April 19, 2004

How AT&T failed at Local Number Portability Also know as, What Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong.

Very interesting story about how unprepared AT&T was for Local Number Portability. From sloppy code and poor project management, to their outsouce-at-all-cost mentality, to the customer service meltdown that LNP became. While not overly "technical", it does provide some valuable information on how not to run a project.

posted by jim_t 20 years ago
  • I suspect that it wasn't just AT&T that screwed this up either. I've heard horror stories across the board. I'm thinking there was resistence to the new law.
  • I dropped my regular contract plan in October and got a new pre-paid plan in February, so I guess I missed the worst of it. I actually had a pretty good customer service experience with the setup. That said, when I called in to renew my minutes, I had to wade through the touch tone maze, type in my credit card number, etc., then I was sent to a person, where I had to tell them my credit card information all over again. The next time I needed to renew my minutes, I decided to go through their website. I had to wade through 50 pages of FAQ before I found their prepaid customer login (you can't just go through their regular login, you need to use a special one). Having typed all that, I guess I'm not all that satisfied with my AT&T service (I haven't even mentioned the crappy sound quality, but that might be the phone). If I used more than two minutes a month and didn't need to buy a new phone, I'd probably consider leaving.
  • I used PacBell prepaid in the US, never had a problem. This sounds terrible.
  • Yup, they screwed up. What's new? COST OF SERVICE INCREASE. Who woulda thunk it?
  • trace, you haven't been in the States for some time, have you? PacBell was totally assimilated by SBC (Southwest Borg Corp.) a couple years ago.
  • Home Run Post, Jim! Timely topic, crisp copy; I've never heard of CIO Magazine-- I'm planning on checking them out!
  • I was going to argue this one with you, Wendell, but it just occurred to me I was signed up with SBC PacBell. :)
  • What a great insight into corporate blunders. Usually, we just reap the inconvenience, and never know why. I was also one of those people counting the days until I could move my number to another company (damn Sprint and their horrible customer service that led me to perform a three hour long sit-in at my local Sprint store until they fixed my phone). However, I was a little spooked by the potential bugginess of the portabilty thing myself and waited until March to actually switch. Yay Cingular!
  • number portability, bah. that's just fluff and hooey. what i want is for one of the US phone companies to take a cue from the european ones, and sell pre-paid sim cards for GSM phones. i have an old phone, my brother has no phone, i'd like to give him my old phone, but NOBODY sells pre-paid sim cards. just pre-paid phones. and i don't need another damn phone, i already have one. if i was in the UK i could buy a t-mobile pre-paid card at a corner store. the US t-mobile service has nothing so far. and why can't i go to a store and buy a new phone, without buying a phone plan? if i decide i don't like my land-line phone i can buy a cordless or a retro model or whatever, but i can't buy a cell phone anywhere unless i sign up for something. this is crap. the number of times they ask people to upgrade, there has got to be a huge pile of slightly used phones out there somewhere. and don't give me the "not compatible with our network" stuff, either - if i buy a non-GSM phone and try to use it with a GSM service it's my fault. and... um... yeah AT&T really screwed the pooch on that one.