[G1 General] MSHYYC:
About Rogers service interruption

I think my biggest issue is with this "RogersMary" person on the AndroidForums, and the conflicting information I get from phoning tech support vs. her (is she an official support person? She inferrs she is by her ID and the tone of her posts but I wonder...).

Here is my "911 Saga" w/ Rogers:

* get a series of French and english SMS from Rogers: first to diable GPS to make sure 911 works, then that an update is available at rogers.com that is mandatory--it says internet would be shut off for up to 24 hours starting Sunday at 6AM (no time zone given--I assume Eastern but could be pacific based on the IP addresses my phone gets, or could be my local Mountain time). It says to "prevent FURTHER disruption" upgrade your phone BEFORE the outage starts.

* I go to rogers.com and get instructions. Requires WinXP or Vista. I don't have any windows computers at all here (I have a Mac and a Linux computer at my disposal). Supremely annoying!

* I google for answers, find RogersMary's posts on AndroidForums saying 2 things: If your PC doesn't meet support requirements phone, and in so many words that only those that don't upgrade their phone will lose their internet so stop fussing and update already.

* phone rogers tech support. I ask for instructions to upgrade my phone without a Windows PC...long pause...response (and I quote) "I have no idea". (strike 1 for RogersMary).

* I scour further. NOTHING on rogers.com, but in the forums I find images of this update that you simply load onto an SD Card and do a restore from there. I do this...and after a VERY VERY LONG reboot I get an "extreme phone makeover", and the phone info shows same system build number as in the instructions. Huzzah! No thanks to Rogers though.

* Sunday morning arrives. My battery died in the night (but long after I upgraded) so I plugged in, turned on my phone. NO DATA ACCESS EVEN WITH UPDATE USING OFFICIAL ROGERS BUILD.

* I phone tech support AGAIN. I told them I have no Windows PC but I did find the update file for my SD Card and upgraded that way but still lost network, and did my method of updating mean Rogers didn't register it? He thanked me for upgrading and said be patient--that ALL Rogers customers w/ Rogers Magic would have a disruption for UP TO 24 hours even with the upgrade in place (STRIKE 2 FOR ROGERSMARY!). That is the main reason for the data plan credit.

Anyways, this is what he explained: Rogers has to "scan the network" to query the phone for information in order to verify the mandatory upgrade. If your system build is OK (didn't clarify if it had to be an exact match or a certain number or higher) then your data plan will be re-enabled. This scan is not a routine thing they do--it is a scheduled event that will occur over the 24 hour period that started this morning. So, if you do the upgrade after this morning there is a chance during the scan and find your phone not upgraded to the proper build number and your data plan will NOT be reactivated automatically by tomorrow morning, at which time you have to get ahold of customer service yourself and have them re-activate your data plan manually. (Ignore RogersMary and remember the SMS said upgrade to prevent FURTHER disruption--not to avoid disruption entirely).

This guy said I had to be patient and to contact support again only after Monday at 6AM if you have no data/internet as it could take that long to sort out. The time it takes could vary depending on your region, if you are within signal range, if your phone is powered down and how old your SIM card is.

The last one was interesting: I have a SIM card that is on its third phone and is approaching 5 years old (when I go to the local Rogers store to upgrade they just move my SIM card--I've not been given replacement SIM cards). He has taken support calls related to very old SIM cards and replacing them has fixed issues in the past. Notably, I've had SMS messages sporadically arrive hours late, but no total loss of service--thought it was just net congestion. He said it could be the old SIM card becasue older SIM revisions issued before 3G/HSDPA, though they work on 3G, have sometimes inconsistent performance as they were not tested with the 3G network before being issued. If you have unreliable SMS, the scan they're doing today could be unreliable too (delayed, etc).

So, I come away with the following:

* Rogers didn't promise NO disruption, they said UP TO 24 hours, and MORE if you don't upgrade, so you can't REALLY be sure if you have issues until tomorrow morning at the latest. The disruption might have come and went before you woke up this morning, or it may persist through the day.

* If your phone is off or has no signal through out the day, Rogers may not be able to scan your phone, and the effect might be the same as not upgrading.

* Not sure if it is fact or an educated guess, but I suspect that this scan could be performed through the same mechanism as SMS (text messaging), though I doubt you'd actually SEE a text message yourself (it'd be a specially crafted packet of data). That way a "data" operation can be performed on phones without data/internet enabled. Perhaps if your SMS messages take awhile then this scan would too.

* If you are still using a SIM card that was issued before 3G/HSDPA was offered by Rogers it isn't a revision that has undergone testing on the upgraded network. It doesn't prevent you from getting 3G but it isn't guaranteed and has been the cause of various issues from SMS to unreliable web browsing and they might blame it on your internet not reactivating if it fails...but wait until tomorrow to complain...