 | CCC servicewatch |
| CCC servicewatch |
| servicewatch needs you! Problems with your network operator? Technical mishaps? We want to know: E-Mail to servicewatch. For confidential hints we recommend PGP and/or an anonymous remailer. |
| Network outage at Viag Interkom's
E2 11.3.1999 | |
 | Currently Viag Interkoms E2 does not work anymore in München and Nürnberg. According to the hotline the outage will last several hours. |
| E-Plus numbers
not reachable 7.3.1999 | |
 | Torben and Michael informed
us that the bigger part of the E-Plus numbers starting with 7 or 8 are
currently deactivated. As of this morning the affected customers
cannot log into the E+ network anymore. Callers get the announcement,
that the dialled number is not connected. According to E+ work on the
network is to blame. The hotline says, one should try logging in every
one to two hours. The same problem surfaced last december. (We reported on 5.12.) |
| E-Plus SMS
problems 5.3.1999 | |
| Hans reported that E-Plus
says the almost daily problems with the SMS service are normal. Trying
to send a message in the evening or night hours often results in a
"message sending failure", but the message gets delivered
and accounted for. There is no way for the sender to find out if the
message actually reached the recipient. E-Plus says that most of the
capacity of the SMSC is needed at night to delete expired
messages. Also, the SMS notification about new voicemail messages often gets sent with a big delay. |
| Viag Interkom's
E2 allows incoming data and fax calls 3.3.1999 | |
| Malte informed us that is possible to receive incoming data and fax calls on the mobile network E2 without subscribing to this service for DM 15 a month. Since you do not get the additional numbers for fax and data calls, you have to use your normal mobile number for receiving such calls. This is not a problem as long as the bearer capability is set correctly. |
| Voicemail system "T-Net-Box"
unreachable 1.3.1999 (Update: 1.3.1999) | |
 | Currently (1:00 am, MET)
Deutsche Telekom's voicemail system "T-Net-Box" is
unreachable from the Berlin/Brandenburg region. The caller gets an
announcement that the "number is currently unreachable".
Unfortunately not only the owner of a "T-Net-Box" gets the
announcement, but also someone who tries to reach a number for which a
"T-Net-Box" is activated. Update: |
| Deutsche Telekom has accounting problems
with "CityPlus" 26.2.1999 (Update: 5.3.1999) | |
| Jörg reports us that the
DT has problems with accounting of their "CityPlus" tariff
plan. In some cases, calls to "CityPlus" numbers will not be
charged at all - not even outside the time of day where
"CityPlus" applies. The connections are not listed on the
detailed call report. Also, the prepaid "CityPlus" tariff
units are listed as unused. The basic fee, however, will be charged
two or more times. "CityPlus" is a DT discount plan where one can buy tariff units in advance at a lower price. Update: |
| Viatel Call-by-Call enables unwanted call
monitoring 25.2.1999 (Update: 2.3.1999) | |
 | Acid Aphid informed us that
it is possible to listen in to calls when using Viatel Call-by-Call
(01079). After dialling the destination number, sometimes one gets
connected to an already existing connection. It is only possible to
listen to the conversation. The monitored parties do not notice the
invasion of their privacy. After about 30 seconds, one gets kicked out
of the conversation. Update: When using Viatel or COLT Telecom for calls to mobile networks the called party numbers sometimes get mixed up. (Caller A wants to call B, C wants to call D, but A gets connected to D and C to B.) Thanks to Jörg and Falk. |
| Failure of Viag
Interkom's E2 within area code 07 25.2.1999 (Update: 26.2.1999) | |
| From the viagmobil mailing
list we came to know that since noon (MET) today E2 does not work
anymore in large parts of the 07 area code. Either the network is
comletely gone (the phone cannot find the network anymore) or it can
be found but not logged in to. The hotline is aware of the failure but they do not make any statements about when the situation will be resolved. Instead, they tell you things like "please be patient, other networks have overload problems instead". Update: |
| Faulty base
stations lead to D2 capacity problems 24.2.1999 | |
 | Customers of the D2 network are currently facing more and
more capacity problems in the network. As Christian reported us, these problems are not necessarily connected to a network overload. It seems that D2 rather has substantial difficulties with base stations of a certain manufacturer. Though the base stations have sufficient capacities, they are not able to make them available. Mannesmann, the operator of D2, now established a crisis management group to take care of the problem. |
| Viag Interkom's E2 not reachable from
abroad 24.2.1999 | |
| Customers of the mobile
network E2 can currently only be reached very limited from abroad. The
caller gets a busy signal, a recorded message like "all lines are
busy" or even "please check the number...". This also
makes the use of callback services nearly impossible. The Viag hotline had once again no clue whatsoever. |
| SMS crashes Nokia
5110 23.2.1999 (Update: 25.2.1999) | |
 | Roland reported that Nokias
GSM900 phone 5110 cannot cope with a short message (SMS) that consists
of 160 dots ("."). Upon displaying the message the phone
crashes. The exact effect differs between the versions of the firmware
but seems to exist in all versions from V4.59 (query with
*#0000#). As always we are interested in more information on this matter. (Thanks to Dirk.) Update: |
| T-Net-Box
notification to Cityruf pagers does not work 22.2.1999 | |
| Dirk informed us that the
free notification about new messages on the T-Net-Box (Deutsche
Telekom's voice mail system) to Cityruf pagers stopped to work in the
beginning of January. Deutsche Telekom claims to be working with high
priority on the solution of the problem, but nothing happened so
far. The only remedy so far is to activate a "notification to a fixed or cellular phone line" with the pager's number. But Deutsche Telekom will probably want to charge for these connections. |
| Faulty Viag Interkom SIMs 21.2.1999 | |
| Many of the Viag Interkom SIMs seem to have the GSM Phase II feature "Fixed dialling" implemented incorrectly. This feature usually allows the user to restrict calls from his phone to a range of numbers selected by him. Unfortunately the Viag SIMs still allow calls to all numbers after "Fixed dialling" has been activated - instead the phone book on the card completely disappears! Only if the number barring (which is disfunctional anyway) is switched off, the numbers on the card are accessible again. Due to the incorrect implementation, the deactivation is only possible with certain phones (e.g. Siemens, but not Nokia). |
| Nokia 6150 problems 19.2.1999 | |
| The GSM900/1800 dualband
phone Nokia 6150 has some annoying firmware problems: All versions through V4.02 have problems finding the network after the phone lost coverage or simply with logging into another cell. Until V4.12 the phone does not support SIM clock stop with Phase-II SIMs, which leads to considerably reduced standby times. In V4.13 these problems have been removed, but the message (SMS) settings menu cannot be accessed with SIMs for the D2 network. In addition, with some D2 and all E+ SIMs the phone crashes if you select the "Services" menu. Rumors say that there is a new version V5.02 that fixes these problems, but is not yet available in Germany. The Nokia 6150 software version can be queried bei entering *#0000#. Thanks to Markus! |
| "9090" rumor 19.2.1999 | |
 | For some days a rumor has
been floating around the Internet that one should not enter
"9090" into your mobile phone if requested so by an alleged
technician. Allegedly it would otherwise be possible to make calls at
the expense of the owner of the phone. This rumor is technically completely unsubstantiated. The origin seems to be in the USA, where in some mobile phone network the number of the voice mailbox is "9090" - but even there you cannot make calls at other peoples expenses with this number. Furthermore nobody should enter anything into his phone if some dubious person calls and asks him to so. |
| Problems with Cellinfo at the D2
network 18.2.1999 | |
| Apparently D2 has problems
with the cellinfo transmission of the area codes in the Giessen
area. Jens mailed us to tell that not only the correct area codes 0641 and 0640 are beeing transmitted but also 0644, 090, 0732 and 0827. Mannesmann, the operator of D2, first admitted that there is a technical problem, but denied it later. The area code is needed to determine the tariff for a call to a fixed network. As usual we are interested in more details on this problem. |
| Y2K-problem at
GSM operator? 16.2.1999 | |
| servicewatch received a message which stated that at least one billing software package for mobile phone service providers is affected by an severe Y2k bug. The message said that it is questionable if the affected company will have fixed the problem in time. As always we are interested in more details. |
| Costly problems with ISDN data
connections 15.2.1999 | |
| servicewatch has monitored
heavy problems with ISDN data connections in Berlin over several
month. Under certain circumstances, like when switching off the ISDN
router while the connection is up, an ISDN data connection will not be
ended anymore, but stay up. The connection, which may even last
several weeks, will be fully charged for. There is no way for the user
to end such a connection. servicewatch investigations showed that the problem is not dependent on the type of switch or end user equipment. Repeated complaints by customers did not lead to serious efforts by Deutsche Telekom to solve the problem. At least one affected company is now sueing Deutsche Telekom. We recommend a thorough study of your the call record in your bill if you use ISDN data connections. |
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