AT&T activation fun...

[kbalch]

Well, I bought two new iPhones today and have been attempting to activate the first one. ITunes is telling me that my existing number can't be transferred.

It took three different AT&T phone monkeys to finally give me an answer: I can't port my number because the area code and my present zip code (and the phone's physical location) aren't the same. My number has a 617 area code (I've had this number for almost 15 years and all my friends, family & contacts know it), but my zip code is in central Florida. That seemingly simple (and common) scenario has choked AT&T's system.

My only choices are: 1) activate the iPhone with a new number (FL area code); or 2) change my Verizon billing address to someplace in Boston and then wait to activate until the next time I'm up there (probably about 2 weeks from now). I'm definitely not happy.

Ken

[macgirl]

that sucks. i'm sorry to hear you're having problems activating your iphone.

that must be an issue specific to porting a number from another carrier - when i activated my iphone (as an existing at&t customer), my area code was a california one and my zip code is for massachusetts. it took 30 seconds to activate it, if even that long.

can you activate now with a new FL number and then later have it changed to your existing 617 number (probably after changing your billing address with verizon)?

[kbalch]

It took over an hour (and six transfers) before I finally found someone who knew what she was doing.

The answer was to set me up with a new, temporary Boston-area number, then immediately (within about ten minutes) port my old number over. That did the trick.

My phone is now activated, updated to 1.1.3, fully synced, and I'm in the process of customizing things. All is good. Hopefully, I won't have any similar difficulty porting my wife's number over on Friday. We shall see, but I'm very pleased at the moment... :-)

Ken