At 15 Nov 2008 21:00:39 +0000 Opra wrote:

> Another is that I already have voicemail (an Asterisk PBX). Sure it's
> easy configure Asterisk to only ring the T-Mobile number for only 29
> seconds, but then I'd still be stuck having to answer the phone in less
> than 2.4 rings in areas with good coverage and 1.8 rings on average.
>
> In accounting this is known as penny-wise and pound foolish. I suppose
> they make it up, as do other telcos, by lobbying congress and the FCC
> for protection from the competition.


As has been mentioned, it's a limitation of the GSM standard. Perhaps T-Mo
feels adherence to a standard is more important than keeping your business.
I don't see how this limitation is evidence of "protection" by lobbying.
Do you propose that raising the forwarding limit to 60 seconds should be
legislated and forced on cellcos to make your life more convenient?

Obviously if T-Mobile felt competitive pressure to break the standard and
raise the time period they could. As this complaint seems rather rare, it
hardly seems cost effective to change their system to make the
comparitively small number of folks affected by it happy. Pennywise and
pound foolish would certainly describe making a wide scale system change to
fix a "problem" the overwhelming majority of customers don't seem to have
or care about, as well as create potential problems when roaming (i.e. how
would roamer networks handle an out-of-standard value for forwarding if
they themselves adhere to the 5-30 second standard?)

It seems to me that this is just another difference between carriers, like
pricing or coverage, that influences consumer choice, not "evidence" of
anti-competitiveness allowed by lobbying/bribing Congress or the FCC.

Hell hath no fury, apparently, like an American consumer scorned...