iPhone Activation Woes - Worth the Wait!

I confirmed the port to my wife's iPhone this morning. It went through just as Marco said it would. Was it worth 4+ days to get everything working? Was it worth spending an entire weekend on the phone, taking a day off from work, two trips to the AT&T store, and 12 hours standing in line in the Florida summer heat? Yes! That just shows you how cool these iPhones are. No, they're not perfect, but the iPhone is without a doubt the slickest piece of technology I've ever used since my Newton MessagePad. Now if Apple would just release a Newton/iPhone/MultiTouch OSX TabletMac!

iPhone Activation Woes - Port Requested

I just got off the phone with Marco, and he arranged the port. It is to go into effect sometime around 10 am tomorrow. He asked me how I like the iPhone, and I told him it was worth the 72 hours waiting and working for activation. He still had his sense of humor and we laughed about the irate iPhone customers. He said he'd like to meet the Verizon person who turned down the Apple deal for the iPhone. 700,000 iPhones in a weekend! With the new local number, the port was easy. Tomorrow morning, the saga might end!

iPhone Activation Woes - Activation with New SIM Card

I just finished the activation process through iTunes. Since I'm now an AT&T customer with a temporary number assigned to my wife's iPhone, it was pretty easy. The process ended with "Congratulations, AT&T is activating your iPhone. Your iPhone will notify you when activation is complete. To set up and sync this iPhone, click continue." In other words, that's it! It was immediately activated! I didn't have to restore the software or anything -- everything already synced remained. It's just that now, the phone is now working again with this new and supposedly local number. Next step: The Port

iPhone Activation Woes - Porting My Wife's Number

I called the Port Center at AT&T this morning to see about porting her old cell number to her new iPhone. I was probably on the phone for about an hour this morning, but the couple of people helping me were unable to perform the port. It has something to do with the fact the number we were given is not in our region. It is in the Mobile, Alabama region. I was told to go to an AT&T store and get a new SIIM card and have a local number assigned.

At lunch, my wife and I visited the AT&T store and explained the situation. It was there were I met D'Andre. I already knew his name because someone else had mentioned him in the MacRumors forums as someone who was very helpful. I can confirm that D'Andre can make things happen. Without hesitation he got me a new SIM card and started making calls. While he wasn't able to do the port right there over the phone. He was able to get a new, local phone number assigned and make sure our independent iPhone plans were merged into a single plan like I wanted from the start. Now I need to do the activation again with this new SIM card as an existing customer. Once that takes, I can try the port again. Almost there!

Restoring Original Settings to iPhone #1

Since my old number was ported to iPhone #2, and iPhone #1 was named "James's iPhone", I needed to change the name of iPhone #1 to my wife's name. How do you do that? The only way I could see to do that was to restore the original settings much like you do with an iPod that's giving you trouble. I crossed my fingers and punched -Restore-. It worked! I gave iPhone #1 the appropriate name and now it's just a matter of syncing some of her favorite things.

iPhone Activation Woes - iPhone #2

I awoke this morning not knowing what to expect. You see yesterday I did something I probably shouldn't have. I attempted to activate two iPhones in parallel. I should waited until the first one was complete before starting the second. The worst case I anticipated was two iPhones each on their own, independent family plans. If this were to happen, at least I'd have two active iPhones and I could merge them to a single family plan later. What I got I did not anticipate.

When I initiated both activations I selected no numbers to port from my previous carrier. The first iPhone got a new number from Birmingham, Alabama. I expected another phone number from Birmingham for iPhone #2. Instead, this morning I received an e-mail stating one of my phones now has the mobile number of my previous carrier! Yes, the port had gone through even though I had started from scratch and didn't even request it! As soon as you stop asking for something, that's when you get it I guess. My old number was ported to iPhone #2. I really wanted it on iPhone #1 but that's not a big of a deal -- I hadn't grown that attached to #1 yet.

Now I'm syncing iPhone #2 (this will now be mine since it has my old cellphone number) with a good mix of demonstration media. I'll have to rename iPhone #1 to be my wife's and load it up with her favorites. Today's challenge will be to see if they are in fact on the same family plan and if I can port her number to her phone so people don't have to call Birmingham, Alabama to talk to her.

iPhone Activation Woes - Activation!!

Just as we were coming in the door after getting a bite to eat I receive an e-mail confirming that activation is complete. Remember that I did not port my old number -- I'll do that later. It seems I got a Birmingham, Alabama area code, and I'm not sure why. I'm syncing now. Hopefully, I'll have the other iPhone up before too long and then I can see about porting the numbers.