Filed under: iPhone
While some sit in raptured bliss, others await activation
It's eerie here on the interwebs. I see friends disappear to wait in line, come back, and disappear again. They are playing with their iPhones! And yet, amidst the joy, there is suffering. It comes in the form of an email:"Phone service is scheduled to be disconnected on your current phone at or after 8:01 PM EDT on June 30. Please check your email and be prepared to reconnect and activate your iPhone before that time. Please call 877-800-3701 if you'd like to make other arrangements."
Apparently, it'll be a few hours before a few of you get to really know your iPhone. Ouch. Our condolences.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Jason Martin said 9:15PM on 6-29-2007
Could someone interpret? That message sounds very cryptic. What's the deal.
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j-dog said 9:19PM on 6-29-2007
I have a serious question about my iPhone - I am waiting for ATT to transfer my number from Verizon and activate it (it said 24 hours!) - in the meantime, is it normal before activation to say "no service" in the signal strength section? I am worried our apartment is in a dead spot! We live right near the Beltway in Alexandria VA so this doesn't make sense.
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Gerald Buckley said 9:21PM on 6-29-2007
Commenting from mine. Loving it.
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thepants said 9:25PM on 6-29-2007
so - i have verizon and went through the process only to be told my phone number could not be ported (about after 3 hours of activation attempt).
could someone who has verizon and successsfully ported their number PLEASE let us know what information they entered - including the format of your account number and if you entered a password for the 'if applicable' field? thank you.
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The Mace said 9:32PM on 6-29-2007
The bigger issue is that the device is USELESS until it activates. You can't even play music which is a behavioral contradiction to their emails and FAQ.
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magu said 9:35PM on 6-29-2007
All the coverage I've seen so far is good, but my question is:
Anyone tried putting a DIFFERENT SIM card into the slot and turning it on to see what it does?
Any pictures of that happening?
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Rubbinz said 9:38PM on 6-29-2007
Any reports of dingbats out there plunking down $600 for the device, only to be told they were unworthy of AT&T service during activation? I'm wondering how many people out there are now stuck with a $600 paper weight.
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Dann said 9:40PM on 6-29-2007
I activated mine (replacing my current AT&T phone) in a couple minutes, and it works fine, although iTunes keeps saying it can't complete some request with the store... I suspect it's just the server overload.
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digitalintrigue said 9:41PM on 6-29-2007
Ditto with Sprint:
Email states:
"Phone service is scheduled to be disconnected on your current phone at or after 8:21 PM EDT on June 30. Please check your email and be prepared to reconnect and activate your iPhone before that time. Please call 877-800-3701 if you'd like to make other arrangements. "
Waiting for the next available agent...
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digitalintrigue said 9:48PM on 6-29-2007
Got thru to an AT&T agent who indicated the 'other arrangement' is that I could cancel this activation request with the number transfer, and start over and be assigned a new AT&T number... the cancellation email just arrived as I was on the phone with the agent.
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Bill Safsel said 9:48PM on 6-29-2007
I've been waiting for my iPhone to activate for over 2 hours now. Damn, this is frustrating!
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Cheezr said 9:49PM on 6-29-2007
I switched an existing att line and am still waiting for activation to complete... it has been 2 hours.
I called ATT and they said that their computers were overwhelmed by the volume and that they couldn't give me an estimated time.
I do note however that my existing phone went dead immediately! so now no phone and no iPhone.. ;-(
CZR
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Bderwest said 9:49PM on 6-29-2007
I got that email too. But I've made two calls on it already and there were no problems. The whole email is very cryptic and weird.
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Sam Katz said 9:53PM on 6-29-2007
your account password for verizon customers should be the my account password?? Maybe? (I don't have an iphone.)
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ginzuknives said 9:54PM on 6-29-2007
So ridiculous. Got my iphone at 630 and left the store at 7. i've been sitting here ever since waiting for my damn phone to activate. it is not almost 10pm. you would think it would be pretty fast since i'm already an at&t customer, but nooooo. called customer service twice, but they told me i needed to sit and wait for the email. they couldn't even tell me an approximate time. i hate at&t.
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Ty Morton said 9:58PM on 6-29-2007
I called the activation help line and spoke with a very friendly and helpful Caroline. She said that for existing AT&T customers porting a number, it would take 3-5 hours. If you were porting a number from another service, it could take up to 24 (this is the same case if you are transferring a number from another service with a conventional phone, BTW).
If you are getting a new number, regardless of whether to are an existing customer or not, activation is almost immediate.
The bottleneck is the result of porting all of the existing users' SIM cards. Normally, they just transfer the SIM card to another phone, or the data another card. To her credit, she acknowledged that they were caught off-guard by that.
It appears to be an honest stumble – which is to be expected with a product launch of this scale – and the AT&T people are doing the best they can to resolve it.
If anyone deserves scorn, it's Apple. Why does using widgets, music, video, and wi-fi internet access functionality require phone activation from AT&T?
For many, myself included, the phone features were secondary to "everything I've wanted in a PDA." The PDA/Video iPod alone is worth the $600 price, IMO. Why force me to spend $720/year to boot to use it?
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steve c said 10:01PM on 6-29-2007
i've been waiting since about 6:35 EDT for that f*ing email saying my phone is ready to activate. This is the worst feeling clicking "get mail" every 5 seconds. i knew this kind of thing was going to happen
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Scott said 10:09PM on 6-29-2007
Verizon customer. Told to wait 3-24 hours for activation. Good job AT&T.
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ansky said 10:12PM on 6-29-2007
you silly first gen buyers.
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Bob Hodgen said 10:25PM on 6-29-2007
Check your junk email folder. The email from att ended up there.
I'm still waiting for my iBrick to come alive.
The joys of being an early adopter. . .
Bob
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