iDEN/Nextel Coverage Changes: Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson/Yuma, Oregon, Washington

Our normal Monday/Wednesday Update for iden tower decommissionings:

• In preparation for Network Vision, Network Ops will continue decommissioning a number of existing iDEN towers throughout the country..
  • On the evening of 5/21/12, in the following markets: Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson/Yuma.
  • On the evening  of 5/23/2012, the following markets will experience coverage change: Inland Northwest, Oregon/ SW Washington, West Washington.
• Tower decommission continues every Monday and Wednesday evening through June.

Network Vision:

• Decommissioning eliminates excess capacity and has minimal customer impact.
• Retuning/decommissioning towers WILL NOT shutdown the iDEN market service in 2012.
• Customers who rely on in-building coverage near a decommissioned tower may experience in-building signal strength changes but street/in-car coverage should remain the same.

Nextel Network Coverage Changes: San Francisco Bay, South Bay, Upper Central Valley and Lower Central Valley

Nextel Network Coverage Changes: San Francisco Bay, South Bay, Upper Central Valley and Lower Central Valley

• In preparation for Network Vision, Network Ops will continue decommissioning a number of existing iDEN towers throughout the country, the evening of 5/14/12, in the following markets:San Francisco Bay, South Bay, Upper Central Valley, and Lower Central Valley .
• Tower decommission continues every Monday and Wednesday evening through June.

Network Vision:

• Decommissioning eliminates excess capacity and has minimal customer impact.
• Retuning/decommissioning towersWILL NOT shutdown the iDEN market service in 2012.
• Customers who rely on in-building coverage near a decommissioned tower may experience in-building signal strength changes but street/in-car coverage should remain the same.

International Roaming Text Messaging Service for CDMA Customers

If you have a GSM/CDMA dual mode phone, you will be able to use it to send and receive text messages while roaming internationally for a low per message charge.

• Customers who have a GSM/CDMA dual mode phone can now send and receive text messages when roaming on an international roaming partners GSM network.
• Charges are: $.50 per sent message and $.05 per incoming message.
• Current text messaging Monthly Recurring Charge (MRC) plan does not include international roaming text messaging usage.

Wireless Backup – Keep Your Contacts

DID YOU KNOW… If your phone currently supports Wireless Backup, .and you are switching to a device that does not support Wireless Backup, we will gladly email you a .CSV export of your contacts that are backed up on the Wireless Backup server ! You can then import the csv file into Outlook, or any other contact manager of your choice.

Contact Technical Support if you are in this situation and would find this useful. As always, our goal is for you to always have access to your contact, and to make the transaction between devices as seamless as possible.

Motorola Stature i9 Maintenance Release

 

 

A new software release, RB7.01.01, is available for Motorola® Stature™ i9 customers. Customers with access to a phone cable to connect to a computer and internet access can download this new software themselves. Customers can also go to an authorized Service and Repair center and have a technician update their phone to this new software version.

 

 

 

 

Issues that are fixed with the new software:

• Customers who text in Right to Left languages (RTL) can now make calls by selecting call back number hyperlink in the Unified Client Viewer (Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)).
• Phone no longer locks up while in idle mode.
• Phone no longer will experience a reset when the deleting a profile while in Zoom mode.
• Phone no longer displays the SMS service center number on incoming messages.
• Calling and dispatch animation clears as soon as a call or dispatch is terminated.
• Users can now upload contacts to the Web server after they have added an SDGC talk group.
• Phone no longer resets when accessing messages with attached pictures that contain imbedded text.
• External backlight now turns off after disconnecting from a charger.
• Phones experiencing a Temporary Error Condition no longer suspends SMS messages.
• Unread Message icon now displays on the status bar when MMS is disabled.
• Ringtone assignment no longer changes with voice playback interaction.
• SMS messages with 765 characters no longer display as empty.

What you need to do:

• When a customer reports an issue with their Motorola Stature i9 device, first verify the software version of the phone is RB7.01.01.
  1. From the idle screen, press #, *, Menu, the Right Key (Next To OK) in rapid succession. The Trace Mode menu displays.
  2. Scroll down to Unit Info, Press OK.
  3. Scroll down to access Software, Press OK. The software version should be listed as RB7.01.01.
• If the customer is not on the latest software version, tell them if they have access to a phone cable to connect to a computer and internet access, they can download this new software themselves or they can go to an authorized Service and Repair center and have a technician update their phone to this new software version.
• Customer downloading instructions:
  • 1. Have the customer confirm that their PC matches the following requirements before selecting the correct utility on the Web site:
       • Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher installed on your computer
       • If using a USB Data Cable computer operating system should be: Windows 98 SE™, 2000™, ME™, and XP™
       • If using an RS232 Data Cable computer operating system should be: Windows 98™, NT 4.0, 2000™, ME™ and XP™
    2. Go to the Motorola Web site at: http://idenphones.motorola.com/iden/support/software/html/firmware_utility.html and download the software to the phone.
    3. Power on the iDEN phone.
    4. Select the utility that matches the phone model.
    5. Connect the iDEN phone to the PC with a Data Cable.
    6. When the utility starts, follow the onscreen instructions provided.

BIS Seamless Sign-On Issues – BlackBerry 9630 Tour

BlackBerry Internet Server (BIS) version 2.8 Seamless Sign-on has now launched and is working fine for everyone… well, almost everyone! It seems that Blackberry Tour users are having an issue, but more than that – the default workaround directions given to the user on the device are also incorrect!.

New customers who use the Email Settings icon are not able to set up their BIS account and integrate personal e-mail accounts (for example: Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail). Instead, they receive this error message and these incorrect steps to fix the issue:

“Your Device is not registered. Please register your device and Try again.”

The on-screen help will guide you to correct this by going to the  device options, clicking Advanced Options. Click Host Routing Table. Press the Menu Key or the Trackwheel. Click Register Now

The problem? The steps listed in this error message do not fix the issue!

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Here is the correct solution:

New BlackBerry Tour Customer Instructions:

• There are 3 easy steps if a user needs to set up their BIS account immediately:
  1. Access the device Browser icon.
  2. Type www.sprint.blackberry.com into the browser URL.
  3. Agree to the Terms and Conditions.
  4. Enter the e-mail account user name and password to integrate (for example: Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail).
     • The BIS account is now set up and customers can receive their integrated e-mail.
     • If the customer needs to access their BIS account to edit their e-mail account before a fix is communicated, follow these same steps.
     • The Email Settings icon will not work – even after the BIS account is set up using this workaround – until a fix is in place.

Existing BlackBerry Tour Customer Instructions:

• Until a fix is in place, recommend customers do not delete their BIS account in order to try and set up with Seamless Sign-On on their device.
• If a customer does choose to delete their account or it is deleted by accident, follow the workaround steps.

Sunday AM Services Downtime

As is almost tradition for the past several months, we will be running scheduled maintenance and upgrades starting as early as midnight, and lasting as long as 6AM. Here’s what will be effected this week (all times are KS/Oakland Park time – Central):

Wireless HomeDeck: 2AM – 6AM on 09/27

• Wireless HomeDeck on the customers phone will be unavailable to purchase premium content, ringers, etc for 4 hours starting at 2:00 AM CT.
• The internet will still be available from the handset, however you may need to type in the URL in the browser’s address bar, and the landing/home deck will be down.

SPO (Sprint Plan Optimizer): 2AM – 6AM on 09/27

• No portion of the SPO tool will be available during this maintenance window.

Sprint.com – Online Registration & Address book: 2AM – 6AM on 09/27

• New account registration will not be available during this maintenance window.
• You will not be able to manage your online address book during the window.

Sprint.com – Manage, Media Mall, Online Store, Digital Lounge: 2AM – 6AM on 09/27

• All primary service options hosted on sprint.com will be down during this window.
• You will not be able to login or manage your account during this window.
• No digital content will be able to be purchased or managed during this window.
• New phone orders will not be able to be placed during this maintenance window.

For any Sprint employees interested, OLIVE, TOES & FAST will also be unavailable during this time for scheduled maintenance.

As always there’s a good chance that everything will be wrapped earlier than 6AM, and 99% of the user base will sleep through it all anyways and never know it happened. All customer facing or impacting venues will be given priority over internal facing items should any maintenance window need to be extended. There should not be any delay or increase to care or retail agents in any LOB for Sunday morning opens, expect BAU.

Sprint (CDMA) to Boost (iDEN) Now Possible!

There’s been a lot of talk about the hassle that many customers have faced when attempting to swap from Sprint(CDMA) to Boost(iDEN), despite the fact that Boost is a wholy owned subsidary of Sprint. Sounds like a simple flip of a switch, right? That’s what most people thought, until they tried it and found out the hoops they’ve have to jump through to accomplish it. That’s no longer the case! As of this week, as a last resort save option, Sprint CDMA customers will be able to switch to Boost(iDEN) service.

As of 7/23/09 Account Services will support the CDMA post paid customers who want to move to iDEN Boost – Sprint‘s subsidiary that offers customers pre-paid service. Before 7/23/09, system limitations prevented CDMA post paid customers from migrating to Boost and Sprint risked losing them to competitors who offer pre-paid service.

• In order to switch, you will have to meet the following conditions:
  • Sprint accont must be current. Not in a past due, hotlined, or suspended status.
  • Be aware that the standard ETF will still apply to the Sprint account, if there was one.

Sprint Specialists:

• Verify the following information and before transferring the customer to Account Services.
  • Confirm the account is not in a past due, hotlined, or suspended status. Take a payment to bring the account current or tell the customer they cannot migrate their account to iDEN Boost until it is current.
  • After a payment has been made, remove the hotline or suspension status on the account. Payment must post and suspension or hotline be removed in order to migrate to Boost.
  • Check to see if the subscriber agreement is still in effect. It it is, tell the customer they will be charged an ETF which will appear on their next bill.
  • Transfer the customer to Account Services.

Sprint.com Self Service Maintenance Window

Some updates on the backend are being completed over the next few hours… from now until 6AM (Monday) actually. Affected areas are:

• You won’t be unable to purchase or manage their content.
• Ability to login to Sprint.com/Manage account will be down.
• Customer will be unable to check MOU in Sprint.com – they can still get MOU from the IVR (*4/*5)
• Customers will be unable to purchase content from their computer or from their handset

Fully expect all to be up before the sun rises :).. so you probably never missed a thing!

Quick Maintenance Window Update: Online Store

Sprint.com Store will return shortly!

The website updates are *soo* close to being doing for the current phase, and to be able to complete some needed maintenance, the online store, housed on nextel.com will be down from 2AM-6AM this morning!

So hang tight and don’t get too antsy – the Pre is only going to be available in retail channels initially anyways, so it’s not like you’ve got anything to order, right ? Well, if you do it’ll be up in just over 4 hours.