From: DREUBEN@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU (Douglas Scott Reuben)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Cell One/NY Delivery to Philly
Date: 27 Dec 92 18:47:53 GMT
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 922, Message 1 of 10

I just noticed that Cell One/NY has finally started delivering calls
to the ComCast/Metrophone system in Philadelphia (SID 00029) and the
Cell One/DE system (SID 00123).

Cell One/NY customers only have to drive to the area -- there is no
need to enter any special codes to receive calls. As you enter the
systems you are (or should be) registered autonomously, where the
local swtich tells the NY switch to send calls down to Philly or
Wilmington. (I think all the calls are processed through Philly,
though.) Also, customers do NOT pay a toll charge to send the call to
ComCast/NJ, so it may also be true that they will not pay a toll for
calls received in Philly. I haven't checked this yet.

In Philly, all of the NY customer's features will work -- Call
Waiting, Three-Way Calling, and Call-Forwarding. There is the usual
and unfortunate caveat that Voice Mail will NOT work unless the caller
forces calls to voicemail using the "Do Not Disturb Feature", or *35.
Thus, if you are powering "OFF" your phone, one must hit *35 to force
calls to voicemail immediately. Otherwise, there will be approximately
a 1/2 hour gap where calls will be sent down to Philly and where
callers will receive the "Out of Vehicle/Area" message.  Once you
power the phone back on you will need to hit *350 to cancel this
"feature", assuming you hit *35 to begin with.

As of yet, Do Not Disturb and all other features will NOT work in the
DE system.

(As an aside: McCaw and Ercisson are aware of customer disatisfaction
with the *35 feature and the inability of the NACN (or other local
networking systems they operate) to automatically route calls back to
the home switch if there is no answer in the remote system. However,
it may help to expedite things if other customers who are disatisfied
with the system as it now stands will chose to inform McCaw Cellular
of their feelings on the matter. I get the impression that the more
compalints they get, the higher priority this issue will get. They DO
seem to care a great deal about what their customers think, so it
would seem likely that an increased number of complaints regarding the
need for *35/*350 will lead to a faster solution to the problem.)

I'm not sure if Philly and DE are on the NACN yet -- I suspect that
they are not, and that only Cell One/NY customers can get calls and
use features in these markets. (Just as they can in most of New Jersey
and Connecticut.)  Eventually, though, these systems are planned to
come on to the NACN so that other NACN customers can receive calls
automatically in these areas as well.

Finally, it may be noteworthy to compare Cell One/NY's call-delivery
system GTE's Follow Me Slowly ... errr ... that's ROAMING ... system.

I hit *18 from two different phones today after entering Philly, and
it didn't activate all day. After midnight (mindful of the two to
three hour post midnight delay) I hit *18, and it still didn't
activate. I'll bet that tomorrow when I try it still won't work.

Now although this is unusual, it illustrates how flaky and unreliable
FMR is. *Generally* the system is acceptable -- most DAYTIME
activations occur within ten minutes, many in under two. Yet I tried
activating in Montreal last week at 6PM, and it took *two* hours! The
week before, I hit *18 in upstate Vermont (Burlington), and it never
kicked it. Same goes for "Star Cellular" in Maine. So aside from the
"post midnight activation delay", which GTE has been intransigent in
correcting, the system in many other respects is quite unreliable.

In all fairness to GTE, it is not always "their fault", ie, their
system in Tampa is usually up and running just fine. As a matter of
fact, if you call them and ask "Hey, how come FMR hasn't been put up
for my account yet, it has been over an hour?!", they will usually
take a look at the record and say something like "Oh, you hit *18 in
Dallas at 3:50PM, your request was processed in our switch at 3:52PM,
but the Dallas system hasn't assinged you a number yet due to a
backlog at their switch". It is typcially that sort of thing -- a slow
switch, repair work, etc., which causes the delay or failure to
activate, and it is usually outside of GTE's control.

Overall, then, FMR is acceptable for the casual user who would benefit
from call delivery in a remote market but who does not *depend* on it
on a regular basis. But its reliability is SO poor that it can not
stand up with systems like Cell One/NY's or the NACN in general. I am
very happy that Philly has been added -- prior to the addition I'd
have to guess if FMR would activate quickly enough and if I missed any
calls in the interim. I really shouldn't have to worry about this, and
now I don't. (Note that FMR also can not return a call to the home
switch if it goes unanswered by the roamer.)

GTE probably realizes that the future for "Follow Me Roaming" type
services is limited, and that its about time for automatic roaming
systems such as the NACN. I don't blame them for not wanting to spend
time to correct the major deficienies with FMR, nor can I fault the B
systems who don't seem to care too much if FMR is a bit slow on their
system. Yet its about time that the B side implement a new system (be
it IS-41 Rev A or whatever), because right now all I have with them is
FMR, and I'm so discouraged with it I'm increasingly reluctant to even
attempt to use it anymore. :(

Anyhow, for those who can make use of it, enjoy the automatic call
delivery from Connecticut all the way down to Delaware!


Doug	dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu  //  dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet