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AT&T Wireless Fumbles Number Portability
cloudscout writes "The FCC is demanding that AT&T Wireless Services explain their number portability failures. Apparently, tens of thousands of customers are having their number portability requests delayed because of computer system problems at AT&T Wireless. Sadly, the FCC did not say they were going to be imposing fines for this breach of regulations yet but I'm sure that will follow if things don't improve quickly." Reader (54)T-Dub adds: "As many of you already reported on wed, there have been some pretty serious delays for people switching cellphone providers according to this NYTimes article (free reg required). Most notably former AT&T customers can expect to wait up to a week for their number to switch."
I've personally been very happy with my service from AT&T overall, but still have had a couple complaints. So I considered switching to verizon because they seem to have a very good reputation. I went to the verizon store the other day and the sales person was surprised that I hadn't had more problems with AT&T and mentioned that most of the people trying to use number portability were coming from AT&T. But you know what, verizon doesn't have a single phone with bluetooth and only one known option that works with apple computers. AT&T has several that do both and thier internet access doesn't use airtime (verizons does). So, I'm sticking with AT&T but still wish someone had the ultimate phone- bluetooth, mac and the ability to use ssh without spending $500+. I don't want a camera or to even browse the web, just give me mail and shell and I'd be extremely happy.
My ex-roommate had sprint and his calls to report dropped calls would get dropped all the time, but he got it because he could talk for free to other sprint users. another friend just signed a two-year contract with sprint and I hope she has better luck- there's no way I'd go with sprint.
Now, when will they finally let you transfer the phone you like to a different service provider?
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
I've been waiting a few days for ATT to release my number to T-Mobile. I don't mind the wait, a week is not a big deal so put away the worlds smallest violin, I'm just enjoying my new SE Z600.
What is bothersome though is that even if a week is not bad, many can do it it hours and sometimes minutes. If a Verizon to T-Mobile port can be done in a day, the ATT to T-Mobile should not take much longer. I hope the FCC does fine them. If ATT is using this as a stall tactic they are nuts as people who might not think about LNP might read about this in the newspaper and figure, "Wow, ATT is bad, maybe I should change."
Everything. AT&T has gone to hell in the past few days. I've been trying to upgrade my calling plan and order a couple of new GSM phones including the slick Siemens SL56. None of the local stores have the phone nor can they order it, and even if they could the price is $200+, even though it's only $99 on their web site.
So I ordered it yesterday but had a question on the order process, as it appears they've signed me up for a whole new line of service instead of changing my current plan. I waited on hold for TWO HOURS yesterday before giving up. Waited another 45 minutes this morning before the call (over a land lane) was inexplicably dropped. The local stores "can't help me" and keep directing me to customer service.
And all day Wednesday their phone system informed me they couldn't take any phone calls and I should "call back later". If I had any self respect I'd cancel my account at the first opportunity. But AT&T is the best we've got in my rural area, so if I want a cellular phone, I'm stuck.
As of now I'm patiently awaiting delivery of two new phones along with two more service plans that I don't want.
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
I've been waiting for the cell phone portability stuff to take effect for quite some time now. I've wanted to switch providers for awhile, but didn't want to go through the hassle of telling everyone about my new phone number. So, I went to talk the TMobile and they said I they could support my phone number. I was thrilled to say they least, so I started the process and signed the contracts and everything. A week later, they give me a call and tell me they can't switch my phone number because it is not in on of the governments top 100 markets - I will have to wait until May 2004 to switch my number.
I can cancel my new contract within 14 days, so that's not a problem. But, it is a hassle and it just a little shady on TMobile's part. So no I have to make the decision to go through the hassle of canceling my new contract and wait 6 more months or just go ahead and make the switch.
AT&T has started switiching its TDMA based network to GSM (before someone nitpicks, I know GSM is a TDMA based standard) and as such, has started offering GSM phones. They look like any other sim based GSM phone, and many of their phones are tri band, so they can be used all over the world. Small problem though, they are locked to only accept AT&T sim cards, so if you want to use a prepaid sim in Europe or Asia, your screwed. For Nokia phones, this isnt too bad, as their sim locking isn't hard to crack, and there are several programs out there that will generate unlock codes for them. Now Sony Ericksson phones are a whole other ball of wax, their sim unlocking goes to the point that the phones are setup to never accept an unlock code. To unlock the phone requires a service cable, and a phone log, or sending it in to someone with service hardware. T-Mobile will give you the unlock codes after your trial two weeks where you can cancel service with out penalty are up. As someone who travels alot internationally, and has seen what international roaming rates are like, I wont ever get another phone that is not easily unlocked.
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
In this morning's New York Post, John Podhoretz's column, Cell Hell, gives a good insight of what customers are facing switching from AT&T. I don't think I will be switching from T-Mobile, not because T-Mobile is a great cell phone company, its that all cell phone companies suck. I have learned to with the suckage of T-Mobile and don't want to waste my time relearning the suckage of another. It's really a sad state of affairs in the cell phone provider industry.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
The URL you are looking for is at thestreet.com.
/me buys some SAP stock. ;)
[snip]
AT&T Wireless (AWE:NYSE - commentary - research) customers cannot activate new GSM cell-phone accounts or make changes to existing GSM service because of a glitch that a Wall Street analyst is blaming on an upgrade of software from Siebel Systems (SEBL:Nasdaq - commentary - research).
[/snip]
And related.
[snip]
An executive in charge of consulting services at Siebel Systems is leaving the software company at the end of the year, a representative for the San Mateo, Calif., company confirmed Friday.
[/snip]
And Siebel stock is now marked as a Buy. Go figure.
Verizon Wireless has been giving out $25 to $30 credits for people with ATT WS portability problems (when they switched to VZW). Sure beats putting up with ATT's incompetence and their insulting $5 credit.
I did a brief stint at one cell phone company as a temp and noted that the sales people used a slow, buggy, web-based interface to process new accounts, change features, phone numbers etc. This interface would slow to a halt several times a day and there was no real way to know if your work actually went through until the customer reported problems with his service.
Everything else (billing adjustments, credit checks, etc) were performed using an AS/400 interface that could charitably be described as "confusing" and "cryptic" at first glance and even the more experienced people that I worked with made mistakes when trying to enter information.
I was always pleasantly shocked when something would work out right...
"Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me."
Part of the problem with LNP is that many of the carriers are tied up in old processes for handling such things as NP. Having worked on a piece of software for LNP, I came to realize what a mess this was going to be. A great number of number "clearinghouses" still process number changes via fax (i.e. someone fills out a fax form by hand, although some are machine generated and then the faxed form gets processed by a human on the other side of the loop) There were even cames were corba request would result in a fax generation that would then be ocr'd into a system for processing. LNP as it is implemented today is a patch on top of a patch on top of a patch. Things actually looked better for wireless to wireless LNP since they had more up-to-date processes, but land line wireless looked to be a complete mess. Should be interesting to see how this all shakes out.
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
Sorry, nothing sinister or intentional badness.
It has been reported in the press that the source of our problems is a new deployment of a big Siebel system. This system is what the care reps use. The new deployment is too slow to keep up with demand.
Nobody is more unhappy than we are about this system.
I work only a few feet away from a whole floor full of people working 24x7 to get this system moving.
So how did we get in such a pickle? Sorry, I don't know enough to speculate on that.
All I can say is that as far as I can tell, from where I'm sitting, what's been reported in the press so far about AT&T Wireless and Siebel is 100% true.
http://www.unlockyourgsm.com/
Having worked in the GSM world on the provider side for 7 years I can tell you that European billing and US Billing are totally different due to the laws of the respective countries. When we launched Powertel in 1996, there was no Americanized Billing package for GSM , so we had to convert a European one to use.
1. Taxes locality taxes on communication are figured on the basis of the originating cell tower and if that locality has a services tax then its applied (this could be multiple levels..city, county, state). So its not an "extra" tax per say.
2. The US up until 1996 have a two provider monopoly system, An A and A B provider and a single format, AMPS. So its going to take a few years to get everything to the mature state as its in Europe.
3. Phone subsidies. Carriers in the US typically pay a good portion of the cost of the phone. Its bad, but marketing in the AMPS world said it was the only way to get customers and its been a standard business practice for 15 years. Thats where the SIM lock comes into play. They want to recoup that subsidy.
4. Contract law in the US. English common law is like a snowball; precidence codifies an addtion. US Law is directive, unless the statute is changed or modified by legislative, administrative, or overturn by judicial.. it stands. Those who change statues are lawyers with thier own vested interests. Number portability.
You live with your relics (the monarchy and common law) and we'll live with ours (lawyers)