Number Portability
 

Oh, I have faith it will be completely down for a day or so at some point.

Number Portability
 

Mr Chick recently ported his phone number. He gave Verizon the boot and T-Mobile had his old number was ringing through to his new phone about 12 hours after he took new phone out of the box.

On a related note, I want to speak highly of the Nokia 3650. I actually use the camera option not infrequently, for example in stores when I want someone to see if what I am picking out is what they want, etc.

I have become convinced that the best way to buy a phone is through Amazon. When the SO got his last week (I got mine a couple months ago) they were offering $300 in rebates ($150 from Amazon and T-Mobile each) and had knocked the price on the 3650 from $300 to $200, so the Mr. got cash back for his phone. When I sent in the rebates on mine, I got them back pretty quickly and without hassle.

I also have to give the thumbs up to T-Mobile: who has a 600 minute national plan with their little wireless internet thingy for less than $50/month with MUCH better (for me anyway) service than AT&T wireless. So now I can actually use my phone in local office buildings.

Number Portability
 

I moved from AT&T to Sprint a couple of weeks ago. It took a total of 6 days and one (half hour) call to Sprint to get the transfer completed. Might have been quicker if I had placed the call earlier, but I waited to see if it would happen as promised. After phone call transfer occurred on same day.


ETA: w/r/t SEC's post, I bought the phone at Best Buy and switched services there. Seemed to work out fine other thant hte above-referenced need for a phone call to Sprint. They offer a bunch of rebates on phones (in addition to Sprint's) there too. Got a nice Samsung flip camera phone for free.

Number Portability
 

Most of the porting problems that I have heard about involve Sprint and AT&T. The others seem to have their acts pretty much together. Personally, I am sticking with Cingular, which seems to have the best GSM coverage in the US (plus, I re-signed a contract not too long ago, and early termination fees suck). The only reason I would switch is if someone gave me a free Motorola v600, which is only being released for ATTWS.

Number Portability
 

Wait a couple of weeks. ATTWS may be Cingular soon. although i doubt even cingular will make the v600 free.

Number Portability
 

That's all conjecture, though the recent news stories make it sound more and more probable. That said, I would guess that the regulatory approval process will take about a year to iron out (Cingular and ATTWS own competing licenses in many markets, and many will have to be divested). Agreed that the v600 will not be free, as the best prive seen on the v400 is about $130 with a 2 year K. It would be a good deal, but the v400 lacks bluetooth, which I have become WAY too accustomed to to live without (not to mention all of the bluetooth toys that would suddenly become expensive paperweights).

Number Portability
 

Agreed that it will take some time before the systems are merged. And regardless of any divestitures, they probably will keep the two companies separate for awhile, for customer purposes. What a bigger mess, too, since ATTWS already has two companies, one for TDMA and one for GSM. Entirely separate departments.

As for divestitures, has the FCC confronted this? Surely there are rules about the amount of spectrum. I assume it's not strictly licenses, but a certain percentage of spectrum or something. So perhaps they could spin off a half-license or something.

Number Portability
 

So, my new phone still isn't here, but the number's already been ported. I lost a voicemail on my old phone, but I'll just have to call the person who left it and see what she wanted. Considering I ordered Monday or Tuesday, this should all work pretty well if the phone is working when it arrives.

Number Portability
 

Delivery attempted by FedEx for new phone. I'm impressed. I'll have to try to pick that shit up tomorrow at FedEx. Both providers tell me that porting is done and that I'm good to go once I have the phone. All in all, not a bad experience. Now, I just need to change all the numbers over and take a bunch of pictures in the gym locker room with the new phone.

Number Portability
 

FedEx is a fucking disaster for residential delivery. I would say that less than 50% of the times they're supposed to deliver something to me do they actually do it. Sometimes it's a failure to see the signature waiver. Other times it's delivering to the wrong, but similar, address (e.g., 1st St. instead of 1st Terrace). But good luck getting the phone!

Number Portability
 

It's pretty rare that I get stuff from FedEx at home; all the vendors I buy from seem to use the cheaper UPS or USPS. I truly wasn't home, and signature waivers are a bad idea in my urban neighborhood two flat. My fucking snow shovel was stolen, so I'm sure that the local derelicts would love something like a cell phone.

I picked up my new phone at the FedEx station last night. It was all ported and ready to go, and I'm pretty happy with it so far. Haven't used the detachable camera yet, but that's just a luxury anyway.

I did _really_ like that you can pick up a FedEx package the evening of the day delivery is attemped, and they're open until 9:00 pm. UPS requires that you arrange to have the package held at the station anytime you want to pick it up before the third delivery has been attempted, and is only open until 6:00 pm. Plus, the wait is always long. So, FedEx gets points in this situation.

V600 (att'n Alex de Large
 

V600 coming to ATT Wireless

For $299 (with contract)

Scans on a wireless handheld
 

GP wants to receive e-mail on wireless device. So far, no problem --- Blackberry, right? But then he complains that more and more clients are sending him e-mails in which the important message content is in an attachment. I say, no problem, there are ways to open and even edit Word files on certain handhelds, especially Palm ones. Then he says, okay, but what about those PDF thingies. I say, you ain't got no problem, Jules. I'm on the motherfucker. There is handheld software to open text-based PDF files. He says, no, I'm talking about those faxes we can have scanned and sent to our enterprise e-mail. I say, you mean to tell me you want to be able to receive and read massive image files scanned from our office and e-mailed to your handheld? Umm, I'll get back to you.

It seems to me from a bandwidth perspective, there's no way you could cram entire 40-page image files over cell wireless to a handheld, and then be able to read it on a tiny handheld screen. Mebbe if he had a handheld with Wi-Fi capability, but you'd need to get to a wireless access point for that.

What says the panel? Impossible? Commonplace? Assume there is no massive IT infrastructure where I am who could tell this man he's insane.

Scans on a wireless handheld
 

What's the memory capacity of those phones? Surely not 40mb, or whatever a 40-page fax would take in TIFF format.

Tell that charming mutherfucker that if he wants to get a 40 page fax he should a) carry a laptop; b) get a sec'y who can call him and find the nearest fax location where secy can forward the fax.

and how, btw, would this fellow expect to be able to read a fax on a 2x2 inch screen?

Scans on a wireless handheld
 

He's young enough to carry a Blackberry, but old enough that he remembers typewriters. So he assumes that a lot of stuff is possible that simply isn't because he's got this "gee whiz, these things are amazing, is there anything they can't do?" approach to personal tech.

As for the 2x2 screen, I dunno, maybe he assumes the thing will read it to him.