New phone activation Samsung A600

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Phone went astray a few days ago and just got a replacement today. Getting
some conflictiing info from Sprint's outsourcers on proper activation
procedure.

First guy I talked with had me enter the service menu and enter my phone
number in both areas. Second person said to enter a different number for the
MSID. What's MSID? Is that messaging system ID?

1st person said to leave phone turned on and wait 2 to 4 hours. 2nd person
said to leave phone off for two hours.

What's the right way? And what evidence should I look for that OTA is taking
place etc. Do I need to power cycle the phone to get it to OTA?
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s wrote:
> Phone went astray a few days ago and just got a replacement today. Getting
> some conflictiing info from Sprint's outsourcers on proper activation
> procedure.
>
> First guy I talked with had me enter the service menu and enter my phone
> number in both areas. Second person said to enter a different number for the
> MSID. What's MSID? Is that messaging system ID?

When we replaced my wife's old phone with a Hitachi P300 bought off eBay,
I was given the master subsidy lock code and the instructions to get the
phone into programming mode. I do, of course, recall having to enter the
phone#, but not the MSID. Are you sure it was MSID and not SID? SID is System
ID - a number representing the "home-area" network. For example, on my old
Verizon phones, Los Angeles/Southern California is SID 2, and before I moved I
was in Cleveland, part of their Ohio/Michigan network which was SID 21.

Typically, the Preferred Roaming List (a database of SIDs stored in your
phone) dictates which networks your phone is allowed access to, and the SID
for your home-area network is programmed into the phone separately and lets
your phone automatically determine whether you're on your home network or
some other network.

> 1st person said to leave phone turned on and wait 2 to 4 hours. 2nd person
> said to leave phone off for two hours.
>
> What's the right way? And what evidence should I look for that OTA is taking
> place etc. Do I need to power cycle the phone to get it to OTA?

With Verizon, if I got a new phone I could dial a special "Activation" number
from the phone that would program it over the air. It seems to be slightly
different with Sprint. I'd leave it off for 4 hours just to be safe, because
with Sprint, account setup and provisioning doesn't always happen immediately.
Then turn the phone on, and you should be good to go. If you know your phone's
programming menus well enough to be able to check your PRL, you may want to
do that, but other than that, I'm not sure of a way to ensure it's been set
up correctly other than making a call - and if you recently updated your PRL,
it'll be the current PRL and will not update after the OTA provisioning, so
checking your PRL isn't necessarily a 100% reliable way to ensure the service
has been provisioned.

Really, your best bet is to wait four hours and then call someone.


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Mike

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s wrote:
> Phone went astray a few days ago and just got a replacement today. Getting
> some conflictiing info from Sprint's outsourcers on proper activation
> procedure.
>
> First guy I talked with had me enter the service menu and enter my phone
> number in both areas. Second person said to enter a different number for the
> MSID. What's MSID? Is that messaging system ID?

The MSID is often the same as the MDN (MDN="mobile device number"=phone
number) but not always. IIRC, MSID stands for "Mobile Station
IDentifier." For people like me, who deal with activating all over the
country, it's easy to get into the sloppy habit of entering the MDN and
the MSID as the same number. I imagine it's even worse with reps working
in stores where most of the market has matching MDN and MSID numbers.
You must enter the correct MDN and MSID or your phone will not work.
Your phone should be on. If you're replacing an old phone, you'll
generally be advised to leave the old phone off for 24 hours or until
provisioning is complete. I would suggest turning your phone on after
programming. If you cannot place a phone call after four hours have
passed, I would call right back to customer service and ask them to help
you reprogram your phone.

> 1st person said to leave phone turned on and wait 2 to 4 hours. 2nd person
> said to leave phone off for two hours.
>
> What's the right way? And what evidence should I look for that OTA is taking
> place etc. Do I need to power cycle the phone to get it to OTA?


When provisioning is complete, you will be able to make and (porting
excepted) reciever calls.

On your model of phone, look for your user name to appear at the bottom
of the screen, indicating that Vision provisioning is complete.
-mike
 
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"Mike" <spamtrap@zbuffer.com> wrote in message
news:pJxOc.20527$iK.16463@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> s wrote:
> > Phone went astray a few days ago and just got a replacement today.
Getting
> > some conflictiing info from Sprint's outsourcers on proper activation
> > procedure.
> >
> > First guy I talked with had me enter the service menu and enter my phone
> > number in both areas. Second person said to enter a different number for
the
> > MSID. What's MSID? Is that messaging system ID?
>
> The MSID is often the same as the MDN (MDN="mobile device number"=phone
> number) but not always. IIRC, MSID stands for "Mobile Station
> IDentifier." For people like me, who deal with activating all over the
> country, it's easy to get into the sloppy habit of entering the MDN and
> the MSID as the same number. I imagine it's even worse with reps working
> in stores where most of the market has matching MDN and MSID numbers.
> You must enter the correct MDN and MSID or your phone will not work.
> Your phone should be on. If you're replacing an old phone, you'll
> generally be advised to leave the old phone off for 24 hours or until
> provisioning is complete. I would suggest turning your phone on after
> programming. If you cannot place a phone call after four hours have
> passed, I would call right back to customer service and ask them to help
> you reprogram your phone.
>
>

The SID isn't used in programming anymore. The MSID is the mobile station
ID, it was created as part of the requirements for WLNP. If you got your MDN
before August 2002, your MDN and MSID are the same. If you got your MDN
after then, they could be different, and the newer the number, the more
likely it is that the two are different, especially in larger markets where
all the carriers go through pools of numbers pretty quickly.

If the numbers are different, they both MUST be entered (and this is where
the problems start with older phones that can't accept the programming of
the MSID and can't be updated). If the two numbers are the same, only the
MDN has to be entered. However, as a trouble specialist, time and time again
I get calls from people who did an ESN swap, their MDN and MSID are the
same, so the first specialist didn't program the MSID, but now either they
still can't make calls (and programming the MSID corrects it) or the Voice
Mail One Touch (the envelope key) is dialing the wrong number. My rule of
thumb is to always program the MDN and MSID, even if they match, and then
you eliminate these potential problems. Sprint is training it that way now,
but there are always people out there that either can't or won't learn the
new way. The most common call I get is from customers who can't use their
phone because the first (or second, or third, or fourth) rep didn't program
the MSID. Nothing frustrates me more than that!

Leisa
 
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Leisa <lei@spring.com> wrote:

> The SID isn't used in programming anymore. The MSID is the mobile station
> ID, it was created as part of the requirements for WLNP. If you got your MDN
> before August 2002, your MDN and MSID are the same. If you got your MDN
> after then, they could be different, and the newer the number, the more
> likely it is that the two are different, especially in larger markets where
> all the carriers go through pools of numbers pretty quickly.

AhhHAH.

So, I bought a phone early this month, and it was assigned a phone number
in an exchange I know to be allocated to Sprint PCS. I'm betting that my
phone number and MSID are the same. However, next month when my old contract
ends I will be porting my original number to my (existing) Sprint phone.
I'm assuming at that point that the MSID will be whatever I had on the
phone from the other carrier?

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Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net
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Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.
 
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"Steven J Sobol" <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in message
news:SMWdnUcsa76UJpfcRVn-jg@lmi.net...
> Leisa <lei@spring.com> wrote:
>
> > The SID isn't used in programming anymore. The MSID is the mobile
station
> > ID, it was created as part of the requirements for WLNP. If you got your
MDN
> > before August 2002, your MDN and MSID are the same. If you got your MDN
> > after then, they could be different, and the newer the number, the more
> > likely it is that the two are different, especially in larger markets
where
> > all the carriers go through pools of numbers pretty quickly.
>
> AhhHAH.
>
> So, I bought a phone early this month, and it was assigned a phone number
> in an exchange I know to be allocated to Sprint PCS. I'm betting that my
> phone number and MSID are the same. However, next month when my old
contract
> ends I will be porting my original number to my (existing) Sprint phone.
> I'm assuming at that point that the MSID will be whatever I had on the
> phone from the other carrier?
>


I believe you're correct. Every ported number I've ever seen has had the
MSID different from the MDN.

Leisa
 
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In article <xcDOc.199870$JR4.52867@attbi_s54>,
Leisalei@spring.com says...
> > So, I bought a phone early this month, and it was assigned a phone number
> > in an exchange I know to be allocated to Sprint PCS. I'm betting that my
> > phone number and MSID are the same. However, next month when my old
> contract
> > ends I will be porting my original number to my (existing) Sprint phone..
> > I'm assuming at that point that the MSID will be whatever I had on the
> > phone from the other carrier?
> >
>
>
> I believe you're correct. Every ported number I've ever seen has had the
> MSID different from the MDN.
>
> Leisa
>

The MSID is a proprietary number to each carrier. The odds
of it being the same as whatever Verizon had is extremely
slim, although I suppose it's possible.


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ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a
virtue, but moderation in principle is always a
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