The iPhone is back in business

David M Williams
Wednesday, 06 August 2008 13:40

Your IT - Mobility

Once I figured out just where to insert my SIM the phone came to life. I could make calls without any problem. I turned on WiFi and connected to my office wireless network. I synchronised with my mail server and saw all my contacts and calendar items flood in. All was well with the world.

Well, until the next day, at least. While driving to a remote office I noticed I wasn’t getting e-mail and I couldn’t use Safari. It then occurred to me I’d only used WiFi for data the day previous, both in the office and later at home. Obviously the 3G side wasn’t working.

Checking the settings I could see the iPhone was trying to use an APN of telstra.iph which, I knew, was not something configured on my number. I changed it to telstra.internet, as used by many NextG modems but this did not help. I thus had to find some other way or get telstra.iph codes enabled on my number.

I asked my Telstra rep for help and he said although he could now supply the phones he had no means of providing any support. Instead he directed me to 1800 IPHONE, Telstra’s dedicated support line.

I called 1800 IPHONE and the person who answered knew exactly what I was talking about. He added the telstra.iph code code and he confirmed there was no fee for this. It was a quick conversation and after rebooting the device I was online. At the time I thought this support call was terrific. Now I know it was also rare because no other calls to 1800 IPHONE went anywhere near as smoothly.

I didn’t need to call them for myself; my iPhone was working fine. In fact, I went for a week to Mackay and out through the Bowen Basin ending up in Moranbah. The phone performed admirably and the data connection was responsive. I encountered only a few blackspots along the journey.

We purchased four more iPhones for some others to trial. One was my right-hand man and the company IT Manager. I told him to call the support line and have telstra.iph enabled but when he did I heard him having difficulties explaining it to the rep on the other side. I secretly prided in my obviously superior skills until I tried to enable the next two phones on behalf of other, non-technical staff.

It was an exercise in exasperation. I called 1800 IPHONE and the phone monkey had no idea what I was after. He kept asking if I had activated it in iTunes. He asked if the store activated it for me. I had to continually express the device had been ordered through corporate fulfilment, it arrived by courier, I was putting in an existing SIM card, I’d done this before and I knew it just needed the telstra.iph APN added. I was asked to explain what an APN was and tried to refer them to their very own NextG modems which use such place names and can have additional codes, like telstra.corp, added, to permit network access to or from specialised locations.

I would get put through to billing, I would get put through to accounts, I would get put through to faults and I would get put through to the general mobile phone enquiries line. Would I ever get another iPhone online?

CONTINUED