon.
Saturday rolled around and no transfer. I called back, and it turns out Sprint submitted the wrong address to the WLNP system. If the addresses don't match, it won't port. Nobody had called me in 3 days. To make matters worse, the address they submitted was my old address- 4 years and 3 addresses ago! It was my original address with Sprint, not even my current one they had on file!!
To cut a long story short, I've called Sprint 5 times since then, still no port 7 days later, and each time I call, they give me the wrong address issue, even though I've corrected it 6 times.
This most recent time, I waited 2 hours (on a landline) to speak to someone in the Sprint WLNP dept. They eventually got T-mobile on the line. Finally, they both agreed that it was the FCC-contracted third party that was the holdup, but that their system was in the middle of an "update" and was unaccessable for 2 hours. (In the middle of a business day?!!?)
This system is not working. If these companies had spent the time and effort making this work instead of fighting it, and maybe tested it at least once, it would work better.
But because there are so many parties involved, they figured they didn't have to, because there are 2 other people they can point the finger at.
I've yet to hear from a single AT&T person online who's successfully ported.
If you've having problems such as me, make sure to REPORT IT.
Other resources I've been using, mostly to comisserate:
Howard Forums
Sprintusers.com
Number portability forum
Wait until they get the kinks out-- the system should take but a few hours, not more than a week!
Has anyone tried ATT's GoPhone plan? You pay for the phone upfront ($80 online), but the minutes are competitive ($40/mo for 400 min + free nights/weekends), and there's NO CONTRACT! If you go over your 400, your next month just starts early, instead of being charged through the nose for overage minutes.
I'm looking for the downside, and I haven't found it. Anyone on the plan right now?
I moved 2 numbers from sprint to verizon. I think sprint has a larger market share here but verizon has much better coverage especially into illinois where I travel a lot. I broke one of my phones, and though I'd been a sprint customer for 4 years, they only offered me mail-in rebates instead of the new customer instant rebates on phones. I didn't like the idea of spending $300.00 for a phone and waiting 8-14 weeks to get a $150 check, so I went to verizon and walked out with an equivalent plan for less money and two new phones for $53 total. The numbers ported from Sprint in less than 4 hours.
I think he was saying he was on hold for four hours. Not "holding the phone".
maybe you didn't follow.... the thing with number portability is the ability to switch from, say, Verizon to maybe Sprint and not change your cell phone numbers. In theory this will increase people's ability to hop for the best deal. also if a provider runs great deals and hooks people for a year, then cranks up their rates, the consumer can fight back. yes you always can vote by not renewing a contract, but some people don't want to change numbers a lot. esp in this day and age when some people kill off their land lines, or maybe an independent contractor that uses their cell phone number on their business cards and whatnot. to somebody like that, they are kind of risking losing business if they switch cell phone companies. also, as far as i know i have never called a disconnected cell phone and got forwarding number information. i also don't see one company offering to forward your calls to another, or provide that information. anyway, it might not be the biggest deal in the world, but in a year or two when most all people/companies have cycled through their contracts it will be valid to look and see what happens.
i guess technically a company could switch all their employees from one provider to another and keep the individual numbers. the change in rate might not be as much to you, but when you look at what a fleet of cell phones costs, it would add up.
i can't see how it's a bad thing for consumers to have more choices.
My saga starts on Nov. 24 at about 8pm EST. I went into a Verizon Wireless retail store hoping to port my number from Cingular to Verizon. The kind young lady helped me pick out a phone, and then we went through the paper work. After about 40 minutes I was told it would take between 24 & 48 hours for the process to complete.
I waited the 48 hours (a little less actually), just to give them the benefit of the doubt and then called in the afternoon on the following Wednesday. When I called they said they were still working on it, and to give them another 24 hours.
I gave them 48 hours and then called again on the Friday after Thanksgiving. When I called they said the first request was rejected because the address on the accounts didn't match. I corrected the incorrect address with Verizon's customer service on the phone. The person then proceeded to re submit the request and they promised it would be done within 24 hours.
I waited the 24 hours and I called again on Saturday to get a status update. This time, according the Verizon, they submitted the reuqest but Cingular took too long to acknoledge the request therefore it was dropped. I have no idea why I wasn't notified of this, or why they didn't submit the request again. Anyhow, they submitted the request a 2nd time and assured me it would be completed within 24 hours.
Those 24 hours came and went and it was now Sunday and I called again. I was told almost the same thing I was told on Saturday. This time they told me they submitted the reuquest and they were waiting on Cingular to acknoledge it. I tried calling Cingular, but their customer service is only open until 9pm EST, so I would have to wait until Monday to get in touch with Cingular.
Monday rolls around and I call verizon one more time just to make sure it's safe to contact Cingular before my number has been ported. They say the last request was not fulfiled and they would initiate it again and the guy PROMISED it'd be done by the next day. He swore up and down.
The next day, Tuesday, rolls around and there's still no port. I call verizon and they say they're waiting on Cingular. I call Cingular and they say they've responded but Verizon took too long to respond to their acknoledgement so the request was cancelled. This is the same thing that happened on Saturday, except this time Verizon didn't respond! Dammit! Anyhow, at that point I called up Verizon and told them what Cingular said. They said they'd re-submit the request again and then call Cingular on a conference call to make sure everything happens. Finally, some decent customer service! So, she submits the port request and gets Cingular on the phone. Cingular sees the request, checks the data and then acknowledges the request, Verizon then sees the acknowledgement and gives it final approval. Cingular goes away and then the Verizon lady told me it was scheduled to be completed by 4:00pm EST. 4:00 rolls around and it's not done. At 4:30 I call verizon again to see what's going on. The lady tells me it's pending at the NPAC and to give it a few more hours. I called again at 8:30pm to check because I still hadn't gotten the txt message I was promised once the port was complete. This time she told me the NPAC was done processing at 10:54pm GMT. She said to give it a few more hours to wait for my txt message. I called it a day and decided I'd give them until the next day.
I woke up this morning without a txt message and with an incomplete port. I get to work and then call Verizon again! The lady tells me it's status is currently active at Verizon and at the NPAC. She asked if I had tried updating my phone and I told her I had. She tells me it should be working and she transfers me to Verizon tech support. I go through some stuff with the tech lady and she tells me to update my phone again. Guess what! It worked! I got my old number on my new phone with my new provider! The port was finally complete!
So, to make a long story short I initiated my port on
[Got Hosting?]
Absolutely. We live in DownTown Seattle and get no service.
We just started the process of switching to Verizon and have found that Verizon is bending over backwards to help, while Sprint Customer service won't even talk to us.
I used number portability 3 years ago: in 2000. Nothing special.
Wait, I'm in the Netherlands. That doesn't count?
No, the original parent posters' point is that the argument can be made that as soon as companies treat you like a revenue stream, and not a person, you cease being a revenue stream to them .. because you take your business elsewhere.
.. ie, to raise our standard of living and increase our satistfaction in life. This is why I think its a moot point to assert that humans = revenue streams, to the extent where such a level of cynical self-awareness may in fact be detrimental to the health of our society and the economy.
Its much like the argument that there is no such thing as altruism. Sure, maybe theres no such things as altruism, that we do things purely for self, including helping others in seemingly selfless ways. However, if society as a whole accepts that there is no such thing as altruism, its behaviour changes. People stop doing things for other people, since they figure, as long as we dont expect each other to be selfless, they may as well stop doing the things they used to do for other people. The perception is that if you're helping others to help yourself, why not just help yourself and skip the 'middleman'? The punchline is that unless you can prove that acting selfishly is inately 'cheaper' and better for society than acting selflessly, changing the way people think about themselves and their actions causes their behaviour to change - and in this case, I postulate, not to the benifit of those participating in said society.
If companies want citizens = maximum possible revenue streams, its probably not in their best interest to flaunt the equation in front of us. People have a way of resisting expected behaviour when they suspect they are being manipulated to act in the interests of somebody else. It is entirely possible (and this is what I believe) that the more self-aware people become to their true 'roles' in the economy, the less they act in the interests and wishes of companies. It poisons the natural social dynamics people exhibit in a capitalist market, and weakens the ability of the system to serve its intended purpose
"Old man yells at systemd"
I'm speaking as someone that does not have and does not want a cell phone. (I don't use the phone often enough to be worth it and I don't like the contracts) I just don't get why this number portability thing is supposed to be such a big deal. They're saying that just because it's now possible to take your phone number with you that everyone will be switching carriers. Why? I know people happy with their service, and I also know people that want to switch and don't give a rat's hairy butt about keeping their number, they just want out of their carrier as soon as their contract is up, regardless of other consequences like the minor inconvenience of changing numbers.
Can someone please explain why the media feels the need to make it sound like 95% of people will switch real soon now just because of the number portability thing and no other reason whatsoever??? I just don't get it, and if I was unhappy with a company I'd switch, the number situation either way would not affect my decision to change at all, nor to stay with a company I'm happy with. I just don't see it as being at all relevent to switching or not myself.
You can use this to your advantage - since you never agreed to that $2.20 a month charge when you first signed up, your original contract is null and void.
Call them and demand to be put on month-to-month payments because you never agreed to that charge in your original contract. Then you're free to come or go as you please!
If it was me, I'd see if I could get them to throw in the latest phone model for free if I signed the NEW contract.
Easy way to get yourself a nifty new color camera phone!
i changed from cingular to verizon.
both of the above let you change your plan w/o committing to more than you have already (i.e. if you have 2 months left and change from 300 minutes to 500 minutes youll still have 2 months left...)
Well I called both VZW and ATT.. same bs.. except this time I demanded from ATT that they transfer me to their portability department (which seems to be the only way to get through).. the woman was nice.. told me AGAIN the "systems were down", but told me to call in 2-3 hours and gave me her direct extension..
on a further note, if any ATT (or non-ATT) customers have any portability related questions and cannot get through.. try this number.. 1-800-241-0335 It's the "hidden" portability department number. The queue seems to be pretty fast (barely waited 30 seconds), so give that a shot
"The ones who dont do anything are always the ones who try to pull you down" -- Henry Rollins
Seeing as how number portability *just* happenned, why is this article here? I mean, not everyone is looking to dump their carriers now just because they can.
I'm not usually an early adopter, but I jumped in and switched from Verizon to AT&T last monday. Here it is Wednesday and I still cannot receive calls on my AT&T phone. Even if I could, I don't seem to get any AT&T GSM coverage in my office any, so I'm not even sure I will stay with AT&T through the grace period. At least with portability I can (in theory) move to yet another provider. Cingular seems to get coverage here.
If Verizon had provided Bluetooth and international (GSM) abilities, I would have stayed with them. Best coverage, worst phones (Verizon) or bad coverage, good phones (everyone else.) I chose better phone, but I am having seconds thoughts now...
You don't "make" unemployment, but you still pay taxes on it.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
Normaly phone companies will give you big discounts on the phone to sign up for multi-year contracts, but for most people, those contracts expired long ago (Unless they renewed them to get a new, cheap phone).
In theory, I could get a new phone cheap, but I'd rather keep my old phone and number portability.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I just requested a number switch for another family member from Sprint to Nextel. (We got the Nextel account earlier in the month.) I was told the switch could take 1 day to 2 weeks, and Nextel blamed Sprint for not having their system up to date.
One concern I had was that the family member being switched was not very tech savy and I didn't want to have to have them perform any special resets or anything to be able to use the phone after the switch went into effect. They said the new phone would keep working with the old number until it was power cycled after the switch occurred and then it would receive calls from the new number.
It all seemed pretty painless. Getting this family member to switch phone #'s was going to be a pain so it was nice timing.
Not like you can't just go to another carier
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
This is definitely not for the faint of heart...
On Sunday around noon, I went into my local Best Buy to switch my number from Sprint to Cingular wireless, and it just started working about an hour ago.
First off, anyone whose ever tried to get cell service knows that signing up and getting a new phone isn't exactly a quick process. That said, it took the Cingular lady at Best Buy about 1.5hrs to get the process started, get me signed up on Cingular's service and get a new phone. If Sprint hadn't pissed me off so much, I would've left long before that, but I stuck it out. When I left the store, I was told it would take about 3hrs before the Cingular phone would be active.
It got recognized by the network around 7pm that night. By recognized, I mean that I could connect to the Cingular network and when I made a call out, my phone number would appear on the recipient's caller ID.
One problem though, and that was that all calls to my number still went to my Sprint phone. So Monday morning, I took both phones into work, and proceeded to call Cingular's tech support, wait on hold for eons, explain my situation to numerous people before I was told that a number of the ports would go through at midnight and so I should wait. I did. Nothing happened.
On Tuesday morning, I went back into work, again with both phones, and proceeded to call Sprint this time, only to be told that the request had been processed and that some computer had "timed out". Long story short, I had to call Cingular, get them to call Sprint, and re-submit whatever request had timed out. That took about 3 hours on hold to complete. No time frame was given other than a few hours, so I waited.
Around 9pm last night, I discovered that now nobody could call either of my phones, and every call was forwarded directly to my Sprint voicemail. Not good.
This morning, it took 4 hours on hold and talking to more than one individual in the porting center to discover that Cingular hadn't completed the incoming calls routing, and that the request had been waiting to be processed since Sunday. Anyway, as of 2pm I can both call and answer with the Cingular phone. Whew!!!
A couple of notes to those thinking about switching:
1 - DO NOT get rid of your old phone until you know the new service is working properly if possible, since having mine proved very useful in trying to talk to the service individuals.
2 - DO NOT get rid of your old service until the new one is verified to be fully working since your previous carrier might re-assign the number, according to one of the many people I have talked to at Cingular, this is a common problem.
3 - Get the numbers to the respective carrier's porting centers (they differ by state/region), so that when you have to call back, you can skip the monotonous standard Customer Service.
4 - Expect delays. I've found that almost everyone I talked to at both carriers was more than willing to help, but the volume of transfers and the number of hoops they have to jump through to do this make this a long process.
At least they're not charging me roaming fees.
How does blowing up TNT remove oxygen from the atmosphere? o2 isn't a part of the reaction. Most likely, the dynamite would simply blow everything up, scatter the fuel, and 'knock out' the fire the same way that small flames are put out by people blowing on them.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
If companies want citizens = maximum possible revenue streams, its probably not in their best interest to flaunt the equation in front of us.
I fully expected to be flamed over that post by someone, but instead people just want to make rational discussion. Cool! Nice post by the way, far better than my cynical rant.
citizen = revenue stream
I believe the word you're looking for is consumer. Customer service is dead because there are no more customers -- only consumers. The customer is always right. The consumer is a replaceable commodity.
Me like LNP! :)
"I once preached peaceful coexistence with Windows. You may laugh at my expense - I deserve it." Be's Jean-Louis Gass
The UK have been doing this for a long time.
Hasn't done me a lick of good. When I went to transfer my number last week, my new provider's (T-Mobile) system wouldn't allow the number to be transfered. My old provider (Verizon) claimed that the third party that manages the transfer database was at error and there was nothing they could do.
I was replacing a stolen phone and needed a new one right away. I also didn't want to extend my contract with Verizon another two years to get a new (+ expensive and inferior) phone so I ended up signing up with T-Mobile anyway and getting a new number.
I don't have any evidence of whose fault it was. However, from past experience dealing with Verizon, I suspect they simply never released my number for transfer.
Customer service. It really seems like the people who work at the stores are allowed to help you out as best they can, rather then following some canned script or following some protocol. I haven't actually needed much customer service though, but the few times I have (when my phone broke) they've been great. Although the 'signal' insurance took forever to replace my phone.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Am I the only one who doesn't have and doesn't WANT a damn cellphone?
It pisses me off to hear the damn thing ring when I'm at home (it feels like an invasion of privacy to me since I have to stop whatever I'm doing and answer the damn thing), I'm sure as hell not going to carry one with me at all time.
I'd like to see the next slashdot poll with this question.
Do you have a cellphone
- Can't live without one
- Yes
- Getting one soon
- No
- Hell no
- Cowboy Neal only use IM you insensitive clod (or something similar, as always)
I work on a port in team for Boost Mobile (Cali based prepaid phone company) I dont know what all the fuss is about, in about 30 minutes, we get your new phone activated, and get the request sent to your OSP (old service provider). The part about moving your numbers that pisses me off, is the people who a) cancel their service before moving over... YOU CANT MOVE WHAT YOU DONT OWN. b) people who dont do research before moving, get hit with a disconnect fee from their osp, and have no statement from their osp. This has been such hype from the get go, we trained 30 people to do this, for the most part this has come down to me and 4 other people working on this project, and since this started (nov 24th) I've done about 10 numbers, so this really isnt as big as it turned out to be. H Y P E :)
I switched from Sprint to T-Mobile earlier this year and was flat-out yelled at by the Sprint rep when I called to cancel. "Take that phone back!! I can beat that deal!!" And he actually did offer me a better deal than T-Mobile, but I still switched (partly because I don't like getting yelled at, and partly because T-Mobile handles email on the phone much better than Sprint).
My year is up in April, and a T-Mobile rep told me I can upgrade my phone in month 11, so I'm looking carefully. With number portability a reality now, I bet I can score a good deal on a Bluetooth camphone. (Sony-Ericsson T910 any good?)
Mail? Put "slashdot" in the subject to pass the spam filters.
On Saturday, November 22nd I went into a T-Mobile store and bought a new phone and activated service with a new phone number with an intent to port my old number over from AT&T Wireless Services on Monday the 24th.
On Monday I called T-Mobile to begin the porting process. It took a little over an hour on the phone and at the end of the call they said it would take 3 to 24 hours before the change would be effective.
24 hours later, nothing had happened yet. I called T-Mobile back and was told that the request had been rejected by AT&T because my name on the request didn't match my name in their system. I grabbed my AT&T bill and reconfirmed with T-Mobile that it had, in fact, been entered correctly the first time. They resubmitted the request and said to check back in another 5 hours if it hadn't gone through.
5 hours later I called back to learn that AT&T rejected the request again saying that the ZIP code didn't match. We double-checked and it was exactly as it was listed on the AT&T bill. They said to check back again on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, more of the same. We went through again to make sure that all of the information in the request was exactly as it was listed on my AT&T bill and resubmitted the request. They said that if it failed this time, I was stuck until Friday since they wouldn't be open on Thanksgiving.
On Friday, nothing had changed. I called T-Mobile again and was told that AT&T was having serious computer problems and that all requests were being rejected. They said there was nothing else they could do right now and that there was no ETA. We were all at the mercy of AT&T and were simply stuck.
I checked again on Saturday and Sunday and got the same answer both times.
On Sunday I sent an eMail to AT&T Wireless Services telling them that there was no excuse for their incompetence given the fact that they've had over seven years since the original FCC mandate to prepare for this.
On Monday I called T-Mobile again and talked to someone about the situation... specifically about my concerns regarding double-billing since I have an active T-Mobile account right now and I have to keep my AT&T service active until the conversion is complete or I forfeit my number. The T-Mobile rep was very sympathetic and said that she would take care of it by making sure I am not charged for my T-Mobile service until after the portability request is successfully completed.
It is now Wednesday. 9 days since I submitted my port request. Three days since I sent an eMail to AT&T Customer Care. I still haven't heard anything from AT&T regarding the eMail I sent them on Sunday except for an automated form letter stating that they received my eMail and would respond as quickly as possible. I'm not holding my breath.
I honestly believe that their problems may not be as severe as they claim and that this is, at least partially, an attempt by them to get their existing customers to "give up" on switching to another carrier. Many people who have requested number ports away from AT&T have done just that... after become so frustrated with the delays and excuses they've decided to just stick with AT&T rather than suffer through continued aggravation. If nothing else, AT&T is delaying the departure of dissatisfied customers, forcing them to continue paying for poor quality service until the alleged computer problems are corrected. In fact, a number of customers have reported in various Internet message boards (including AT&T's own support forums) incidents where they have called in to simply cancel their service and were told by the AT&T rep that they couldn't do it at that time because the system was down and that they would need to call back later.
I, personally, intend to continue my quest to move my number to T-Mobile if for no other reason than to make it clear to AT&T that they're not just losing a customer, they're losing a customer to one of their competitors. Number portab
The day that portability went into effect, they came out with their Customers First deal to convince existing customers to stay. Here's what it consists of: But check out the fine print: Whoo whee! Now I can renew my contract every year with AT&T for the privilege of subsidizing the "free" phones for another two years! Gosh, and they can "free" me of any pesky grandfathered-in deals each time I get my "free" phone.
I'm on AT&T wireless and I like their service, but this customer retention effort is pure crap.
-- "Sucks to your ass-mar"
Hope this doesn't come off trollish, but one idea that I just can't seem to get used to is how much people depend on their cell phones. Ten years ago, the price of cell calls were still pretty expensive - especially when it came to roaming. Now that prices are decent, it seems nobody puts their phone down. In the car, walking down the sidewalk, in the BATHROOM?!, the cellphone has sunk its teeth deep into a huge chunk of the population.
Maybe I'm a bit of an old school thinker, but I don't feel most people have a real need for a cell phone. Emergencies? Sure. But shooting the bull just cause you can...whatever.
I'm not against cell phones all together - they are a very useful technology. My wife uses one for her business as she is dispatched around town throughout the day. But it seems every teeny bopper not capable of spending some quiet moments to themselves has a chunk of plastic stuck to their head.
For me, well, I guess I'm holding out. Am I alone here?
Hello?....Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you wree on the phone.
While it did take over a month, several trips to various retail centers, and many phone calls, you can get T-mobile to unlock your sim card. Most techs don't know how to do it, but once you find one who does, they will give you the unlock key....at least they would 6 months ago. My boss travels alot on business and has pre-paid sim cards in all the countries he visits often. He basically told T-mobile to unlock his phone or take it back, and while it was hard (read asked me to do it) to get a tech to find the right info, they did do it.
and shit.
Don't Ask Questions. I don't know the answers and even if I did I wouldn't tell you.
Being a relativly passive nerd type (but one that can still converse with others) I benifit from the unusual situation of being married to a very awesome and talented woman who is literally an AMAZING business person. My wife makes a hobby of manipulating/negotiating her way through all sorts of situations like our cell phone problem with T-Mobile. She doesnt work as many hours as I do, but the amount of money she has saved our family easily equals what I make.
A nerd married to a business major is an unstoppable combination. I highly reccomend to any like minded slashdot readers to look for someone as opposite to yourself as possible for a wife/husband, because the differences combine to make a unit more powerful than the parts.
The Ro Factor - Jeep/Linux Weblog
People won't be switching cellular providers fast, they will simply stay loyal to the providers that have been assraping them for their entire cellular lives.
You are assuming that just because the (valid) problems you listed above are true that somehow lifting this other (valid) barrier to switching isn't going to shake up the market and lead to increased competition?
How often do you hear people saying, "My Sprint (Verizion/Cingular/etc.) service is a joke..." People want to switch. Now they'll start shopping around. Providers will start doing things like improving customer service or offering incentives to get people to switch. Competition will lead to a better customer experience.
Besides, people like buying cool new phones with cool new features. If your old number can switch to a new phone with a new provider -- great. You have your rationalization to upgrade to a new phone.
You may have presented some facts about SIM card locking, but given the frequency with which people buy new cell phones (computers, shirts, etc.) in the USA, it really won't hit that many people. They won't feel a pinch so I suspect your "problem" may stay the way it is for a while. But to say that people won't switch providers because we've "only" allowed them to keep their numbers is willful ignorance on your part.
I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.
US Cellular gets no service at all in my area, so why do I even care? Might as well be one of those awesome Japanese carriers I hear so much about.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
We do a lot of land line number porting at work to get local sales numbers and its my job to make sure that they all work. Let me tell you not all carriers have the same diligence with updating their call routing. And since most of the phone routing is done on the call's originating side there are lots of places where number ports can go wrong.
After you get your number ported to a new carrier test it from every carrier you can get your hands on. If you don't mind the one time costs do some 10-10 dial arounds to test some LD carriers. If you have any small telcos in your area be sure to test from them. Typically the smaller the telco the worse the porting results. (but many times they are the easiest convince to make a fix) And be sure to test the number by originating a call from your old provider. Providers are notorious for not pulling the routing for the ported number and then don't forward the call.
If you do end up getting a problem with reaching your number after the port bitch up a storm to your new carrier. They do have the power and the ability to get in touch with the companies that are screwing things up and they can get these things fixed. Don't let them tell you otherwise. It will probably take 2 days to a week to get the problem fixed but make no mistake they can get it fixed for you.
After saying all this I want to say that number portability for the most part is great. After all the initial hurdles are out of the way we almost never have a problem with the number ever again.
Uh, have you ever tried this new thingie-a-bod called DNS? It let's your application communicate on the Int'rnet without using those pesky 32 bit IP addresses. I think Microsoft invented it.
i've had my (now) previous cell provider for almost 3 years and have only been loyal because of the phone number. its 1 digit off my home phone number and everyone i know has it. i switched the day this new law went into effect and got a plan that gave me 4x the anytime minutes for the same price, a brand new cell phone for free and it has much better reception. it did take a couple hours to change the number but after that its been working perfectly.
And I haven't even changed my serivce yet. I got a letter yesterday saying my monthly rate from T-Mobile was now $10 cheaper. More competition is driving prices down more. Now I just need a plan that costs $20/mo instead of $49/mo.
/.ers: remember that not all humans live in the US ok?
While number portability may be a good thing on the surface I can't see switching unless the service is absolutely terrible at the present. Since phones are not interoperable between carriers I end up getting stuck with an expensive new paperweight while having to pay to get a new phone. Contracts may be bad, but being locked into a provider due to hardware is far worse. We wouldn't tolerate this with computers or land-line phones, why are cellular consumers willing to put up with it?
If real portability existed it would help not only the consumer by allowing them to actually change what company they want, but would allow a greater choice of phones. Instead of the half-dozen that your carrier supports you'd have access to all of the phones on the market. A move that would spur the development of phones further and help to weed out the bad designs even more.
Don't get me wrong, number portability is a nice step, but hardware portability will be the big one.
That's an unreasonable assumption; I am not on unemployment and never have been.
Not that there's anything wrong with being on unemployment.
No documentation?
What's to stop someone from walking into their local Verizon store armed with someone's cell number and maybe a little additional information and taking the number for themselves?
DNA just wants to be free...
What are you talking about? Number portability has been available for about a year. Maybe not in your part of the world. But I have switched providers this summer and kept my number without problems.
Since they're allowed to "recoup costs" they can make up any number that sounds good (whatever the market will bear) and slap that on every bill for every customer, including millions of people who will never, ever port their numbers. Profit!
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
There's also that nifty "refuse call" button...
From your own links:
c .p hp?t=200
http://www.numberportability.com/forum/viewtopi
Note a person switched from AT&T to Verizon on there in 4 hours. Not great, but not too bad and FAR from "no one has been able to do it".
I switched from SprintPCS to AT&T Wireless without any issues at all. I ordered my new phone from the AT&T site, they sent it to me via FedEX, and my number ported later in the day that I received my phone. No issues at all.
I recently contested a $400 bill with TMobile and they credited me $350 for a new 12 month contract. I've been with them for years, though (since Voicestream). They are clearly worried about LNP.
A little off topic, but...
My ISP, BellSouth, has a service called SAFA, Stand Alone Fast Access. The name of the DSL product is FastAccess, so while the local bell in your area may not call their DSL Fast Access, they should have a similar service.
What they do is install a Dial Tone filter at the NID, and either run a Cat3 or Cat5 cable directly to the filter at the NID, from the jack, or just use an existing jack and a free pair. Here's the best part. If you bypass the filter, and go to the Bell side of the NID, you have dial tone, and also a free phone line (besides the cost of the DSL). BellSouth doesn't monitor theirs, but your local Bell might, so look into it before you try. I'm not sure how this would work in an apartment or condo, but I'm guessing it would be done in the phone room of the building.
Don't take legal advice from 13 year old slashdot posters.
Are we thinking about the same 'Phases'?
The phase one I'm familar with is getting Automatic Number Information (ANI - like callerid) from the wireless phones, phase two is getting locations.
The E9-1-1 center I work at has had phase I (as I know it) for a while. We've been bringing phase II online for a few months. The reason it's taking so long for us to do phase II is that the Feds didn't mandate one standard, leaving it up to the different carriers. This is causing us to configure a seperate interface for each carrier. The ones that are on line now (Sprint, Verizion, AT&T amoung others) are giving us good (for the most part) locations on the 9-1-1 calls.
Just curious.
below from: HREF=http://www.nena.org/Wireless911/Overview.htm
"Three Phases of Wireless 9-1-1 There are 3 phases that are referred to in implementing Wireless 9-1-1. The most basic of these, sometimes called Wireless Phase 0, simply means that when you dial 9-1-1 from your cell phone a call taker at a public safety answering point (PSAP) answers. The call taker may be at a state highway patrol PSAP, at a city or county PSAP up to hundreds of miles away, or at a local PSAP, depending on how the wireless 9-1-1 call is routed.
Wireless Phase I is the first step in providing better emergency response service to wireless 9-1-1 callers. When Phase I has been implemented, a wireless 9-1-1 call will come into the PSAP with the wireless phone call back number. This is important in the event the cell phone call is dropped, and may even allow PSAP employees to work with the wireless company to identify the wireless subscriber. However, Phase I still doesn't help call takers locate emergency victims or callers.
To locate wireless 9-1-1 callers, Phase II must have been implemented in the area by local 9-1-1 systems and wireless carriers. Phase II allows call takers to receive both the caller's wireless phone number and their location information."
I tried porting a number from Sprint to Cingular, and they came back and said "not possible", which is bullshit. I decided to just forget that, and port my landline number to the new phone instead, from SBC (which is the parent of Cingular). They said "not possible". I've filed FCC complaints against both Sprint and SBC, and have been hounding SBC customer support for the last 6 days to get this resolved. The long and short of it is, there's a big fine for them to pay if they're not following the FCC mandate, and there's a very easy online way to file complaints with the FCC. Who knows how long it takes for the FCC to actually process the complaints, but I figure it can't hurt the later-adopters for us early-adopters to give the telcos a bureaucratic kick in the ass.
Not anymore, thanks for getting modded +3
The queue was pretty fast, then you posted to slashdot :-P
This space for rent, inquire within.
the more self-aware people become to their true 'roles' in the economy, the less they act in the interests and wishes of companies
Maybe for you, Mr. CounterCulture "software wants to be free" late-night-coding, caffeine-drinking, Slashdot posting person that you are. But there really isn't anything in the mechanism of the free market that says just because you can look under the hood you'll suddenly walk away. In fact, a lot of people are sheep -- not in a bad way. But the fact is that if you take a mass of people, across cultures and throughout time, you'll find a lot of them tend to act in very predictable, self-interested manners. (Often times, these expressed preferences will shape themselves into well behaved curves.) And if it is in peoples' self-interest to act in line with the interests and wishes of companies, then they, for the most part, will. That's the beauty of the free-market. That's the beauty of living in an open society. Because once companies start to stray too far, that invisible hand starts to move back in again. Dissatisfied customers start looking for other options... and a market arises for a newly expressed preference. No LAWS need to be made DICTATING what people want. They are allowed to express it. Collectively.
So, I respectfully disagree. I think in a culture/economy that is relatively free/healthy, you won't see large masses of people walking away...Unless, of course, you are suggesting that our culture isn't relatively free/healthy, in which case I'd love to hear more, certainly more than just blanket assertions.
I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.
I would have to agree with you, moving to US Cellular from PrimeCo (USC acquired PrimeCo a few years ago). I was afraid of them at first (I'd heard horror stories about their (USC) service from friends who were too stupid to get onto PrimeCo's "All you can call for $60 a month" plan when it was offered. USC's customer service has been great for me so far (maybe they jettisoned their reps and kept PrimeCo's excellent reps? just a thought...). I agree- the "Signal" plan _still_ hasn't got me a replacement phone even though the claim was approved on 21 Nov (it's now 02 Dec and still no replacement phone).
USC is a great carrier if you are in the upper midwest...
I have a phone in Florida that is not being used - I might switch it to a cell phone number. Can I do that in another part of the country (i.e. New England) and still keep the same (FL) phone number?
Akk, I did the switch from AT&T to Verizon. Verizon has better service at my house. But... Now my AT&T phone rings... But my Verizon phone can make calls and it comes up as my AT&T old number.....Eeesh. Oh and where are my Vmail if I uses my Verizon Phone? AT&T!.. eeesh.... It will take a while to complete the change as per AT&T they have been plaged by software issues with their system... Yea that is *STILL* going on
Julius Caesar - Act I, Scene i: "What mean'st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow!"
I used to switch carriers on a month to month basis, but now, with number carry over, I don't have an excuse for why women never call me back.
Totally against it.
similar to long distance companies switching users w/o permission, one of our company phones (at&t) is mysteriously reporting (when you call it) that "this nextel # is not active"... nextel has no record of the # and can't help, though they've confirmed the recorded msg is theirs. at&t has no record of it being switched and says it's common to have #s being switched w/o them knowing or confirming that the owner really wants them switched. Still, they can't help us either, so now the phone makes outgoing calls, but won't accept incoming calls. I guess we just won't pay the bill if they can't decide who's providing the service.
I used to work for a company that started out providing number portability software to various carriers around the world. Every country that specified number portability was another customer in this Telecomms downturn. :)
Jason Pollock
I few days ago I bought a phone and signed up for service from T-Mobile. According to the rep, whom I spoke to in person, after 3 months of service they will unlock my phone for me without charge, so I can take my phone overseas.
It increased my bill... that's all.. forcing me to pay for YET ANOTHER service that I do not need and do not use.
Damn you Lucky Ducky!!!!
-no broken link
I have had the same mobile phone number I got in 2000... and have switched carriers along the way... and will probably switch again.
:D Yeay for you guys, you'll find it's a great boon.
It's all very easy, and a great feature, I don't want to ever have to go and change everything that lists my phone number (business cards, resumes etc.) or have to stay with one carrier just because I want to keep the number.
About time you yanks got the feature!
(Although I see some saying you're paying $2.20 for the privilage? That's nasty)
Before it, to configure a phone central, you would only need to "check" the number prefixes...
Now, with portability, it's impossible to say at what operator a number is setup... and so, only AFTER you make a call you learn what operator the number is...
Who cares if someone changes number... if you want to be found, don't place "confidenciality" tabs on the number so people can ask informations for you by your name... if you don't want to be found, well, changing number will solve it better then migrate...
So... yes... to me it's just HYPE to try to sell a service that very few will take i recon...
this is too true... i spent months with t-mobile trying to get a phone unlock code to use foreign sims in my phone, and it was never resolved. i ended up purchasing (quite cheaply) a new phone in taiwan (then un-available in the us), and am quite happy that i can now use this worldwide.
Well, good sir, (or madam) since you are with AT&T, you are S.O.L. I tried leaving AT&T for T-Mobile and taking my phone number with me. They didn't cough it up. AT&T is in violation of the FCC order mandating number portability.
More details here.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
"Number portability has been around for a few days now"
Number portablity had been around for years.
It's just a few places are really late at implementing it.
I instantly got some smooth bloke asking "is there a problem sir", who (now that he's been prompted) took the time to look at my 5 years of usage and had the authority to offer me
- Free phone upgrade up to 300 quid ($500)
- Change my tariff to a custom package to fit my recent history of call + SMS usage
- Discount the monthly fee for that tariff by 60%
So, I was paying to much before (aren't we all), but they didn't worry too much as they knew the number was valuable to me, now I don't have to get shirty or threaten to close my account, I just ask for a PAC code and I have some leverage...I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. - George Best
Anyone know if it is possible to unlock a Nokia 3390 (v2.01) via the handset or is a flash required. Thanks.
I was lucky - I had lost my cell phone, and was going on a road trip over Thanksgiving - number portability kicked in just before my trip. I was able to pick up a phone in the store, and the new service activated the morning after the switch.
I switched to T-Mobile from Nextel. Nextel was pretty expensive for what I was getting, and T-Mobile seems to be fairly data-friendly (hoping the start offering the Treo 600 soon as that's the other phone I would like).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
to stalk my ex.
T-Mobile is a flat rate of $20/mo for GPRS Internet if you have a contract with them. That's also the same price you pay for unlimited HotSpot 802.11b service per month, half-price what people who are not T-Mobile customers pay. Both kinds of access will cost you $40/mo.
My phone has a built-in GPRS modem and Bluetooth and I bought a serial cable in case I can't get a good Linux-friendly Bluetooth dongle or PCMCIA card.
I haven't sprung for either service (yet) but they're both available.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
As far as I know, Sprint is the only major carrier to up-front offer an honest coverage map. T-mobile, Verizon (my carrier, and providing very solid service here in the Tampa Bay, FL area), AT&T, all have very generous (Marketing division-drawn, no doubt) boundaries on their maps. Of course there's the fine print "only a representation of general areas of coverage blah blah blah", but there is no obvious way to get the actual map! It would be a nice thing if they were required to at least provide the technical map on request, wouldn't it? (Or would this be an infringement on corporate free speech? Heh.) I'm sure they have an accurate map somewhere.
Maybe some entity like Consumer Reports does/will do a project like this?
How does a CMR score determine who Sprint gives customer service to? I thought "calls are anwsered in the order they are recieved", not that some are anwsered first because of some scoring system.
So, if someone buys a sprint phone, but scores low with the CMR, does that mean they get no service or customer support? How do you determine what your CMR score is before you buy. I would not want to buy a Sprint phone if I knew the customer standing next to me at Best Buy, who was paying the same price, would get better service for no better reason than some credit ranking score.
It would like to see a study which shows avarage CMR scores for black people versus white people. Could this be a way of allowing racism?
You have IP portability, use something called BGP and DNS...
I think they have been around for at least 10 years, probably more....
Sorry, my sarcasm button is out of order...
Ireland did this a couple of months ago. I used it for the same reasons listed by a couple of the posts mentioned - to get a good deal on a new handset. I spend a lot of time outside of the country and was using a pay as you go service. My handset had seen better days. I jumped at the chance to get a new one. The new package cost me Euro100 and let me have 70 of that back for calls. A new handset for 30 quid is super especially as I didnt have to let anyone know the change of number. The downside I have noticed is that I dont know what I'm going to be charged for a call. Irish mobile networks used to all have their own area code 85, 86, and 87; you knew what you were being charged a minute based on the network you were on and what the number you were dialing e.g. calls on same network 20 cent a minute to different network 50 cent a minute.
"The reason you're locked in is because your carrier pays a large subsidy upfront for your expensive cell phone. If you walk in with your own phone, no one is stopping you from getting a no-contract service."
Actually according to this you can't do that. The god-honest truth is much like other industries we know there business model is bait and lock, and number and phone mobility will break their model and turn them into "pipe providers", and obviously monopolies can make more money than not i.e. Bill Gates.
rofl
My phone took an unexpected swim in my mates beer on halloween, needless to say it wouldn't turn on the next day, not even after I baked it to melting point in the oven!
Anyway, I ordered a new phone from AT&T the next day, upgrad to GSM for $25, needless to say the phone never arrived. When I called them about this, after spending countless hours on hold as their computers were down, I finally got to talk to someone they cancelled my order on me! I was looking forward to LNP _BIGTIME_..
The kicker was when the AT&T reps turned up to work, the same ones that sold me the phone, I explaind I had tried to upgrade to a new GSM phone and couldn't get in touch with their reps as their computers had been down for the last week 1/2, their response? they laughed in my face and told me to bugger off, they couldn't help me...
As I read somewhere else in this post, it'll be a cold day in hell before I give AT&T another penny, my LNP request has gone in and I'm waiting for my phone to turn on, if it's not in the next couple of days FCC complaints dept, here I come!
AT&T switched their number management system to Siebel a couple weeks ago in preparation for this. They were down for something like 10 days unable to issue new numbers, and they continue to have problems. Their old system was home grown, the new system is Siebel.
So you can thank Tom and his band of whores for not being able to switch easily, I don't think it's on purpose. They estimate their losses from those 10 days at $30 million.
"All I ever wanted was to see Larry Wall give Bill Gates a Perl necklace."
http://www.eisenschmidt.org/jweisen
Matt,
I did some research on this and I would say that your best bets for cel phone coverage based upon user opinions and someone who travels nationally are as follows, in order, though they are close:
1 AT&T Wireless
2. Verizon
3. Sprint
Some of the other providers are good in certain areas, but not universally around the country, so for example, T-Mobile is good, but not for people who live in CityX and CityY. Check epinions for average service coverage for a paricular city.
Note: I have Nokia, TDMA, AT&T in Chicago, and I hate it and will switch after the holidays. AT&T is really getting bad with TDMA phones, and they charge $.65 per minute roaming on the GSM network. They have GSM/TDMA dual band phones, but only 2 models and I don't like either of them.
Regards,
Mobile Number portability (between mobile carriers, not between fixed and mobile) has been available in Belgium for about a year now. I did the switch. My 3 collegues and I each had our own mobile number with different operators. A few months ago, we shopped around for the operator to give us the best business group rate, and we all switched to that one. This allowed us al to keep our old numbers, and yet benefit from the business rates... The process itself went quite smooth: I filled some paperwork and we agreed on a certain date. A few days before the switch, I got my new SIM-card. The day of the switch, I got a Text message from my old operator telling me they've ported my number, that I should switch off my phone, and plug in my new SIM-card. I plugged in the new one, and was reachable using the same new number, but under a different operator.
The timing was perfect because I wanted the Treo 600 that Sprint had just released. I moved my family plan of four phones over and it took a little over a week for everyone. My number got moved within a couple of days and then the rest in the order they had been activated with about a day between each activation. It still took me several phone calls because there was appearently a password mismatch between Verizon and Sprint on my account. Appearently a third party company called Impact carries out the actual transfer and according to the Sprint rep, they don't work on the weekend so the last number had to wait until the following Tuesday.
Phoenix
Not that there's anything wrong with being on unemployment.
Except that people on unemployment are living off the money that someone else earned -- money that was extracted from them by force. People on unemployment are looters, even if by proxy.
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
My dad works for nextel on the portability servers and they've expected him to babysit the servers since theyve gone live, the problem they're looking for hasnt happened since the last time and the management doesnt listen to techs or anyone who knows what they're doing. *and* nextel is apparently the best prepared company out there for number portability, nextel has been down a few times and they need to restart the application nightly. There is a long list of atrocities commited by nextel (such as 24/7 monitoring of a system on a 15 min basis between 2 people with 2 bosses on their backs not doing any work). I cant imagine what the rest of the companies are going through if this is as good as number portability gets. Until they get better systems i dont think number portability could get to be anything more than hype.
I moved and could not keep the phone number from one part of town to the next
Nothing. Nothing at all.
Johnathan Frakes? :-)
...sorry
I had a Treo 300 handset (great tool, those smartphones,) but the flip had snapped off. It's apparently a fairly common defect in the design, so when I complained to Sprint, I made sure to tell them that they'd have to do better than just sending me another Treo 300.
They hemmed and hawed at this for a while, and then number portability started up. Suddenly, a two-year contract extension was offered, and they shipped out a Treo 600 at no charge. Now I've got a much better phone, on the same network, and I still have one of the cheapest plans available anywhere (I can't beat $10/month for all the data I could ever want, and T-Mobile just doesn't work in a lot of areas for me.)
Before anyone asks why I'd permit a two-year contract extension, it's really quite simple. I can't use the phone I want on any other network (CDMA Treo 600,) and I certainly can't use it the way I want to for a lower price with any carrier, anywhere.
Raptor
"Procrastination is great. It gives me a lot more time to do things that I'm never going to do."
Free Phone Every Year: One free or discounted phone after mail-in rebate per account available twelve months after qualified activation or acceptance of any free or discounted phone. Phone selection is determined by AT&T Wireless and is subject to change. In order to receive each free or discounted phone after mail-in rebate, a customer must agree to and execute a new two-year agreement and remain on or switch to a qualified plan. Qualified plans are determined by AT&T Wireless and may change at any time. Customers may need to switch plans each year in order to receive program benefits. Program may be terminated at any time.
How is this any different from the way it works for new customers?
funny munging
I refuse to sign a contract, and I don't need many minutes, but short of paying through the nose for prepaid, there's nothing out there. I used to have a plan with a Verizon reseller, with no contract, no minutes, just low rates, which was perfect. They got out of cellular, so I got slammed to Verizon, where I'm paying 3x with no flexibility. Waiting for GSM to make it more than a few miles beyond the coast, and availablity of prepaid relatively low cost SIMs like in Europe. BTW, if anyone knows ofany providers like I described, in New England, let me know. I couldn't find any.
Number portability is for sissies!
Unemployment is a tool, or a stage. It's not an end (in either sense of the word).
I know it's slashdot, but can we not always talk in absolutes and maybe give the other side a little credit? At least the benefit of the doubt?
RD
can't some company offer a plan with no minutes just low cost minutes (so no prepay) and no contract? I used to have such a plan from a Verizon reseller (Capsule), but they got out of cellular (despite what it said on their website last time I checked), and I got slammed to Verizon, where I'm paying 3-4x the cost. Not to mention Capsule donated 5% to charity. I'd use GSM, but no coverage, and not as cheap or flexible as in Europe.
I initiated a switch from AT&T Wireless to T-Mobile 7 days ago, and am still waiting for it to kick in.
Previously, you signed up, they put you on a plan, gave you a one time break on a phone, and that was it for however long your contract was. If you wanted a new phone, you'd have to buy one at full price yourself.
Now they're going to give you a new phone every 12 months, but you have to re-contract for two years.
For those who have been with AT&T wireless and are off-contract, this could be a way to get a new phone, if you're willing to stay with AT&T for two more years and agree to their new plans.
Maybe I'm missing your question...
-- "Sucks to your ass-mar"
I spent six hours on the phone with T-Mobile and Sprint. The process is NOT painless. I finally gave up. I'm switching from Sprint, and was convinced last night to do it regardless of whether or not they let me keep my number. I wrote a long account of this agony here: http://www.guanotronic.com/~serge/main.php
I tried it and was told that my town was too small and they werent doing that anywhere that isnt in the top 100 markets. I hope it comes here soon...Oh yeah and DSL!!!!
Kept me in stupid meetings for about half a year.
First a little background: I'm a teenager, and for the past year or so I've been using a Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go phone I got for Christmas last year. It's treated me well, but lately I've found myself using more call time and it's more economic for me to use a calling plan than the VM $.25/min.
So, I looked around online for the best deals, because of course not having a highly paying job and being in school, money is of value to me. I compared some companies at letstalk.com, and liked what I saw. I spoke with my brother in college a couple hours away, and we decided to go in on a shared calling plan. I don't need to be real specific but we got a really good deal IMHO.
Now onto portability: Both my brother and I would like to keep our old phone numbers, so I checked with both my old and new providers to comfirm portability. Interestingly, when I placed the order I was told that only one phone number can be ported at a time for an order, so as recommended by the representative the two phones I ordered were actually originally purchased as two separate plans. When they arrive in a couple days, I'll have to call the new provider to switch back to the family plan. I was assuered there would be no penalty or difficulty in doing so.
I'm surprised that there was no integration for the porting of multiple phones at the same time, i.e. for family plans. Also, the online order form was slightly ambiguous about porting, so to play it safe I ordered by phone. As great as the internet is, the assurance of talking to a person was what I needed in this case.
Consumer Reports did a comparison of the major proviers in the February 2003 issue. Here is a usenet posting summarizing the results.
I think you are on the right track, but Microsoft also invented this even betting thingy call WINS...
Is it not? Thinking back to several semesters of Chemistry, combustion reactions all involve oxygen....so I don't know how explosives would blow up at all without it....
What the hell kind of chemistry were you taking? Mine gave us the exact chemical reaction that caused TNT and other nitrogen based explosives. They are not combustion, but rather a simple change from a higher entropy state to a lower entropy state. They would (and do) work underwater or even in outer space.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
In our place numbers have long been portable. You could carry them as visiting cards in your wallet, for example.
BTW, the people in the Sprint stores might tell you it doesn't exist, but it does.
www.clarke.ca
Add it all up, I pay more in tax and FCC "fees" than I do for the line itself...
Not entirely true. They would previously give you some credit towards a new phone on their "subscriber update program" (or something like that). I got a $50 credit on a new $50 phone, so basically I got a new phone free.
This sounds like a US only post, without clearly saying so. I think the whole article should be ignored because of the ignorance of the American /.-posters.
(Ignorance in the way that even though the postings are interesting, they don't explicitly say that it touches only Americans)
Port in's to a company with a large logo which mikeal jackson flashes when he leaves the jail in first day.. over 16,000
Port Out's less than 4,000
Those stats are basically keeping that pace.
I tried switching my plan from Verizon to ATT. I was informed that I could NOT transfer my existing number--no reason was given (I tried this on their website). While I like the coverage area Verizon provides, their selection of phones sucks.
Geesh! Don't you already know?!
It's Mr. Burns! His social security number is 000-00-0002, so so naturally (by the process of elimination), he must be number 2!
#2: You are number 6
prisoner: I am not a number I am a free man
I work for Cingular. Number portability is a pain in the butt. Pretty much all the carriers have been great about releasing the numbers to port EXCEPT AT&T. They've been holding numbers hostage for AT LEAST 48 hours before releasing them, and they're supposed to do it right away.
So if you're porting a number from AT&T, be prepared for a massive headache and lots of days to get it to work.
Personally, I don't see the big deal about keeping your number. If I want to switch carriers, the number is not what's going to stop me. It's the whole "having to buy a completely new handset" thing that ticks me off.
I'm oh-so-happy that I now get to pay another monthly tax (in this case, about $1.50) for yet another service I have no need for. Ya know what? Instead of number portability, why aren't we demanding that carriers fix their infrastructure? In this day and age, why are we still saying things like "You're breaking up, can you please repeat that?" WTF? Are we on walkie-talkies or something?!
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
In Australia we have had number portability for a few years now.
I even did the unthinkable and changed for a superior GSM network to a CDMA (Orange) network and kept my Cell Phone number which I originally chose, from a group of numbers, in 1995.
Same goes for my landline. I have updated my friends numbers numerous times because they go for the cheapest deals on both Cellular and landline phones, BUT the small savings are not worth missing important business calls, not to mention updating all my stationary and accounts.
Amen with that, they really seem committed to providing a quality product... when youre not #1 in a market you need to try a lot harder to shine. They do! for those of you who have had TDMA, GSM, Nextel, give CDMA a try, you will be pleasently surprised at how good your conversations sound.
That's some useful information, but you've rendered your post fruitless by not mentioning A) the carrier, and B) the areas they service.
:) The online support is kind of a hornet's nest, though it shows promise of becoming more cohesive. I called telephone support once, but solved the problem myself before I got through to a human, so I'd have to say that the tech support is so-so. As of now, that's it for the cons.
:)
The numbers sound famililar to me, so I'm going to hazard a guess that you're referring to Optimum Online, Cablevision's cable-based data service. Optimum Online serves the New York tri-state area, and perhaps other areas. (Check their website for a prequalification.)
I recently hitched my parents up with Optimum Online, after doing much research. They live in Westchestester County, NY. They received contract-free, month-to-month service, with an introductory rate of $29.95 per month for 6 months. My parents are existing Cablevision customers, so the price reverts to $44.95 after 6 months. I'm not sure if the $29.95 offer is extended to non-Cablevision customers.
I'm not affiliated in any other way with Optimum Online. I've installed it once -- for my parents. Here are the pro's and con's I experienced in getting Optimum Online set up. Note that my parents were existing Cablevision customers, which brings certain price breaks. So like DSL, you're saddled with service charges beyond mere data service.
Pros: Superfast delivery of equipment. Equipment included Motorola DOCSIS Cable modem with both Ethernet and USB ports, USB cable, Ethernet cable, 2 RG6 coaxial cables, *and* an RG6 coaxial splitter with mounting screws. The equipment is free as long as we keep the service. I connected the Coax to the modem and watched it sync. I connected the Ethernet port to the WAN port on a Netgear NAT router, and the Netgear immediately acquired an IP address. Superfast live date. Given date was about 6 calendar days from the order. Circuit was definitely live when I got down to the setup, which was about 8 days after the order was placed. Bandwidth: Incredible! I live in the Bay Area, and my ADSL tops out at 1.1 megabits, but my parents now get 3.5-4.5 Megabits down with Optimum Online. The self-installation kit came with software and a guide. Gratefully, I was able to complete the setup without installing any software from the kit. All they wanted me to do was fill out an online form to let them know I'd completed the install. And the service includes 5 email addresses, so I used the online pages for setting those up for mom and dad.
Cons: It took them a while to get to my parents' neighborhood (but I consider this forgivable due to their rapid growth.) My only real complaint is I've seen service outages lasting 5-20 minutes, always when I was in the middle of something important!
The regular monthly rate is little pricey, but based on the incredible bandwidth, the ease of self-installation, and the flexibility of no contract, I find it to be a great deal. Especially considering the first 6 months are $30, and we can cancel at any time.
For more on the story as a whole, I recommend http://dslreports.org/ as the best unbiased sources of broadband comparison. (I'm not affiliated with them either, just a satisfied user.
Boy, is this off-topic! Isn't this a thread about number portability? I'd rather read about people's experience with that! Perhaps it's too new. I've had Verizon for years, since they were Bell Atlantic Mobile. They've always had the best network. (Yes, I want to strangle the "Can you hear me now?" guy too, but they truly do have the best coverage in the areas I've lived.) At any rate, I have no plans to change providers, since the quality of service from Verizon Wireless has kept me happy for a long time. But I'm a biiiiiig fan of number portability, or any advent that provides greater freedom to consumers. I'm sure I'll use it some day.
My friend and I are co-owners of a PC repair/local dialup ISP/wireless store. We're in the process of getting set up to be an authorized AT&T wireless reseller.
At first, I thought this number portability thing was instantanious throughout the country. (I assumed wrong I guess) But according to Dave, the AT&T representive who came down to give us the paperwork and crash-course said that our local market won't be affected until MAY of NEXT YEAR.
I'm assuming for the moment that the number portability is happening in the large cities, and then it'll trickle down to the smaller cities and towns. (Must look this stuff up)
What sucks the most is we're near the PA-MD border,(on the PA side) and thus we serve 2 different markets because of our store's location. I believe Baltimore's (and surrounding locations) transition into number portability has happened already. But We're already getting tons of people coming in from our home market (southern PA) who want to take advantage of AT&T's current deals, and they want to carry their existing phone number with them. There's also a few who want to transfer they're hardline home numbers to their cellphones. They get really pissed off when i'm forced to tell them that it won't happen for our area until the beginning of May in 2004.
All in all, this crap isn't going to be easy and i can see it's already going to be a pain in the ass. I haven't shopped for a new phone lately, but i'm willing to wager it's not going to be smooth sailing getting my number transferred.
A penny for my thoughts? Here's my two cents. I got ripped off!
A Penny for my thoughts? Here's my two cents. I got ripped off!
One thing people don't tend to understand about how another wireless provider stacks up with another is that their all pretty much the same.
:)
I live in southern PA, and here AT&T has fantastic coverage compared to the competition. However, perhaps in your area AT&T's coverage sucks compared to Verizon or T-mobile. It all depends on where you live, where you travel, and what provider has the best coverage for the areas your going to be in.
I traveled from as far north as Pittsburgh PA, to Myrtle Beach, SC. I never lost service in my home area (southern PA), or while traveling beteween those places.
However! i did lose coverage momentarily on a strech of road in my town, and i always lose it there. Not only that, but the radio stations fuzz out on that road too. The only thing i can think of is that the road goes through two relitively large hills, maybe that's why?
In any case, when I purchased my phone/plan in august, i was well prepared. I asked people in my home area what provider they had and how well their service/support was. I checked the coverage maps of all the major wireless carriers, and i even called each major provider's support line 3 (times per carrier) and averaged out the wait times to see who was the clearly the most responsive. (did it at 6pm, peak time) In the end i then compared rates and options. Who charges what for what features etc, and checked to see who had the features i wanted for the best price.
I know this sounds like a crap-load of work, but the homework i did paid off in spades. If you do you're part in checking this type of stuff out beforehand, the contract you sign won't come back and haunt you when you drop calls repeatedly or get crappy customer service. The more checking out you do, the better off you'll be, trust me
A Penny for my thoughts? Here's my two cents. I got ripped off!
As a LONG time Verizon customer (was actually an Ameritech cellular customer originally, but stuck with them when Verizon took them over here in the midwest), I have to say I'm pleased with their service overall.
That said, there are a couple issues to be aware of with Verizon.
1. Their customer service reps. are notoriously clueless about promotions, service plan rate changes, and technical details of their network and phones in general. Twice now, I've needed firmware flash updates done to Verizon phones and nobody in one of their (large, full-service) stores knew how to do them. One time, they actually let me go in their back room and do it myself, using their PC, programming cables, and software on their hard drive. Verizon also just implemented a new policy that says if you buy any of their combo PDA/phones and need a warranty replacement, the local stores aren't allowed to do it for you anymore. It *must* be done by mail, after getting permission from people on their 1-800 cust. support number. (Problem is, I just needed this - and the 800# cust. service rep. told me to take it to my local store! They weren't even informed of these new rules yet!)
2. If you're interested in the new high-speed data services over digital cellular, Sprint has a much better deal - if you plan to use it much. Verizon's plans still hit you for at least $40 or so per month, additional, for the ability to use their high speed Internet. (I understand you can do this on Sprint PCS for as little as $10 extra per month on top of any existing monthly plan.)
Who did you talk to and what did you say? The reason I ask is that y girlfriend tried to do just that, last week, and again, last night. Last night, she ended up getting transferred to the "retention" group, after saying she wanted to cancel her service unless they'd move her evenings to 7pm to the first two tiers of customer service. Finally, she got to "retention" (the group that tries to give you perks if you say you're leaving). She complained about how the 7pm ads are not only misleading, but also brought up the fact she always uses less than 100 minutes a month, but it was the principle of the thing. She has been with Sprint for 3 years, and has had Spring long distance for longer. When they wouldn't change her evenings to 7pm, she said she wanted to cancel her PCS service and would cancel her Spring long distance as well, and wanted to do it on the spot. They STILL wouldn't change the evening start time...all they would offer was 50 minutes free LD per month (which we already have and don't use) or a 10% discount if we switched to Sprint local service (which we can't even get in our area). She specifically said "you'd rather have me cancel all Sprint services than move my nights to 7pm?" and he said there was nothing he could do... ...he DID say he could do it for $5/mo, and that ALL new customers also pay $5/mo for 7pm evening start time...even though they don't say this in any of the advertizing. (And yes, that is true; I verified that even NEW customers under this new ad campaign pay $5/mo additional for 7pm evening start time). So are you saying you got 7pm evening start time for free? If so, who the hell did you talk to and what did you say?
We've had number portability for 2 years in Australia.
In my opinion it's increased competition, and made things cheaper, but the average length of a contract when you purchase a phone has gone from 12 months to 24 months!
We have these main players:
Telstra (largest, huge monopoly telco that is 50% govt. owned)
Optus
Vodafone
Virgin
Hutchinson Telecom (T/A orange, 3).
Most carriers offer bonuses if you switch to them. A lot of people probably made the mistake of going with Telstra when they first connected a phone 5 years ago... A company that has a poor track record (but there was no competiton then).
Its the same price off contract as it is on. It's just to get a phone cheap - you have to sign a contract.
Number portability would make it a lot easier to port software beetween little endian/big endian machines.
Unfortunately this is not the kind of portability the article is talking about.
Number portability has been possible since this summer in Finland. We moved from one operator to another one with our company and i was the primus motor behind the transfer.
The transfer was relatively painless. Trying to understand the cost structure behind a call was much harder. We called a couple of companies for quotes and went for the cheapest (reputable) one, RSL Com, who works with Finnet, who, in turn, is a notable player in the Finnish field.
When the Great GSM Changeover finally happened, the sales guy from RSL Com came around with a truckload of beer (it was a part of the deal, thanks to my excellent negotiation ;) and was at the office to personally see that things actually worked. And they did. Though it was kind of fun (in a geeky way) to see that both my old and new connection worked at the same time, and i could call my new connection with my old connection and see that it was me calling :).
Our phone costs have gone down enough to keep the bosses happy. Heck, my chief even said i could take my wife and the company credit card out to dinner. Not bad!
~llauren
What seems to be left out here is that phone number portability covers land-lines as well (at least, as I understand it). Has anybody tried switching their land number to a cell phone (or vice-versa, but why?), which should be theoretically possible under the new rules?
-Shylock
Statistically speaking, there's a 99.998% chance that my IQ is higher than yours. Get over it.
I work in the inbound sales group for a major wireless carrier and I have done only a handful of transfers. I have seen kinks in the systems(ours included) but was this not to be expected? You can test and retest a process but really only know if it works when it goes live. To complicates matters even worse you have 5 major players in the industry and we all use different billing and order systems. On top of it all the FCC is the ringmaster of this 3 ring circus act called WLNP. My suggestion to the slashdot masses... wait till Feb of next year when all the kinks are worked out and all areas are able to port and you will be good to go!
Can make nuclear devices, send a man to the moon, yet something as trivial as "keeping a phone number" is a challenge...sigh
Priorities you Americans...Priorities.
I work for a Cell Phone company. As I'm reading a bunch of these posts I notice most of the people here are compaining about 2 year contracts and stupid little crap like their current plan. My best advice to anyone moving their number to a different company is to walk into a company owned (Direct) store with company trained reps. You WILL have a better experience. Here is what you can expect right now as 100,000+ phone numbers are being transfered: Your number will NOT be functional at the new company for anywhere between 3-72 hours, if you are lucky. If you only give minimal information, expect minimal result. If you do not understand the new plan, you are probably not smart enough to own a cell phone (sorry, it had to be said) Understand how you use your phone now and how you want to use it and you WILL get on a better plan with ANY company. If you think that this is a hassle for you right now, I've spent the last 4 days trying to move a customer's number over for them. That is 16 hours on the phone for one customer mind you. So don't complain, you have NO idea. If you want to move your number, expect some delay, but if you want to keep your number and want the services the new company has to offer, remember that one or two days out of service is nothing compared to a better deal than what you had before.
Meanwhile in Europe (Belgium) we already have number portability. It seems to work very good. When a new carrier started up nationwide, people that switched were as anxious as you guys are now, but it is a totally invisible procedure. When the Telenet guy came , he cut of the existing cable, made a new connector, and connected the cable to his splitter (they do cable / internet - the phone runs on top of that cable) Our phone was offline for 30 minutes! After the finishing the internet installation, he challenged us to try and call the number with GSMs, which by then already worked ...
In the USA, with carriers being able to see what happened in Europe, they should be able to provide the same type of service, one would think?
I would rather just switch off the carrier completely.
Get rid of the telephone and never have another.
The only reason I can see to have a telephone is in case of emergencies. Like calling for the ambulance.
So, I suppose I'll always be stuck with a telephone. But I sure hate that idea.
When the FCC allowed cell phones they only licenced three channels. A carrier, B Carrier and C carrier
In most areas the A carrier is Verizon and they operate CDMA. The C carrier is usually sprint and they also operate on CDMA. The B carrier is usually Cingular and they operate on GSM. So where do T-Mobile, Virgin, AT&T, and Nextel come in? They all rent tower space from Cingular and operate on GSM. So the coverage and signal for all of those GSM carriers is the same. If you're looking for a new carrier with better service, I would try verizon, they have the largest network in the country. AT&T might have the largest one in the world, but how often do you travel to Europe?
Don't know how the rest of the world works, but in Australia the total cost of number switching is AU$0.00.
:)
At least we get something down here
... and then there were none
I now pay an additional $1.75 on my land line bill from Verizon.
I called them up and asked them if it was optional. They said no. I asked them if I can move my 212 number to my cell phone. They said no. I asked them if this means that when I move to Florida early next year I can take my NYC number with me. They said no. I asked what it's for. They said I can move to another place that is covered by the same central office. So I asked them if this means moving to my neighbor's apartment, and they basically agreed - this is all it's good for (read: bs to extort more profit profit profit - I was already paying over 50% in all sorts of surcharges & taxes). So I cancelled my land line.
Must-not-watch TV!
Now you assume all ./ lives in the US eh?
I guess you're all too good for the rest of us.
Cellular number portability is a great thing. It's one of the few things that allow you to feel warm and fuzzy about the principles of raw capalism.
For the most part, when dealing with small organizations, capitalism works fine--it's what makes a local grocer throw his bad fish away and hire sales people so you don't go to his competition a block down the road. Small-scale Capitalism is just fine for you and me because you have leverage--because every dollar you spend with a company is a vote for that company to exist and the smaller the company, the more your vote counts.
It's only when things get huge that the value of your ability to vote breaks down and remove your leverage, which, under capitalism, is pretty much your entire value as a human being. Number portability gives you back your leverage with a vengeance by removing one of the main impediments to switching. Instead of being just another nameless, faceless cog, number portability makes it possible for you to threaten to be part of a great wave of people who leave one company and go to another one.
Number portability gives you back your value and multiplies it and that is a very, very good thing.
You can see it in the deals that companies are offering. My own carrier, Sprintpcs, has reinstituted the option to have your nights and weekends minutes start at seven PM--returning to what was just standard operating procedure years ago--either as part of a standard plan, or for a nominal fee.
As a long-term customer who has just entered into a contract with them, they've given me nights and weekends starting at eight as part of my contract arrangement as well as a decent rate for service and I am only waiting for my birthday to ask them for an even better deal as a supremely loyal customer who can pay to get out of the contract I've just signed if I see something good enough elsewhere. It's a present I'm going to give myself that only number portability makes possible.
Really, honestly, it's a no-brainer. In the real world, ALL the disincentives to switching carriers in your contract, are more psychological than material: if you hate your carrier so much that you really to company-hop, find an empty jam jar and stick a twenty-dollar bill into it every week--if you can't spare ten to twenty dollars a week, you don't need a cellphone, you need welfare. Do it while thinking about how good it's going to be to never, ever have to give them another dime; think about how good it's going to be to have your choice of new carrier be a vote for them to go out of business and to have them finally act like your vote counts for something.
I love number portablity. I think you should, too.
To mail me, remove the 'mailno' from my email addy.
"Yeah. It smells, too..."
in ireland, there are roughly 4 million people. there are also about 2 million mobile phones. recently (about 2 or 3 months ago) the networks opened up for number portability.
after the first week, carriers were "disappointed with the response". ie no one gave a tiny rat's ass...
nothing has changed. no one i know (and my age bracket is notorious, here anyway, for getting new phones, changing networks and generally having a laugh while the phone companies laugh at us...) has switched network. nobody cares...
and if you see me strut, remind me of what left this outlaw torn...
We've had portability for a year now, and the effects of that has been a noteable decrease in prices, and a fair number of new carriers have emerged offering cheap services. So, there is hope for you guys over there still :)
Yes, we are. You are just referencing the wireless parts of the phases. There are wired requirements as well (which are mandated by the government).
;)
Mind if I ask where your E911 call center is?
Extra bonus point for using PSAP in a post
-Ab
Nothing fails quite like prayer.
Everyone seems to be forgetting, Only Major markets have to port today. In 6 months smaller markets will offer porting of your number.
I resisted getting a cell phone, but I drive an old car, so I ditched the landline.
Well all I did was cut and past PSAP into the post, (no points for ANI?;) but My Secondary PSAP is in SW Florida (Fort Myers, Naples area.)
Are there still major open issues with the hardwired locations? Outside of PBX and other central switchboards, in practice it works pretty well.
If you have any more questions/comments we can go off board as I think this thread has gone from wandering to treking off topic:)
ho-hum@ *antispamtag* earthlink.net
Off-topic this ;)
We do consulting for Lee County, FL E911 system. Small world. Eh?
I prefer IM to email. You can reach me as abmoraz at any of the major 4 IMs (AIM, Yahoo, MSN, or ICQ).
-Ab
Nothing fails quite like prayer.
Considering what I've seen of the AT&T phone systems, it's no surprise. It's all pure disaster area. Long distance is run off what looks like a unix variant of some sort, wireless runs off NT, internet has its own subsystem that I really don't remember so well-- none of them interact well at all. Even dealing inter-company, AT&T reps end up referring a lot of bundled accounts to a specialized repair team because none of the individual segments nor any of the customer service agents have deep enough access to fix the links.
With things how I remember them, I hardly would expect them to get portability working.. in fact, the pit of my stomach churns just thinking about the hell the reps are dealing with on the lines. Oy vey-- glad I left.
Vice versa, a lot of the store reps piss off the customer service reps by promising things that the company cannot and will not honor, leaving them with the bag as it were.
There was a lot of confusion in the ranks as to what each division of the phone company I was with could do-- bundled billing, wireless, the stores-- it got pretty messy at times.
Learn which things the reps can do better than the store reps and vice versa. The system CAN be taken advantage of, if you put the effort in.
What I want to know is whether or not my prepaid phome number is portable. I went to the portability site and put in my number and it said that I'd be eligible in March. But does anyone know if this is correct?
Unemployment is a tool, or a stage. It's not an end (in either sense of the word).
Except that people on unemployment are living off the money that someone else earned -- money that was extracted from them by force. People on unemployment are looters, even if by proxy.
I know it's slashdot, but can we not always talk in absolutes and maybe give the other side a little credit? At least the benefit of the doubt?
You're not talking to slashdot, you're talking to an individual. I won't give anything any credit if it's superstitious or uncivil.
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.