"DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN)" <DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu> (08/16/90)
I checked out Follow Me Roaming from Boston over the weekend, and the same thing happened: At 8PM, I activated it, and in three minutes it was working fine. At 12:30AM, it was still working fine. At 1:10AM, it was no longer working, ie, it defaulted back to my home system, and never made it Boston. I tried reactivating it, but that didn't work till 2AM, Eastern. When I talked to GTE about Follow Me a while back, they mentioned that the service is run through a central computer in Houston. (At least for GTE Mobile Net customers it is ... or so they say). Could the early termination of Follow Me Roaming have anything to do with the fact that at 1AM Eastern it is 12AM Central/Houston time? Perhaps that is why I am losing all my calls at 1AM, two hours before GTE in San Francisco SHOULD un-forward Follow Me. Any ideas on this? Incidentally, I can't recall who (Robert?) wrote that he experienced problems with Follow Me while in San Diego. I had a similar problem in Sacramento, and when I called GTE they told me that the reason the Follow Me is slow and/or that when I roam into another CA service area it doesn't work is becuase they are doing away with Follow Me in CA. Or, more aptly put, it will work automatically in all CA service areas, like Cell One already does. (In CA, if you have service with Cell One, you can be reached anywhere in CA or Reno, NV with one phone number. I'm not sure if this uses a DMX or it polls you as you enter a new area and lets your home system know where you are...) GTE apparently decided it was about time they did this to, so what happens is that when you roam into a service area in CA, your home switch is told where you are. However, since the system is new, and the trunk lines aren't avialble to call the ROAM system you are in, callers calling your mobile number will either get a re-order or dead silence, since no lines are available to call to the Roam system yet. GTE said that by the end of August this will be fixed, and that in the meantime to use Follow Me, even if you have to re-enter *18 a few times. I'm not sure if this answers your problem, but it sounded a bit similar to what I had experienced. Additionally, does entering *18 (repeatedly) force you to the back of the queue, thus slowing down the implementation of your request? IE, if I press *18, see nothing happens, and then try it again, does that cancel out the original *18 request, and make me wait for however long Follow Me takes to implement a new system? GTE told me not to enter *18 a lot of times, since it would just increase the time that it would take for Follow Me to activate at my home switch ... is this true? Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet [Moderator's Note: Through some agreement between (I think) all cellular carriers, there is a general cancellation of all 'follow me' requests activated during the day at midnight *using the time where the computer is located which is holding your request*. If California is holding your request, cancellation will occur at 3 AM Eastern. If New York is holding the request, then cancellation will be at 9 PM on the west coast. If GTE Mobilnet works from Houston, then Central time would prevail. PAT]