John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com> (05/25/91)
Douglas Scott Reuben <DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu> writes: > The main problem which I have with FMR, and one that I've written to > GTE/FMR (and posted to the Digest) about is post-midnight activations. This is the only problem I have ever had with FMR recently -- but for a different reason. A couple of days after returning from a trip to LA, I was standing next to my bike in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco. I needed some info for a records search, so I dug out my handheld. After paging the person who had the info, I waited (and waited) for the return call. I tried again. Finally, MY pager went off showing a number which I called. It turned out to be the person I was paging who was very annoyed. "If you are going to page someone and direct them to call your handheld, the least you could do is turn it on." It was on. And it seemed to work fine. Suddenly I had a thought. "Was the voice that told you the phone was unavailable male or female?" It was male. My home system, GTE San Francisco, uses a female voice. What on earth was going on? It turns out that the FMR activated days before in Los Angeles had failed to deactivate automatically. The voice announcing my unavailability was coming from PacTel Los Angeles. No problem; I used the "clear call forwarding" code. One more thing to check when returning from a trip! John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Douglas Scott Reuben) (05/25/91)
I just got around to reviewing some of my recent posts about roaming, as well as Pat's and a few other posts which in part dealt with Follow Me Roaming. (I think Steve Forette was one of the other people.) I noticed that when I wrote about FMR, I described it as "flakey" and slow, that is to say, quite unreliable overall. Yet most of the other posts described how quickly it worked and that it was indeed QUITE reliable. Generally, despite what my posts may have indicated, I too find FMR to be quite fast and rather reliable. Since GTE took over the FMR system and moved to Tampa during the summer of 1990, service has become a lot better. Activations which used to take 30 or more minutes are now accomplished in less than five, and usually within two minutes. Deactivations are equally as fast. And generally, if you hit *18 to invoke FMR, you will not have to do so again as the system rarely "forgets" to forward your calls anymore. (It would sometimes acknowledge that a roamer had entered *18, but for one reason or another not turn FMR on, even hours later.) The main problem which I have with FMR, and one that I've written to GTE/FMR (and posted to the Digest) about is post-midnight activations. FMR deactivates at 12:15AM (or a bit later), local time, in the system in which one is roaming in. Thus, if I roam in Boston with FMR, on my GTE/San Francisco account, my calls are no longer forwarded after 9:15PM California time, which is quite inconvenient. Moreover, if you hit *18 at 12:20AM, or even 1AM, your calls may not be redirected to you for *THREE HOURS* or more. To most people, getting calls between 12AM-3AM local time is no big deal, but to me it is, and thus I am very disappointed with how GTE handles post-midnight deactivations. Moreover, I see no reason why they can't re-write the FMR software (or modify it) to allow for FMR to stay on for a 24-hour period after hitting *18, or for a special code, *17 (or whatever) so that it won't turn off at 12AM, etc. The "A" carriers, which have a system analogous to FMR, uses a 24 hour cycle. As soon as I can utilize the "A"s' system, I'll compare it to FMR and see which one has better overall service. Note that post-midnight activation delays may also be a problem in some systems that don't always "register" a *18 request at the time. Frequently, I hit *18 in Boston at about 1AM, then go to sleep (well, I don't bring the phone in the house, but you know ..! :) ). I do this so the next morning FMR will be up and running, yet this doesn't always work, and GTE claims that this is also due to the post-midnight delays. (Yet NYNEX/Boston seems perfectly happy to bill you $4 for this call, regardless of what happens!) Overall, thus, FMR is a usable and reliable system as long as you don't need to use it at night. So posts suggesting that FMR works well are quite correct. But after 50+ attempts at activations after 12:15AM in five east coast, two west coast, the Atlanta and the New Orleans systems, I can say that (at least in those systems) FMR is very unreliable and generally useless after 12AM. I keep hoping something is done to rectify this, but I fear I will just have to use the "A"s instead. Not a great choice either way. :( Sorry for any confusion I may have caused by my previous characterizations of the FMR system. Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu // dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet