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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 5:52 AM in response to anitas anger

Sorry. Not buying it.
At&T knew the number of iphones that would be sold. They new the number of activations that would occur. Knew that their switches would be overloaded. Didn't care.

They may have changed their name, but it is still Cingular. What did any of you expect?

BTW: We are still waiting for activation.

Kpoi

Level 1

17 points

Jul 1, 2007 6:02 AM in response to anitas anger

" 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."

I disagree.....AT&T was unprepared. Everybody knew iPhone was going to be a wild success. My guess is AT&T didn't perform a simulation...."Hey, what if we get 30,000 trying to go through a turnstile, walk through revolving door, shoot at a basketball hoop, or....gasp....try to activate their iPhone at the same time?" Dude, say it with me "AT&T was unprepared". Be honest.

A simulation of anything close would have been in order. I've had not so good success so far, received emails from AT&T contradicting what AT&T reps say on the phone, have spent more time on hold or with AT&T reps who have no clue as to what the problem is with my activation. Hey, I've owned an iBrick for 37 hours now....and I've been an existing AT&T customer for >5 years! Lovely.

jesmiles

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2007 6:03 AM in response to anitas anger

While I do understand that this whole mess is due to the fact that there is a huge number of people swamping the various processing systems, automated or otherwise, what blows my mind is the way this is being handled.

Regardless of whose fault it may or not be, I am still a customer who feels slighted. And what does calling all these phone numbers and visiting all these websites get me? AT&T reps who tell me that "apple isn't taking any calls right now" and that they don't have any idea what my problem is or when it could possibly be resolved, and no mention of any issues with activation apart from user blogs and discussion boards. What I really would like is a formal statement from someone related with either company admitting that this whole thing is a crazy mess and that they're doing what they can to resolve it. Is that so much to ask? Some recognition that this isn't the way it's supposed to be?

Not to mention the fact that every time I called AT&T I got a different answer as to why my iphone wasn't activating. First my plan was outdated, then I had a fan # on my account (which I asked to have taken off) then I had features like pay-as-you-go text messaging that held it up. I say called because I don't plan on calling again. The only reason I am going to wait instead of taking the phone back to the store is that I would still have to go through the works to get my old phone back online even if I gave up on the iphone. At this point I have no faith that anything will happen without a great deal more grief on my part. That is not the feeling I expected to have when I dropped $600 yesterday morning.

Jul 1, 2007 6:09 AM in response to Ronda Wilson

Kenneth and pherplexed,

Do you really want them spending time on
apprising you of the situation rather than working on
getting your iPhones activated?

Your question is a non sequitur because the people activating phones are not the same people answering customer service calls. The people answering customer service calls should at least be able to provide some sort of status. That's their job assuming AT&T is organized the same way as the rest of the business world.

I doubt it.

Please. Have a little patience. This, too, shall
pass.

Sorry, I'm used to good service where the wait to activate a phone is about equal to the time it takes to leave the store with your phone and find your car in the parking lot. AT&T's charges have already hit my credit card so they are indeed speedy at some things. My patience ends when you take my money in return for a service and then fail to provide that service in a reasonable amount of time. Reasonable in this situation is what I described above (store to parking lot) plus 12 hours due to the volume.

G4 FW800 1.25Ghz & MacBook Pro Core2 Duo Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Kyn Drake

Level 7

21,585 points

Jul 1, 2007 6:12 AM in response to AtariAge

A "switch" is not a server. Even though it's a computer type device, unlike a "server" you can't easily add temporary capacity for spikes like this.

Now, if someone were to re-deploy our entire telecommunications network (much like they're doing with television), then there's an opportunity to go with more updated tech. Just like with television, though, that would obsolete many older phones and some backwards compatible tech would have to be created.

Jul 1, 2007 6:14 AM in response to jesmiles

I cancelled Cingular a couple of years ago because of their p1ss-poor service. Looks like the New ATT hasn't improved in that regard.
All I can do is hope that in the future other providers will be enabled if I decide to try the iPhone when my current contract ends in a year.
I doubt Apple will tolerate continued poor service with their new baby.

Jul 1, 2007 6:24 AM in response to anitas anger

Thank you so much for taking the time to so eloquently write out this explanation. You have been very nice, so I will not be too harsh here, only to say, based on your explanation it wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out that there would at least have been slight delays, so why make such a big deal both at apple and att that this was such a quick plug in and plug out and play deal? But anyway, thank you again, it has made me feel a little better as I enter my 2nd day.
BTW, I am in newyork and started activation at 7pm, surely not that many people could have been in line for this ride before me, and many who got on line after me got on right away, so not sure how much I buy that queing excuse, but thanks again.

yeloodwe

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2007 6:25 AM in response to anitas anger

I am rubbing my digit finger and thumb together.
TSK!-TSK!-TSK!
The ONLY reason I bought this service from ATT -aka Cingular is for the Iphone. I have 5 other lines that I have with Verizon and NEVER ran into such a problem.

It seems to me that ATT should have anticipated this and prepared themselves the "onslaught". You say you are the largest wireless provider? Well I think you have set a bad example. When your exclusivity is over with Apple I believe you loose thousands (like myself) back to the "competition".

So congratulations ATT/Apple for enslaving your new customers this way; first impressions are the most lasting.

You definitely won't be getting my other lines; they'll stay with Verizon.

Jul 1, 2007 6:34 AM in response to yeloodwe

I came across this article, and several comments from people who followed this, and got going with their iPhone,

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

Jul 1, 2007 6:36 AM in response to yeloodwe

Nice spin. Maybe it is a technical problem. Maybe the servers are busy. That doesn't alleviate responsibility. It is AT&T's responsibility to be prepared and service this well-anticipated event. This is not a surprise. I've been told several different stories from several different customer service reps. I still have no phone.

The worst part for me is that AT&T was able to disable my existing SIM in my old phone, 24 hours ago now. I have been without a phone and have been using a neighbor's phone to call AT&T.

To whoever said that AT&T has shareholders to worry about and thus it was smart not to invest in a bunch of equipment for this event...those shareholders are not gonna be happy when the class-action ambulance chasers come a-calling.

It'll be interesting to see what the market does Monday. I just need to make a phone call, I don't care if it's on my old Sony Ericsson AT&T "Blue" phone or my iPhone. People in that boat can't even swap SIMs.

AT&T - shame on you.

Jul 1, 2007 6:44 AM in response to AtariAge

Check your junk mail because the email may have been routed then. I checked my junk mail last night around 11 pm just on a hunch and there was an email from at&t saying that they needed additional information. I called AT&T last night to give them the information but it couldn't get updated because the server crashed. Then I call this morning only to get someone else to tell me my account looks fine. She's telling me to wait until the pending process is over and then it should work fine. Needless to say I'm confused and I hope that my account is actually fine. I don't want another "iPhone activation requires additional information" emails sent to my junk mail.

Jul 1, 2007 6:48 AM in response to anitas anger

Consider that ATT, not even counting the revenues from traffic, but just considering activation fees for new customers or the addtional fees charged to existing customers to switch to the iPhone, is projected during the course of one year to have revenues in the order of several hundred million dollars, at the very least 200 million dollars. Again, only from activation or switch fees! I am not counting the additional revenues ATT will no doubt enjoy from acquiring new customers because of the iPhone.
Yes, I do believe they are to blame, and that it would have been reasonable and fair of them to invest the necessary resources in training and equipment to handle this one-time peak.

Mac OS X (10.4.10)

jameskk1

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2007 7:17 AM in response to SebastianoCC

ok, last night I got ahold of someone at Apple (iphone support) and I said, look.. the backlog story is BS, what is REALLY going on here? He laughed and said that there is some sort of communications problem (or was) between their servers and at&t's servers and it basically has about 10,000 (best estimate) activations held up in a que somewhere... the problem is that they cannot locate the activations. I wouldn't be surprised if they finally issue a statement and let everyone exchange their phones for new ones because if you start the activation process over again (which is what I did my placing my sim card in another iphone) it goes straight through and activates immediately (assuming of course there are no other holdup issues like corp. business plans, porting, etc.). So for those of you still waiting who are existing at&t customers or new customers requesting new number, I would go to a store and make them give you a new unit and then go home and try doing it all over. I know someone else who is waiting and he is going to try this later today when the at&t store opens.

Jul 1, 2007 7:23 AM in response to anitas anger

Sorry, but I beg to differ.....

With the months of hype, not to mention the plus business AT&T wireless is getting as the exclusive provider for the iphone - thus, necessitating others with competing service plans to switch over - the system should have been upgraded and prepared to handle this.

AT&T just purchased Cingular - so the capital investment required to get the system prepared for this is obviously there -

I have absolutely no sympathy for the complete mismanagement of this launch by AT&T.

md4u

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2007 7:27 AM in response to anitas anger

While this may be a one time event, IF it ever happens again I think the engineers need to correct the process that immediately deactivates the old phone and then puts the request in the "funnel" . The real problem is that people rely on mobile phones for business or as their home phone (or in my teenage daughter's case, her "whole life.") I hope that lesson is learned from this.

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