DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu) (DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN) (09/06/90)
A while back I asked a few questions as to how Follow Me Roaming
operates and why it is sometimes seemingly inoperative, and here's
what I found out:
After talking to GTE Mobilnet and the Follow-Me dept (now located in
Tampa, Florida), I am now pretty sure that Follow-Me Roaming cuts off
at 12AM Eastern time, all over the country. This used to be 1AM
Eastern, since Follow Me was previously located in Houston, Texas, (in
the Central time zone), but is now in Tampa, which is the Eastern
Zone.
It had/s been my experience that Follow-Me cuts off at 12AM Eastern no
matter where I am, so, it will cut off around 9PM Pacific time. I've
noticed this many times while on the GTE SF and the Pac*Tel Sacramento
systems. Other people who have Wireline ("B") cell service also noted
this, two of them are GTE SF customers, one is a GTE Santa Barbara
customer, one is an Southern New England Tel/ "LYNX" customer, and
finally, a friend of mine with Bell Atlantic (Philadelphia?) service
also noticed this. (Of course the last two are on the East Coast
anyhow, so that really doesn't prove anything.)
I complained about this to GTE/SF customer service (after waiting for
25 minutes on hold! - but *611 is free, so no airtime charges), and
they told me there is nothing that can be done about it right now.
They said that the Follow Me Roaming division in Tampa "advises"
customers that between 11:30P (Eastern time) and 1AM (Eastern time),
Follow-Me may be slow or unavailable, as it is during this time that
the system "dumps" all the old numbers and resets itself.
This process involves both the Follow-Me Roaming computers in Tampa,
as well as those of your home cellular system, which in my case is GTE
San Francisco. Therefore, if GTE/SF has 1000 numbers set for Follow
Me, it requires time for Tampa to dump all the Follow Me numbers it
had stored, and time for the GTE/SF system to "unforward" calls to
either the Follow Me system or to the specific remote system that I
was Roaming in. Because of this, it may take a while to invoke any *18
(initiate) requests made between 11:30P and 1:00A Eastern time.
(Note that I'm not exactly clear as to HOW Follow Me directs the calls
... Does Follow Me in Tampa maintain a large database of all the
people in the US and Canada who had invoked Follow Me that day? IE, if
I initiate Follow Me, does GTE SF just send all my calls to Tampa, and
then Tampa sends the calls to where it knows that I am roaming? Or
does Tampa just tell GTE SF what remote system I am in and then GTE SF
sends my calls there directly? This may seem a bit of an esoteric
distinction, yet if the former were true, all systems using Follow Me
would be slow if Tampa were having a slow day, while if the latter
were true, then one could get faster Follow Me Roaming by picking a
"home" system that didn't have too many customers and thus not have to
process as many Follow Me activation/deactivations as a larger company
like GTE San Francisco would.)
In any event, it seems as if Follow Me is dependent upon its center in
Tampa, and if they choose to deactivate at 12A Eastern then West-coast
based customers are forced to have a gap in service between 9P and
10:30P (and at times MUCH later!), when Follow Me simply won't work.
Why can't Follow Me come up with a code, let's say *17, that DOES NOT
automatically deactivate? This way, if I am going to be in Chicago for
a week, I won't have to worry about pressing *18 every day, and won't
miss any calls due to some of the activate/deactivate problems which
Follow Me Roaming seems to have ... I called the Follow Me Roaming
people in Tampa and asked them about this, and they were more
concenred with who gave me the "secret" number rather than working the
problems out or even discussing the possiblility of a "*17" type
service with me. Oh well, I should have expected that, but it was GTE
Mobilnet SF who told me to call! Initially they thought I WORKED for
GTE Mobilnet and wondered why I was asking what appeared to be such an
idiotic and naiive question!
I'm curious if anyone else has had similar problems with Follow Me
Roaming. I realize that 12A Eastern is a bit late for Cell-calls
(although cellular service, like landline service, should operate
flawlessly 24 hours a day), so probably most of the people on the East
coast have not had the opportunity to experience these problems, but
maybe some of the more "Western" cell phone users?
Doug
dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu
dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet
P.S. Pat/Moderator - Have you noticed Follow Me cutting off at about
11P Central recently instead of 12A? If so, this would confirm what
the FMR people (reluctantly) told me. If not, well.....who knows...
[Moderator's Note: On my trip to the Land of Ahs, the cutoff was
always midnight; I was in the central time zone throughout my trip.
The reason there is no code to leave Follow Me turned on 'permanently'
until you turn it off is because if you should happen to leave the
area where you turned it on 'permanently', how would ever it ever get
turned off again? PAT]doug@uunet.uu.net (Doug Davis) (09/06/90)
>[Moderator's Note: On my trip to the Land of Ahs, the cutoff was >always midnight; I was in the central time zone throughout my trip. >The reason there is no code to leave Follow Me turned on 'permanently' >until you turn it off is because if you should happen to leave the >area where you turned it on 'permanently', how would ever it ever get >turned off again? PAT] At least here in the land of South Western Bell Mobil Systems, a *79 in your home area will force an immediate release of FMR. I too take frequent trips to other citys in the area and have resorted to forwarding my phone to a land-line during the 11:30pm-1:00am limbo time. At least the last time I talked to SWBMS about this they were "Working on a solution" for people who want a longer period of FMR. Doug Davis/4409 Sarazen/Mesquite Texas, 75150/214-270-9226 {texsun|lawnet|smu}!letni!doug doug@letni.lonestar.org