Here's some good news ...

Just noticed this ditty off of SPCS's site - http://tinyurl.com/pdhe

Bob

Sprint Wireless Local Number Portability Plans on Track, on Schedule
For November Deadline

Media Contacts:
Dan Wilinsky, 913-794-2967
[email protected]

Jennifer Walsh, 913-794-2950
[email protected]

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - October 01, 2003
Sprint today demonstrated continued progress with plans for local
number portability (LNP), the federal rule that will allow wireless
customers to keep the same mobile phone number if they switch
carriers. Sprint also re-stated its commitment to make customers'
porting experience as smooth and as simple as possible beginning Nov.
24, when the LNP rule takes effect.

Earlier this week, Sprint helped mark a wireless industry milestone in
the preparation for LNP. Sprint and Nextel announced their completion
of the industry's first Service Level Agreement (SLA) to facilitate
the porting of phone numbers between wireless carriers.

Also, in a related announcement, Sprint said its local
telecommunications division and its wireless division will allow
customers to port their phone numbers. Sprint local telecommunications
division customers in certain states will have the option to switch
their local phone number to a wireless phone and vice versa.

Although the FCC has not yet responded to several outstanding issues
that could negatively impact a customer's porting experience, Sprint
is preparing to make the porting process as simple as possible for PCS
customers in the absence of FCC direction, said Len Lauer, president
and chief operating officer of Sprint and president of the company's
PCS division.

Among the steps Sprint is taking to deliver a smooth porting
experience for PCS customers:

LNP Customer Service. Sprint is training thousands of sales and
service specialists who are dedicated to ensuring the customer's
porting experience is as seamless as possible when porting to Sprint.
By the LNP launch, Sprint will have invested nearly a quarter of a mil
lion hours in training these representatives.

Customer Outreach. Sprint will keep in close contact with its
customers during the porting process. In the event of any port delay,
Sprint LNP Porting Specialists will call customers to resolve the
issue.

Network Changes. Sprint has completed several software changes on
major systems to achieve LNP compliance within the network. The
changes included new software logic on network switches, data network
elements and on Sprint's voicemail system.

New Systems and Information. Beginning Nov. 24, Sprint customers can
check the status of their port by dialing *2 from their new Sprint
handset or by logging on to sprintpcs.com. Educational materials
concerning LNP will be available to Sprint customers at point of sale,
from Sprint specialists and on the Sprint web site.

"There's a customer-driven need for consistency and predictability in
the porting process, to make it simple and straightforward," Lauer
said. He added that LNP, however, requires cooperation among carriers
and clear direction from the FCC on carrier responsibilities. "Thanks
to the porting process that we're on the verge of rolling out, and the
progress we are making with other wireless carriers, we're confident
that Sprint is doing everything in its power to make the customer
experience as easy as possible," Lauer said.

Sprint is in the process of negotiating wireless-to-wireless porting
arrangements and has asked the FCC to clarify several outstanding LNP
issues. Lauer appealed again to the FCC to act quickly and to clarify
rules for portability and consumer issues, particularly in the area of
landline-to-wireless porting.

Among the areas where the rules are unclear and could cause problems
for wireless and wireline customers:

Landline to Wireless Porting. Many landline customers expect to be
able to port their numbers to wireless. However, some landline
carriers seek to impose limitations on the ability of their customers
to do that. Sprint has called upon the FCC to take action to ensure
that the marketplace is open to competition, giving customers the
ability to port from landline to wireless beginning in November.

Porting Intervals. Conventionally, landline-to-landline porting takes
at least four business days. Initially, landline-to-wireless porting
is likely to take that long, too. Sprint hopes that the FCC will help
make the porting experience a consistent experience across all
carriers.

Testing Portability. To engage other companies in testing and
developing agreements, Sprint has sent to wireless and wireline
carriers roughly 600 "Trading Partner Profiles." Each profile contains
the Sprint technical information needed to start a port request with
Sprint. Some wireline and wireless carriers are refusing to test the
systems that make portability work without a signed agreement. Sprint
believes it is imperative for testing to take place immediately, with
or without a completed agreement, if the Nov. 24 deadline for LNP is
to be met.

Sprint's LNP actions are the latest in a series of efforts to attain
the company's top objective of overall customer satisfaction. Since
last fall, Sprint has embarked upon a campaign to make wireless
service easy for customers. Among the improvements: Sprint has adopted
a "one and done" approach in which specialists own each customer call
and strive for one-call resolution. Also, PCS has shifted its policy
so that phone upgrade offers are available for existing customers, not
just for new customers. And Sprint continues to showcase the quality
and ease of use of PCS VisionSM services by bringing to market
innovative devices as well as applications such as Picture Mail.

---

› See More: Here's some good news ...

The good news is that switching away from Sprint POS is now easier than
ever. I don't know if it can ever be made easy enough however. I also
notice Sprint POS is trying to introduce "new plans" to entice unhappy
customers to stay.

I think the offical name for their new advertising campaign is:

"new and improved but still uncompetative plan rates to offset terrible
CS, error riddled billing, and lowest industry ratings" also known as
the "stop the hemoraging" campaign. LOL

I'm almost tempted to wait until November becasue I'd love to switch
away from them and keep my number in a big "F-You" to Sprint POS.

However, they're really soooo bad that I don't think I can wait. I had
to stay Sprint POS this month to have them resolve their prior billing
F-Ups, which they only fixed half of btw, but after the 27th of Oct,
it's good bye and a big F-YOU to Sprint POS.

No wonder Consumer Reports and others all rank Sprint POS at the bottom.
Ineptitude doesn't explain it, only willful profiteering crooks could
hire such poorly trained (and I'll bet minimum wage) CS and still have
the most expensive plans and tack on as many bogus fees as Sprint does.

I hope Sprint POS executives all develop bleeding hemorrhoids as payment
for the big pain in the ass their billing policies and crappy service
cause their customers every day!! Sprint POS is the Enron of cellular.

Can you hear me now? LOL.

[posted via phonescoop.com]

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]=20
says...
> ...have the most expensive plans...
>=20

By all means, please tell us which plans, precisely, are that far out of=20
line with what the rest of the industry is offering.

--=20
-+-
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for SprintPCS
I *don't* speak for them.