Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

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Level 1

0 points

Here is why the activations are delayed.....ATT nor APPL to blame.

i work for att. i got an iphone last night as well and mine activated instantly...but i live in oklahoma, fewer people, fewer activations, fewer problems. okay whenever a new cellular phone is activated it is programmed through a computer and then sent to a piece of hardware called a "switch." think of a switch as a turnstall at a fair or a revolving door at a hotel. only one actication can go through the switch at a time, any other activations behind it are waiting in line like people at a ticket counter. activations aren't the only things that have to go through the switch. anytime you call in to your cell provider and make an account change such as adding/removing a feature, changing a rate plan, activating a new sim, anything like that, it goes through a switch.

sometimes, there are natural switch delays. it doesn't happen daily because in a matter of odds, thousands of people won't be making account changes simultaniously everyday. however, sometimes this happens and it creates a delay in the switch. when this happens, we alert our customers of the delay and advise them to wait a few hours, power cycle and try again. switch delays aren't a daily occourence, but not rare. now, lets talk about the iphones and switch delays.

the iphone is undoubtedly THE biggest thing to ever happen to a cellular industry. last night, hundreds of thousands of people purchased iphones at the EXACT same time, rushed home and tried to activate their phones asap. what happened was a massive bombarding of activations to switches that generally don't handle anything near last night's load. since the phones were sold at 6:00, everyone got home at about 7:00 and most likely overloaded the switches to the point of near exhaustion! it would be like 30,000 or so people throwing basketballs at one hoop and hoping to make it in! theoretically, larger metropolitan areas would have more problems due to more switch activity. granted our switches in new york city are heavy duty, but there are no switches in existance designed to handle that kind of load because with the exception of this weekend, there would never be that much activity!

is it apples fault? no, i think that their activation through itunes is ingenious. it keeps people from having to call into att and it was FAR less painless than in-store account set up! is it att's fault? no. they can't be blamed for overloaded switches due to iphones WILD success. our switches are adequate, it's just that this weekend was a rare-bird exception that would have dang-near blown out any switch. it was like christmas day X 100! i think that i got mine activated so soon because we got from the store to my house in about 20 minutes and completed the activation before the swarm began to get into full swing. so those of you who are still waiting, just hang in there! just think of your activation as being in line for a rollercoaster. you are 3/4 closer to the front than you were last night! having had over 24 hours to mess with this phone, i can assure you that it is well worth the wait. it's the most marvelous piece of technology i've ever had the pleasure of using.

i'm sorry to all of those who aren't active yet, but hang in there! your hour will come. i bet those switches are like hot stove-tops right now begging for a chance to breathe. it's like pouring liquid thorugh a funnel, pouring faster will just cause an overflow, gravitiy has to take it's course! it's not att's fault, it's just the hundreds of thousands of activations fighting for the chance to make that first call! hang in there.

24 imac Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Jul 1, 2007 1:34 AM

155 replies

Jul 1, 2007 4:33 AM in response to tnook

prashy21

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2007 4:41 AM in response to AtariAge

I bought my phone on Friday and set it activate @ 1:30am sat and it is still not done. at first att kept telling that apple handles all the activation then they strated saying that they could my phone provisioned but still have to wait. Its been 30hrs already now they tell me that it might take up to 48hrs since too much queue in NJ.

I agree they should have prepared themselves properly they knew this was coming.
In all apple should not have gone with AT&T instead verizon would have been better.

Jul 1, 2007 4:41 AM in response to AtariAge

It is absolutely unreasonable to expect AT & T to upgrade equipment to handle this sort of event, since it is a one-time thing.

The only real way I can see that this could have been avoided is if Apple would have sold in limited areas of the country in a slow release, such as starting in Boston one week, San Francisco the next, and so on. How many people do you suppose would be howling if they had tried that?

Surely you realize that not everyone can be activated at once? No? Everybody here who is whining and complaining and refusing to accept the fact not everyone can be activated at the exact same time doesn't understand the basic laws of physics. Only so many bits of data can go through the servers at one time.

As a baby bib I saw one time says, "Spit happens."

As Bart Simpson says, "Don't have a cow, man."

You have an iPhone in your hands, I take it? Well, LUCKY YOU. Where I live, AT & T service is NOT AVAILABLE. I'm not complaining, but count your lucky stars. In a few hours or a few days you will have a working gorgeous, spiffy, awesome iPhone. Lots of people WON'T.

Jul 1, 2007 4:44 AM in response to Ronda Wilson

I believe that Ronda is 100% correct. It is unreasonable to expect any company to spend a huge sum of money to upgrade equipment for a one time event. After the initial sales fever has died down things will return to normal and there won't be these long delays.

Yes, it is possible that ATT could have predicted some of this and who know, maybe they knew it was going to happen but no company and no manager is going to spend money without a long term plan to recoup the costs. Financial decisions like these are made every day in all walks of life.

Are there things that could have been done, sure, ATT could have told customers that there may be a delay up front, especially after it was apparent that this problem was occurring. They did try to via email but maybe they should have done so at the time of sale. I don't know as I have not bought an iPhone and am not certain yet that I will. Just be patient. These things are temporary.

Take a deep breath folks, life it too short to get so upset about something that is really not all that much of an issue. I mean we have people dying in wars, dying due to famine and disease, we have enough world hatred to go around, we have problems with pollution, crime and violence. Is the iPhone issue really all that important? It at least is temporary and has a solution.

Jul 1, 2007 4:45 AM in response to Ronda Wilson

I completely understand both sides in this... Knowing that the activation servers were going to be bombarded if they weren't going to upgrade equipment or make provisions for the burst there should have been a staggered registration process, or even a staggered launch of the product. We know it was an expected surge, but to say that nothing could be done by both Apple and ATT is incorrect. Arm chair quarterbacking is easy, I don't have all the answers, but letting this happen wasn't good.

robcoles

Level 1

8 points

Jul 1, 2007 4:46 AM in response to AtariAge

Well, they could of been a little more up front about it, as surely it could be anticipater, the warning message I had said it could take upto 6 hours, but I would be able to use the phone (but not receive) calls (Which is not true at all), while the transfer was taking place (I'm switching from T-mobile in NY). I placed my activation order in iTunes at around 7.45, at 7.57 I got an email from apple confirming that, at 9.37 I got a similar email from AT&T with an order number ( none of them explained there might be a greater than expected delay) its now 12 hours later and no further news, I've tried calling AT&T at 1-800-331-0500, but any button I press gets me the message we are closed, please try again "later" - not even a time of when they will be open ? anyone have a better AT&T contact number ?

Fustrated at having a phone that can only place emergency calls!

Other OS

Argelius

Level 2

248 points

Jul 1, 2007 4:48 AM in response to tnook

I'm wondering what, specifically, "activation" refers to in this process.

When I initally got my phone hooked to itunes, all went okay until I got the message "your account needs additional time..." message. At this point, the all I could do with the phone was see the 'planet earth' screen.

About 18 hours later, I got an email saying "Congratulations, AT&T is now transferring your existing mobile number to this iPhone." With that, I could do everything with my cool gadget except use the phone(despite the email saying I can now make but not receive calls). It says "awaiting activation -- this may take some time." That's an understatement.

I'm guessing this means my port of my number from TMo is "stuck", since that phone still works.

As for my commentary, it's just so sad that this truly revolutionary (if over-hyped) phone launch had to have been botched by the network not anticipating what would happen to their activation servers. Would love to know if Mr. Jobs has had any conversations with Mr. AT&T about this; one company's incompetence has tarnished the other's legendary competence. I'm pretty calm about this (unlike some), but wanted to have that "wow" moment with the simple, elegant experience I've had with every other Apple product!

L. L.

Level 1

85 points

Jul 1, 2007 4:49 AM in response to anitas anger

Thank you for this information. Still doesn't change my anger. Would it be so hard for Apple and/or AT$T to place a message on their website and inform their employees and both their brick and mortar stores as well as those handling the phones to all give a knowledge, well informed answer rather than this infantile blame game? "It's Apple's fault, no It's AT$T's fault?" I'm tired of talking to clueless people, I'm tired of getting the same e-mail over and over and over again, I'm tired of having NO cell phone service.

Jul 1, 2007 4:54 AM in response to anitas anger

While I appreciate the apparent technical explanation for this, if the information that I was given last night is accurate, I can lay blame the delays for my own activation squarely at the feet of AT&T.

For existing AT&T customers, your account has to have (and not have) certain features or characteristics in order to be successful. For example, your account must be a consumer account with a current AT&T consumer plan. If your account is a corporate account, such as a corporate liabilty account, the activation cannot occur (which is my particular scenario). Now for the fun part. A number of years ago, in order to take advantage of some corporate discounts, AT&T converted my account to a corporate liability account (which I think is totally bogus because my company has NEVER been responsible for my cellular phone bill). And I have now confirmed with two separate AT&T service reps (one last night and one this morning) that the only group that has the ability to re-convert my existing corporate liability account back to a consumer account is National Business Ordering, who, by the way, is only open Monday-Friday, 8:00a to 8:00p eastern. This means that earliest that AT&T will even BEGIN my activation process will be about 60 (that's SIXTY) hours after I submitted my request on Friday evening. And Lord knows what else will have to be fixed after that occurs (though I've already confirmed that I have a current plan and have dropped all services from my account, like my PDA unlimited data plan that have been known to cause issues).

How can I lay this at the feet of AT&T? Quite simply, it's a lack of communication and appropriate training. I intentionally purchased my iBrick at an AT&T store because I had a suspicion that something like this would happen because I was on an old AT&T plan, and I wanted to make sure that I could get all of this resolved in the store before I left. When I picked up my phone, I explained my situation to the sales rep, he seemed to know what needed to be done. "Oh, we'll have to convert you over." He confirmed this with his manager, and I thought "Wow, I'm glad I came in here." In fact, when I called AT&T Saturday morning, I asked the service rep on the phone if the conversion to a consumer account had happened, and she assured me that it did (the idiot). Needless to say, she was wrong. What really chaps my hide is that I was in the AT&T store at 7:00p eastern on Friday, which means they could have gotten National Business Ordering on the phone to make the switch, and I could have a working iPhone right now instead of an iBrick.

So yes, from my perspective, this is AT&T's fault, plain and simple. I mean seriously, how easy would it have been to put together a check list and say, "Hey, if you have any corporate discounts, please call customer service and make sure your account looks like..." Of course, I'm not sure that would have helped given the incompetence of the AT&T folks I was speaking to earlier in the weekend. But kudos to those service reps I finally got on the phone last night (and this morning for confirmation) that seemed to have a clue.

OK, rant over.

MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.10) iBrick

AtariAge

Level 1

4 points

Jul 1, 2007 4:56 AM in response to Ronda Wilson

Sorry, I do not believe the BS line that their servers are being bogged down. A simple webserver can handle MILLIONS of visitors a day with nary a blink. We're talking here about a few hundred thousand people activating cell phones, spread out now over a 36 hour period (so far). In terms of computing power, there is no reason these activations should be bogging ANYTHING down, unless, of course, too much human interaction is required. I don't think it has anything to do with the amount of data that has to be transfered around. Instead, it appears that many accounts fail the iTunes registration for one reason or another (such as having a "blue" account as I did) and then have to be manually edited for one reason or another. And given the huge number of activations that appear to be failing, it's taking them a long time to manually edit each of those.

This is the part that should have been anticipated better--the iTunes activation was obviously not well thought through and/or engineered for all the different scenarios out there. AT&T and Apple clearly were not prepared for this and now we are paying for their lack of foresight. AT&T and Apple are looking grossly incompetent to all of us still without service 36 hours later.

..Al

Jul 1, 2007 4:57 AM in response to anitas anger

While it is nice to learn how the process usually works, what I really want to know is why no one can tell me what stage of that process my order is in. Also, why do all of AT&Ts recordings ask for things that I don't have? They ask for order numbers and my AT&T phone number, yet I have neither. All I have, aside from a receipt showing the purchase of an iPhone and protective case, is an "Activation ID" which was sent to me in email and no one seems interested in that number so they ask for my Social Security number every time I call.

The plan seems to be to extend the published wait time as time elapses. First they said to wait 12 hours before inquiring, then 24. I'm sure when I call today they will tell me that I have to wait at least 36 or 48 hours. Meanwhile, my old carrier (T-Mobile) says that they have received no requests to port my number anywhere. And to add insult to injury, I tried calling AT&T late last night to see if maybe I could get someone on the midnight shift who was fresh and new, with perhaps a lighter call load, and she asked me for my AT&T phone number again and, when I explained the iPhone process and that I was trying to port a number and activate a phone, she simply laughed and hung up! You can bet that the second, no, the nano second there is another carrier who can handle the iPhone or its replacement, I will be dropping AT&T like a hot load of poo.

AtariAge

Level 1

4 points

Jul 1, 2007 5:00 AM in response to L. L.

Hey, at least you're getting emails! I received ONE email (the "AT&T is now processing your activation") at 8:10pm on Friday shortly after I attempted to activate my phone. I have not received a SINGLE email since, even after multiple sessions online with AT&T customer service reps. Doesn't exactly give me confidence that any progress is being made.

..Al

rainald

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2007 5:03 AM in response to anitas anger

Try this

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/06/30/howto_port_ineligible_mobile_numbers_to_att_andiphone.html

It may help. Good luck!

Jul 1, 2007 5:10 AM in response to Kenneth Gantz

i'm in the same boat as you, Kenneth. nobody can tell me where in the process I am and i went from "wait for 3 hours, then to 12 hours, then to 24 hours", and as of this posting, it's been 37 hours with no activation. When i call they tell me they're waiting for my number to be ported, but Verizon has not received a request to port the number. NOBODY can tell me what the deal is!!

On another note, they tell you that while you're waiting for your number to finish porting over, you can use your phone just can't receive calls on it. WELL, they tell me all their waiting on is my number to be ported but my phone is still stuck at the "Activate iPhone" screen. It's completely useless!!!

JeffGe

Level 1

9 points

Jul 1, 2007 5:08 AM in response to anitas anger

I finally got mine activated at about midnight last night after calling in with a workorder number from one of the AT&T emails. Once I had that, everything seemed to move quick.

I agree with those that say AT&T should not have purchased a ton of equipment for a one time event. Publically traded companies do need to worry about shareholders and lawsuits!

However, a little advanced warning (hey folks, this is going to be big, please be patient, here's why...) would have gone a long way in avoiding the anger and frustration. In addition, a simple policy change -- tell anybody waiting more than x hours that we will compensate them by "fill in the blank" -- would have helped as well.

I spent about 28 hours without a phone and my son, who I convinced to wait in line at an AT&T store for 7 hours to start his day, is still waiting.

One thing I would like to make very clear. All the folks I talked to at AT&T and Apple were very professional and courteous. And given their position as the face of the companies they represent, they had, and are probably still having, a tough day / weekend. I could tell they were frustrated as well and probably could only say so much, following directions from above.

All that being said, what a novel, well thought out and incredibly useful phone for my particular needs! Great job Apple! And good luck AT&T getting the ship righted and getting past the recriminations that probably await the headlines on Monday. Please, be honest and straight forward about the entire deal. Fall on your sword, and hand out some financial salve to those injured in all of this.

Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, iPhone, AppleTV, Koolaid Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Here is why the activations are delayed.....ATT nor APPL to blame.