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Warning:
The following post will be more
coma inducing than horse tranquilizers.
Please be near your bed when reading.


I have call forward/busy/no answer transfer/no reply/out of reach service with my mobile plan.

"Call Forwarding" is a generic term used when one wishes to divert an incoming phone call to another telephone number. However, "Call Forwarding (CF)" may also mean just that: any incoming calls will be diverted.

What I wanted was "busy/no answer transfer (b/nat)", which is a different set of phone number code all together.

I programmed the numbers to speed dial on my old phone, and that was great. However, for the life of me I couldn't get it to work right on the new phone.

So I went onto Rogers.com website to check out the FAQ (I so hate talking to a live person when it comes to technolgy crap, as they always seem to make me feel stupid).

First thing was this - GSM phones and TDMA phones (my old phone) don't use the same sequence of numbers to de/activate Call forwarding and all its related features.

Fine. I dutifully entered Call forwarding sequence: *21* [area code and phone number] # and set it to speed dial position #6.

Super. Except, Call forwarding isn't what I wanted. I wanted b/nat, remember?

Then I enter: *004* [area code and phone number] # and locked it down to keypad #4.

Grand. Except, I'm a creature of habit, so I wanted to swap position 4 and 6. Still with me??

Right. I go and do that, but then it asks me: Do you want to copy phone numbers onto SIM card? (Y/N).

For all you neophytes, SIM cards can store ones telephone numbers on the actual card. This way, one just needs to insert their own SIM card on any mobile, and be able to make calls without worries.

Nice. Because it takes a good 10-20 seconds to copy ALL the numbers over to SIM from phone., I didn't want to wait so I chose "no" to save time.

For the next 10 minutes, I can't get b/nat to work properly. Because no matter what I do, it transfers to my work # even if I want to pick it up from my mobile. Fustrating.

The problem is that my phone isn't a "Roger's approved" phone, so I thought that that was the reason why it wouldn't work.

I finally called up Roger's tech support (with my dunce cap snuggly on, mind) and asked. The lady was very helpful and gave me this number: *62* [area code and phone number] #

Okay. The online FAQ listed that as the Out of Reach number to dial, but I figure a live person couldn't be wrong, right?

*BZZZZTT*. She was wrong, b/c the number was still bouncing to the other bloody phone!

Then it hits me like a brick to the head. There are two types of storage space for GSM phones. One area is built into the phone while the other is on the SIM card. For some inane reason, it lists the names/numbers from the phone when you browse for it, yet it dials that number from the SIM card.

Therefore, when I speed dialed using keypad #6 - clearly labelled as b/nat on-screen, it is STILL dialing from the old position 6 on the SIM card - which was CF.

Sweet. So you see, without accepting the need to "copy all numbers to SIM card" message, I hadn't updated the numbers correctly at all!

....Technology is fustrating to those who uses only 1% of brain power.

posted by losir at 4:53 PM