Issues in Louisiana and possibly Northeast; "Number not in service"intercept on working numbers, and misdirects

Hi Folks,

Obviously, the cell companies had a hard time recovering from Katrina
and Rita, but has anyone in Louisiana been having problems with Cingular
in the supposedly "restored" areas? I have family in the Houma, LA area
which wasn't hit as hard by the storms, but still had cell service
knocked out. It's been a couple of weeks now, and while coverage appears
okay, switching is apparently still a mess!

These are the problems we've been seeing, both from me calling in (from
NJ on a Verizon phone calling their Cingular phones) and from relative's
friends in the local area reporting the same problems when they call them:

- Occasionally still getting "all circuits busy" messages

- Sometimes getting "number is not in service" message on known working
numbers... hanging up and hitting redial one or two times will
eventually connect the call successfully, or roll to voicemail.

- On at least one occasion, a correctly dialed number to one Cingular
phone connected me to someone else's (also presumably Cingular) cell
phone entirely! I know for a fact I dialed the right number because I
speed dialed it from my phone's directory. Hanging up and redialing that
same number connected me to the right phone.

Is anyone else experiencing similar issues, or have an idea what's going
on? This has been going on for at least a week, and calls to tech
support either give us "nothing is wrong" or the problem gets blamed on
the hurricane.

Also, some additional info: I posted this same query on HowardForums.
While there, I found that a separate thread exists, where the exact same
problems are being reported by someone in the New
Jersey/Delaware/Pennsylvania area. Obviously this area wasn't hit by
disaster, so the phenomenon, if it is the same one, appears to be more
widespread than originally thought, and probably not related to storm
damage. So I guess the REAL questions are: is ANYONE else on Cingular
having these issues over the past week or two, and does anyone know
what's causing it?

Could this be perhaps related to the impending lunch of custom ringback
tones on Cingular?


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---

› See More: Issues in Louisiana and possibly Northeast; "Number not in service"intercept on working numbers, and misdirects

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Fri, 07 Oct 2005 00:56:25 -0400,
Isaiah Beard <[email protected]> wrote:

>- On at least one occasion, a correctly dialed number to one Cingular
>phone connected me to someone else's (also presumably Cingular) cell
>phone entirely! I know for a fact I dialed the right number because I
>speed dialed it from my phone's directory. ...

It may well be a Cingular problem, but not necessarily -- speed dialers aren't
perfect, especially when set for rapid dialing, and there are also other
points of failure along the way.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

Keep in mind that calling into a cellular phone really isn't determined
until you get into the area. So calling someone in Lafayette, LA and then to
their cell phone might be hampered by ALL calls going into that area. I have
found that a TXT message goes right to the phone within seconds. Then my
freind calls me right back. I usually hear from them within a minute or so.

"Isaiah Beard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi Folks,
>
> Obviously, the cell companies had a hard time recovering from Katrina and
> Rita, but has anyone in Louisiana been having problems with Cingular in
> the supposedly "restored" areas? I have family in the Houma, LA area which
> wasn't hit as hard by the storms, but still had cell service knocked out.
> It's been a couple of weeks now, and while coverage appears okay,
> switching is apparently still a mess!
>
> These are the problems we've been seeing, both from me calling in (from NJ
> on a Verizon phone calling their Cingular phones) and from relative's
> friends in the local area reporting the same problems when they call them:
>
> - Occasionally still getting "all circuits busy" messages
>
> - Sometimes getting "number is not in service" message on known working
> numbers... hanging up and hitting redial one or two times will eventually
> connect the call successfully, or roll to voicemail.
>
> - On at least one occasion, a correctly dialed number to one Cingular
> phone connected me to someone else's (also presumably Cingular) cell phone
> entirely! I know for a fact I dialed the right number because I speed
> dialed it from my phone's directory. Hanging up and redialing that same
> number connected me to the right phone.
>
> Is anyone else experiencing similar issues, or have an idea what's going
> on? This has been going on for at least a week, and calls to tech support
> either give us "nothing is wrong" or the problem gets blamed on the
> hurricane.
>
> Also, some additional info: I posted this same query on HowardForums.
> While there, I found that a separate thread exists, where the exact same
> problems are being reported by someone in the New
> Jersey/Delaware/Pennsylvania area. Obviously this area wasn't hit by
> disaster, so the phenomenon, if it is the same one, appears to be more
> widespread than originally thought, and probably not related to storm
> damage. So I guess the REAL questions are: is ANYONE else on Cingular
> having these issues over the past week or two, and does anyone know what's
> causing it?
>
> Could this be perhaps related to the impending lunch of custom ringback
> tones on Cingular?
>
>
> --
> E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
> Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Fri, 07 Oct 2005
16:16:49 GMT, "John S." <[email protected]> wrote:

>Keep in mind that calling into a cellular phone really isn't determined
>until you get into the area. So calling someone in Lafayette, LA and then to
>their cell phone might be hampered by ALL calls going into that area. I have
>found that a TXT message goes right to the phone within seconds. Then my
>freind calls me right back. I usually hear from them within a minute or so.

In addition, test messages (SMS) are much less of a burden to networks that
are still recovering, so they are a recommended way to keep in touch.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

John Navas wrote:

> It may well be a Cingular problem, but not necessarily -- speed dialers aren't
> perfect, especially when set for rapid dialing, and there are also other
> points of failure along the way.


This is not a "speed dialer." It's a directory entry on a cell phone.
As I'm sure you know, that doesn't use DTMF and in the 7+ years I've
been using cell phones, I've never had a single phone entry dial any
number other than what was intended. SO I highly doubt that my phone
suddenly became so innaccurate.


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