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Wireless Networking Handhelds United States Hardware

AT&T Wireless Fumbles Number Portability 309

Posted by michael from the short-bus dept.
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."
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AT&T Wireless Fumbles Number Portability More

AT&T Wireless Fumbles Number Portability

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  • Cuh (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pingular ( 670773 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:15PM (#7640857)
    Most notably former AT&T customers can expect to wait up to a week for their number to switch
    Why wait when you have Captain Crunch?

  • I like AT&T (Score:5, Informative)

    by squarefish ( 561836 ) * on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:16PM (#7640863)
    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?

    • Re:I like AT&T (Score:5, Informative)

      by ThogScully ( 589935 ) <neilsd@neilschelly.com> on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:20PM (#7640908) Homepage
      Now, when will they finally let you transfer the phone you like to a different service provider?

      So go with GSM. Your connection may not be as reliable in the middle of nowhere, but I find it rarely a problem. And I've taken my phone internationally to carriers around the world without problems. While the service coverage may not quite be what those CDMA and TDMA providers have, I find it worthwhile to support the better, more flexible standard in the hopes that it will proliferate later on.
      -N

      • "So go with GSM. Your connection may not be as reliable in the middle of nowhere, but I find it rarely a problem. And I've taken my phone internationally to carriers around the world without problems."

        Well I'm sold. I'm travelling international more often than I'm out in the middle of nowhere. ;)

      • Re:I like AT&T (Score:5, Informative)

        by Zaphod B ( 94313 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:37PM (#7641082) Journal
        Just remember that your GSM phone will not work on other GSM carriers until you have the SIM lock removed. If you have a Nokia GSM phone, you can get the unlock sequence from here [unlockme.co.uk].

        If you don't have a Nokia, you can find people who will unlock the phones for you with a special cable. T-Mobile will give the unlock codes to their customers once you hit the 90-day mark, though I've heard of people getting them as quickly as 15 days after signing up... e-mail simunlock@t-mobile.com with your phone's serial (IMEI) number and your account information. Cingular have a mixed history of giving out the lock codes. AT&T refuse to give out the codes for any reason.

        Once you unlock your phone you will be able to use any provider's SIM card in it... and historically, Cingular do not require 1- or 2-year agreements when you bring your own phone.

        Bear in mind that Cingular and AT&T use 800 (850) and 1900 MHz networks and T-Mobile use only 1900 MHz networks, so you want to check out which networks your phone will work on first. (If you have a triband phone it's probably 900/1800/1900, which means it works on 1900 here in North America and works in most of the rest of the world as well.)
      • AT&T GSM is horribly unreliable in Los Angeles. I used to be an AT&T GSM customer in Seattle, and when I moved to LA, I thought it wouldn't be bad.. Yeah right.

        My coverage over the Sepulveda Pass and through West Los Angeles is abysmal, and there's NO coverage in the major business area in Santa Monica where I work. If I lived in the boonies, I would understand.. But come on!

        So, now I'm a Verizon customer, and what do you know, my phone works everywhere in Los Angeles.
    • A family member of mine who was trying to get a new ATT phone (after three years of service on the original phone--the contract has long since expired) was just given a terrible runaround. They offered a nice Siemens GSM phone with a retail price of $250 for $90, but didn't have it in stock and said to come back Thursday. The exchange, as far as I can tell, was a complete deal; offer and acceptance makes it legally binding. Anywho, on Thursday, they ring it up (`How much did the saleswoman offer it for? $90
      • > 'Ah, no. We upgraded your plan to a newer one a few months ago and locked you into a one year contract,'

        Do they have her signature on this contract? Seems like without that they don't ave anything but a nice small claims lawsuit.
        • They dont need her signature, in the original contract she signed its specifies if you change plans, or purchase a new device, you are ackgnowledge the fact that you are entering into a contract. (like I remember the contract I signed a year ago when getting a new phone or changing plans).

      • Re:I like AT&T (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        As I recall it AT&T actually records a Q&A session with you when you extend your contract on the telephone. I would suggest asking them to show the documentation of the contract extension.
    • I like ATT as well, but their TDMA service is awful where I live (but good elsewhere, strangely). Mostly, I like their honesty in pricing and plans. Its been a while since I did price comparisons, but at the time I looked they were also cheaper overall.

      However, one issue not just with ATT but with the whole wireless phone industry in general was this- they spent more time/money fighting number portability than implimenting would have cost. Also, they didnt even BEGIN looking into how to do it until last

    • Try the sidekick from T-mobile. It doesn't do bluetooth, but there is a killer ssh client available, and the mail works great. The qwerty keyboard makes shell sessions tolerable. With new or renewed t-mobile service, I think it costs about 249. Web browser and txt messaging is just a bonus. All the data you can eat for 20 bucks a month (voice is a separate plan). Oh, and it is a GSM phone.
    • 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.

      Don't hold your breath. I'd guess that the market for a phone like this is about 10 people. Shell from a phone? Riiiiight. I'm sure that customers are knocking down cellphone providers' doors for this one. I'd also like a phone that had perfect reception everywhere, and that also acted l
    • I hate that you can't delete a voicemail until it has been played back in it's entirety. It's like they want you to burn that extra 30 seconds of airtime listening to crap that you already heard because you called the person back before playing the VM.

      Does this irk anyone else? What providers don't pull this shit? Whoever doesn't restrict my VM options is going to get my business.
      • Just hit 7 twice while listening the the message and you're all set.

        Now, don't get me started on the whole "You have one unheard message. First unheard message. The following message has not been heard" speech...

    • Re:I like AT&T (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ncc74656 ( 45571 )

      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.

      I snagged an Ericsson T610 recently...free after rebates, with a Bluetooth headset thrown in for another $20. It works with my Palm [palm.com], so there should be no reason why it wouldn't work with your Mac. The rate plan I'm on with T-Mobile includes free unlimited d

  • Forget changing your phone number (Score:5, Insightful)

    by phoneboy ( 11009 ) <dwelch AT phoneboy DOT com> on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:17PM (#7640876) Homepage
    Just try to get through to customer care for any reason whatsovever. I'd like to make some changes to my service, but I also don't want to waste four-plus hours on the phone to do it either, as is being reported in the AT&T Wireless Forums [attwireless.net].

    AT&T Wireless has some serious customer care issues right now, whatever the actual reason. Hopefully, everyone will be compensated for this bullsh!+, but probably not.

    -- PhoneBoy

    • Perhaps they are a bit more busy now with the number portability calls, but I've called them 3 times in the last 4 months to modify my service and never waited more than 5 minutes each time.
    • Oops, I meant http://forums.attwireless.com

    • Uh.. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by EvilStein ( 414640 )
      jnichols@www jnichols $ host forums.attwireless.net
      Host forums.attwireless.net not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
      jnichols@www jnichols $

      I'm a former AT&T Wireless customer care employee. Oddly enough, it was the only call center job where I did *not* hear about people having problems getting through. At the very least, they didn't outsource all the staff to India or contractors.

      A lot of the current problems are related to a massive switch to Siebel's backend setup. That could explain the excessive hold times.
      • See one of the replies to this thread. I typed the wrong address in. It's a .com address, not a .net. :(

        -- PhoneBoy
        • Ah, so I see :D

          I see someone else has mentioned that the chair of the PUC was on KGO, but he misquoted her - she said that "the company" has a *THREE* day lag - the poster said two. So, it's worse than people think. :D
      • too bad they switched to seible..

        when gateway switched their sales and service databases to seible, they only gave us some java frontend that takes about 3 minutes per checkbox and dropdown menu to select any options in the menu. The seible reps admit this is true, and have yet to find a solution. They claim they are not compatible with windows XP because of sun's lawsuit. Sounds to me more like they are only compatible with an outdated and illegal version of java.

        On top of this, now it takes about 45 ste
    • It's the new Customer Service Droids [penny-arcade.com]. In all seriousness, that comic is 100% true. I was yelled at by a lady from Customer Service, I had to move the phone away from my ear because of how loud she got.
    • I agree with some of the other replies. I've had nothing but good experiences with AT&T Wireless customer service. They're probably getting hit pretty hard with this number portability stuff right now.

      -prator

    • I just switched from Sprint to Nextel. Changed phone numbers, as I had moved - hadn't changed the number with Sprint because that would have renewed my contract. I ran into some problems with my credit rating - I recently moved and my address didn't match up, and they were convinced I really didn't exist. My Nextel rep spend about 4 hours, no joke, on the phone with Nextel. I was lucky that he was so helpful (my employer has bought dozens of phones through him and he is friends with a guy who works here

  • fumblers (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dynamic Ranger ( 725268 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:17PM (#7640881)
    If you want to be the very first to try the hot new stuff, be prepared for things not to always go as planned.

  • Probably not intentional... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Zaphod B ( 94313 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:18PM (#7640886) Journal
    This problem relates both to people trying to switch FROM AT&T and to people trying to switch TO AT&T... while it may be a stalling tactic on AT&T, it seems unlikely and they wouldn't want to give themselves such a PR black eye.

    All the major carriers except AT&T are using one portability company. Looks like AT&T ought to explore using that same firm.

    There are more horror stories at Wirelessadvisor.com [wirelessadvisor.com].
    • "This problem relates both to people trying to switch FROM AT&T and to people trying to switch TO AT&T... while it may be a stalling tactic on AT&T, it seems unlikely and they wouldn't want to give themselves such a PR black eye."

      I agree. I think the "AT&T is doing it on purpose" tone of this article isn't terribly logical. I really wish assumptions that big companies will do illogical things just to be evil attitude would settle down. It's like everybody's trying to guess what the next
      • Agreed, but consider this..."Gee, officer, I didn't mean to exceed the speed limit. I was going downhill and wasn't paying attention." Will the officer be reasonable and give you the benefit of the doubt? Absolutely not; nor should he. AT&T's intent is utterly irrelevant. If they violated the law, they should be punished accordingly.
        • "Will the officer be reasonable and give you the benefit of the doubt?"

          It depends. Was he doinng 45 in a 35 zone, or was he doing 60 in a 35 zone? Police officers aren't typically extreme literalists.

          "If they violated the law, they should be punished accordingly."

          I don't think it's as B&W as that. In a general sense you are right, but AT&T does have a right to defend themselves. If the problem is simply a matter of too much popularity and various technical glitches, then why fine them? T

    • Re:Probably not intentional... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by gsfprez ( 27403 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:57PM (#7641283)
      Please note:

      AT&T has 100% no relationship with AT&T Wireless. At one time, they did, but in thier split from AT&T, they were able to (somehow) retain the AT&T part of their name.

      i worked for AT&T last year.. most people there had Verizon cell phones.. i had T-Mobile. This is because we got no discounts on AT&T Wireless stuff.

      just so all the facts are known.

  • Taglines (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Space cowboy ( 13680 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:18PM (#7640887) Journal
    There's someone on here (can't remember who) who's tagline goes something like 'Never ascribe to malice what can be satisfactorily explained by incompetence'. I doubt this is really a 'policy' by AT&T ...

    Simon
    • What's interesting is AT&T wireless is actually losing customers to WNP. ATW and T-Mobile are the losers, Cingular and Sprint are neutral and Verizon and Nextel are winners.
  • If I port my land-line number to my cell, and then move to another state, and then port back to a land line.... I like having area codes that are common to most people I know. Just how portable is all this portability supposed to be? The scenario I outlined above is probably not even supported by much of the network.
    • It's called Local Number Portability for a reason. As of right now, if you move out of the area, then you can't port that number to another carrier.

      ie: If you move your landline to your wireless phone, then move from Los Angeles to San Francisco, you can still use your wireless phone up there. However, you cannot port that number to another carrier or landline...
    • What's your point? The point of number portability is to be able to keep the same number. If you want to keep the same number but have it be a local area code, you would need to redistrict the area you move to and change all the other resident's area codes to keep your number the same but make it familiar to the locals where you move to. Yeah. Hello, Napolean.

      Or you could just hire a sky writer.

      I think that scenario would, in theory, be totally doable. But you can't keep the same number and have it be

  • Fine them. Yeah. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jridley ( 9305 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:19PM (#7640895)
    If they're fined, they'll just increase their rates, perhaps they'll add another 10 cents to everyone's "Number portability surcharge". It will cost them nothing.

    • Re:Fine them. Yeah. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by six11 ( 579 ) <(johnsogg) (at) (cmu.edu)> on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:37PM (#7641076) Homepage
      however, in raising rates they loose a small amount of competitive edge. so the fine would d something--minor, yes--but tangible.
      • however, in raising rates they loose a small amount of competitive edge

        This would be true if companies included fees as part of the advertised rates, but they rarely do. So the monthly rate remains $29.99 but the portability fee rises from $2.50 to $2.65 (or something like that).
      • Yeah, fining them would either cost them or their customers money. This would be a good thing IMO since I am no longer an AT&T customer and never will be again. Maybe it would convince more of their customers to cop an attitude like me. :)
  • is coverage. They work at my house reliably (for the most part) and provide some cool features. My T-Mobile service doesn't work as reliably at my house, but is a hell of a lot cheaper.

    If it weren't for coverage (which is really the only feature that matters), I'd drop AT&T Wireless (LNP or not) and stick with my T-Mobile service.

    -- PhoneBoy

  • Why can't people just post Google links? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:20PM (#7640907)
    AC to avoid karma whoring.

    Click here [nytimes.com] for your reg free linkage.

  • Not a stalling tactic (Score:5, Interesting)

    by signe ( 64498 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:23PM (#7640939) Homepage
    It's not a stalling tactic on their part. I'm about 95% sure of this because of some unrelated problems I've been having with AT&T Wireless lately.

    They recently switched to a new management system for their GSM phones, and they're having a very difficult time getting everyone up to speed on it. Their website has been broken for accessing account information for a while, and their retail folks barely have a clue what they're doing when it comes to GSM stuff. I was trying to get a credit for a promotion recently, and it took over 3 months, and several different people, before it was done without using the GSM management systems at all.

    So, while it doesn't seem that they're screwing up number portability deliberately, they do have some other problems going on. You don't introduce a new system to service without making sure that everyone that needs to use it is already trained on it. And, of course, that it works and interoperates with the rest of your systems properly.

    -Todd

  • fumble might not be the right word (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Valar ( 167606 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:23PM (#7640940)
    'fumble' implies that at&t didn't mean for it to happen.

  • Still Waiting (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ken@WearableTech ( 107340 ) <{moc.rjsmailliwnek} {ta} {nek}> on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:26PM (#7640972) Homepage Journal
    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."
    • I got pissed, because T-Mobile were able to transfer my wife's number (was on an AT&T Shared Digital plan), which was requested at the same time as mine. Mine got hung up, hers tranferred. After over a week, I said enough.

      In addition, one of the reasons we were switching was because of service holes (in L.A.!), and it turned out that T-Mobile had holes in the same area. So we returned the phones under the 14 day buyers remorse.

      Too bad, because T-Mobile actually had the best rates for the service le

  • Notorious for shady practices.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DroopyStonx ( 683090 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:26PM (#7640975)
    AT&T has a reputation with pulling this crap. It might not be with everyone, but it happens more than it really should.

    I've known a few people who've worked for AT&T who claim some of the stuff they do is no good.

    For example, when I switched long distance carriers from AT&T, I *knew* I'd have some kind of issue with it. Lo and behold, 2 weeks after terminating service with them, AT&T mysteriously accepts an order "placed by me" and reactivates my service through them. I call back to cancel and to make sure it's cancelled and they tell me I was removed from the system.

    A week later, it happened again. I guess I must be sleepwalking or something, because, again, they claim I place a service reactivation order.

    In the end it all got straigtened out, but after hearing from people who used to work there that they practice some shady business tactics, it doesn't surprise me in the least bit that the number switching would "mysteriously" fail.
    • A lot of the stuff that went on at corporate AT&T doesn't take place at AT&T Wireless - they are, in fact, totally seperate companies.

      Oddly enough, when I worked at AT&T Wireless, we would do our best to *not* screw customers over. I would go out of my way to hook people up as best as I could - we were empowered to make "good company decisions" as customer care reps, and I took advantage of that.
      The reason I quit my job there? I got a job in IT again that paid more.
    • That's Slamming, dude, and you should report it to the FCC.

  • Not just number portability... (Score:3, Informative)

    by ryanwright ( 450832 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:26PM (#7640977)
    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 [cnet.com]. 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.

  • The California PUC says... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by EvilStein ( 414640 ) <spam@BALDWINpbp.net minus author> on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:27PM (#7640986)
    That one company was found to have purposely *caused* a 3 day delay, and was bombarding customers with ad pitches hoping they'd stay.

    Guess we know who it is - and these days I'm not surprised. (I'm a former employee)

  • Shocking! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by commonchaos ( 309500 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:27PM (#7640992) Homepage Journal
    I abhor AT&T wireless, they have been a constant source of grief for me. Recently they have placed their own towers in the San Luis Obispo, Californa area that can not handle the load of their customers. It usually takes about 8 attempts to make a call before I can get out. Calls to AT&T Wireless resulted in the Customer Service representative yelling at me and treating me with a complete lack of respect. Once I re-finance my car, I'm going to cancel my 2-year contract and tell them to go to hell when they try to collect the early termination fee. If I wasn't a college student, I would love to be involved in a lawsuit against them.

    Only recently have I been able to get decent service. This was only after I mentioned to the rep that I has just submited a complaint to the FCC.
    • It's equally bad in Santa Barbara County and I can't WAIT to get away from ATTWS.

  • My experience w/ TMobile. (Score:4, Informative)

    by ybmug ( 237378 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:28PM (#7640993)
    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.
    • It is too bad that the CSR did not check your number first. I'm glad that it worked out but I've heard horror stories of people trying to leave say ATT for T-Mobile that do live in the Top 100 and denying it saying they do not live in the Top 100, while at the same time letting a Verizon person join ATT from the same town!

  • Even before the # portability... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nicedream ( 4923 ) <<brian> <at> <nopants.org>> on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:30PM (#7641008) Homepage
    Back in the beginning of November my phone died and I went to the ATT store to try to buy a new one. I was told to come back the next day because the computer system was not working. I did, and the same thing happened for the next WEEK. That's right NO gsm phones were activated for a whole WEEK.

    Once I did get a phone, I emailed their customer service and told them how badly they screwed up and wasted my time. This is the point where good companies realize they made a mistake and go out of their way to fix it, but instead ATT offered me a measly $5 credit. I found this insulting as a loyal customer for ~2 years who has just been given a huge runaround and inconvenience. So I replaied to the email saying so.

    Now at the bottom of every email from ATT they append this:

    " If you need to respond to this message, we suggest you reply directly to this email for the best service. Please remember to leave all documents attached for reference."

    which I certainly did. So to follow the course of our correspondence, all you had to do was start at the bottom and read upwards (like any normal email thread). So about a week later I get this simple reply:

    " Thank you for contacting AT&T Wireless regarding the e-mail you recently sent us. Unfortunately, we are unable to determine the nature of your request. If you would like to email us back with more detailed information, we would be more than happy to assist you further. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

    So the point of this rant is that ATT is full of technically incompetant people, and this story does not surprise me one bit.

  • AT&T Wont UNLOCK EVER! (Score:5, Informative)

    by evilned ( 146392 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:31PM (#7641023) Homepage
    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.
    • ATT would not unlock my T68 one year after my contract was up. Two years after I signed. So I went ahead and flashed my phone and unlocked it. Not something the average person is going to do. A class action lawsuit is in the works, you can read about it: here at C|Net [com.com]
      • Did the same here, had the firmware updated while I was at it, and had all the AT&T customization removed as well. I wasnt a big fan of the phone to begin with (Wife wanted it, because "Its so small and cute"). Still pisses me off that I have to pay extra for it to work the way Sony Ericksson made the damned thing.

  • Podhoretz's Column (Score:3, Informative)

    by toupsie ( 88295 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:31PM (#7641032) Homepage
    In this morning's New York Post, John Podhoretz's column, Cell Hell [nypost.com], 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.

  • 5 Hour Hold Times (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cloudscout ( 104011 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:38PM (#7641090) Homepage
    There is a reason why I submitted this story in the first place. I have been trying to get my number ported from AT&T to T-Mobile for 11 days now with no luck. Yesterday afternoon I called their number portability group and sat on hold for 5 hours, 10 minutes before I finally gave up.

    I have never before experienced such incompetence on such a large scale.
  • now let's give a good ol' fashioned homestyle slashdotting. Make 'em weep!!

  • It's not going to get any better. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:39PM (#7641098)
    I work for AT&T Wireless, and have been right in the thick of things for about eight months. Let me tell you, it's far worse than what the press is indicating.

    Apparently corporate favored hiring Deloitte consultants over their full time employees to save costs and to prepare for a possible buyout, and they simply didn't get the job done. Their efforts can be measured by the numbers I've gotten wind of. Wireless's passthrough rates for LNP are not even above 20% for port out, and they're logging about 10-15 thousand tickets per day at their help desks. That's right, per day.

    Wireless also chose Siebel and Vitria to work out back end systems, and they were both pieces of hand-picked corporate garbage (and they were told way in advance by former full time employees, but were shunned as 'not being agreeable to the team') that have proven unscaleable, unreliable, and though modified incessantly, not up to the task of doing LNP. Apparently no one has any idea what we are going to do now. AT&T Wireless is stuck with a backend system that we're now locked into because of contractual agreements with the aforementioned companies.

    IMO, Corporate has torn the soul and guts out of this company in order to turn a profit, and now their gonna reap what they've sown over the course of last year.

  • Interesting info (Score:3, Funny)

    by Zebra_X ( 13249 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:39PM (#7641109)
    I just bought a new phone today... while I was in the wireless store, a man came in asking to switch from cingular to ATT. The lady at the counter said "we need a bill from cincular". The reason she said, was that the phone number is case sensitive. In the event that the phone number is not entered into their system correctly, the request to port the fellows request for porting will fail. He elected to go ahead and take his chances.

  • The URL you are looking for about the problem is.. (Score:3, Informative)

    by BrookHarty ( 9119 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:43PM (#7641154) Journal
    The URL you are looking for is at thestreet.com [thestreet.com].

    [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 [com.com].

    [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.

    /me buys some SAP stock. ;)
  • There are other people sharing horror stories about Number Portability Requests over at WirelessAdvisor [wirelessadvisor.com] too. There's some very useful information there.
  • Most notably former AT&T customers can expect to wait up to a week for their number to switch.

    Oh my God, a week? Oh, wait... you said up to a week, which can be anywhere from 1 - 7 days, right?

    I don't know that I'd be able to live with waiting for somewhere between 1/365 and 1/52 of a year to get something as important as my number changed.

    We live in a microwave world. If it doesn't hppen instantly, it takes too long.
    • In reality, it has been OVER a week delay.

      Most of the requests submitted on the first day still haven't been completed. It has been 11 days so far and AT&T has no ETA.

      See my earlier comment about how I sat on hold for 5 hours, 10 minutes last night waiting to talk to someone at AT&T before I finally gave up.

  • The problem is the software (Score:4, Informative)

    by Go Aptran ( 634129 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @02:57PM (#7641282)
    Most of the problems with phone portability (and cell phone customer service in general) can probably be traced back to under-trained and over-worked staff trying to use slow and buggy software to process orders and set up accounts.

    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...

  • Here in CA, we have had number portability between land-lines for some time. So when I wanted to switch my landline number from AT&T to another land-line provider, I assumed all would work.

    Well, after numerous calls to the new provider and over a month of waiting, AT&T did not release the number. Result? I was forced to stay with AT&T.

    Now, I am trying to figure out if I can save money by getting rid of my land-line phones in favor of cellphones and Sip phones (since 95% of my long distanc
  • According to the FCC website [fcc.gov], while there is an industry approved standard of 2.5 hours, there is no set FCC rule as to how long it should take. Now, if AT&T can not get their ETR down to a reasonable time, then the FCC could step in and impose a mandated timeframe along with fines for failing to comply. But I would not expect that to happen anytime soon.

    From the FCC FAQ [fcc.gov]:

    How long will the porting process take?

    For a wireless to wireless transfer, the porting process should take approximately two and
  • 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 resu
  • Hi, i know this is sorta offtopic offtopic but it's related to AT&T Wireless customer service and perhaps some slashdotter can help me out.

    I had an AT&T Wireless account about three years ago and closed it in 2001. There were some issues with my early termination, and I didn't get any invoices until it was already really "past due" I paid it immediately and that was the end of it.

    It showed up on my credit report in May of this year, nearly 2 years later. Now, I have no problem with that, but it
  • Its not like they are refusing.. its a new procedure that they weren't expecting .. there will be some growing pains in the beginning....

    Be patient.. everything isn't a conspiracy..

  • The other side of the fence (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fo0bar ( 261207 ) * on Friday December 05, 2003 @03:30PM (#7641709)
    Human nature seems to dictate that 1) people will disagree on anything, even what color the sky is, and 2) people will complain. As seen in the previous story [slashdot.org] on initial reactions to the number porability law, there were +5 comments complaining about EVERY cell carrier. Since this story specifically has to do AT&T wireless, there are obviously more complaints about AT&T than other carriers. Therefore, I thought I'd post my own personal experience.

    I've had AT&T Wireless for about 4 years now and have had no complaints about them. When I started, I bought a nokia 5165, got some minutes, and 6 months of free text messaging. When I called after the 6 month period was up, I asked for them to drop the messaging service since I didn't use it that much. Their reply was "how about another 6 months free?" This continued each 6 months for about 2 years. All good things must come to an end though, and they finally started charging a couple bucks (since then I have learned that I cannot live without text messaging).

    The reception has been the best I've encountered, experiencing it for 2 years in the SF bay area, and the previous 2 years in Nevada. My employers have bought me other providers, but none would work as well as AT&T, so I kept my personal phone with them. (If you must know, cingular's reception was horrible for me. Of course your mileage can and will vary. Sprint works okay for me, but AT&T still works better.)

    As for service... I've only had to call maybe a dozen times in 4 years. All of the times I've been impressed with their service. Or should I say, while my view of the world's customer service is at an all time low, AT&T has provided some of the least crappy customer service, irregardless of industry. They've reversed late charges just because I've asked, and I don't recall ever being on hold a long time.

    The last time I called was about 3 months ago. My 5165 died (4 years for a cellphone is impressive, these days a cellphone's lifespan seems to be about 6 hours), so I bought a nokia 3360 online, called customer service up, was on hold for about 3 minutes, and it took maybe another 4-5 minutes to get the new phone activated.

    So I'm happy. But I'm also knocking on wood, since the last company I praised on slashdot was my SBC DSL, and as a result, my DSL line went down about an hour later. Heh. Also, as it's been mentioned before in these comments, the problems with number portability are probably not some evil scheme by AT&T Wireless. Their problems are affecting both switchovers TO them as well as FROM them. Remember, being evil means screwing the customer AFTER they become a customer of yours, not before.

    Standard disclaimer: All corporations are evil. Some are just not as evil as others.

  • Just imagine the volume of calls that come through AT&T every day. Heck, just imagine one hour! Every one of these calls has to be linked to an account, measured in minutes, rated against your plan, etc, etc. This is some heavy duty processing going on. And the machines that are doing this are huge mainframes. This is all legacy code. Right now some cobol jockeys are trying to retrofit some archaic cobol routine to give you number portability. Give them a break! They have had a career in cobol, that's

  • Why are Americans being ripped off? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by lga ( 172042 ) * on Friday December 05, 2003 @04:02PM (#7642156) Journal
    I don't understand why people put up with the phone companies in the USA.

    In the UK, nearly all phone contracts are for one year. After a year, the customer only has to give one months notice to leave - none of this crap about being locked in for another year unless they take a new handset and sign a contract.

    We can also change tariff mid contract, and it doesn't affect the contract end date.

    We have had number portability for years now, enforced up by OFTEL [oftel.org.uk] the telecomms watchdog.

    All phone companies have to unlock phones at the end of the contract if the customer asks, again enforced by law.

    I don't understand why in the USA, phone companies get away with extending contracts by another year at the slightest excuse, locking customers into 2 year contracts, refusing to unlock phones for new SIM cards, putting extra "taxes" on the bill with no real basis, and dragging their feet over number portability. Why does the general public put up with it???

    Steve.
  • I went to cingular the first day, and i still havn't had my number changed. I've spent hours on the phone to no avail, according to US Cellular they are unable to port my number because the third party that does the porting cant switch between my US Cellular pre-pay number and a Cingular monthly plan. According to Cingular this is crap and US Cellular hasn't released any of 4k+ numbers to Cingular. I'm enjoying playing with my new phone, j2me is fun and working with something called a MIDlet is hilarious to

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday December 05, 2003 @08:42PM (#7644592)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

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