 Cingular vs. BV revisited
I've spent another 85 minutes over two separate support calls with Cingular this evening. For reference, the exchange I'm having trouble with is 906-232-XXXX.
While the first service rep was polite and sympathetic -- and yes, even called me back when I hit a flaky tower and the call was dropped -- he was unable to get tech support to budge. They went so far as to call the number above and below my BV number and determined that there was a problem to the exchange, not just my number. However, tech support still insisted to the support rep I was talking to that it was not their problem and that further, there was no other support to escalate this to.
Each time I have called they have tried calling from their wireline phones, but this only confused them. They get the same message that I do (but with a different code at the end). This told the person troubleshooting that it "must" be a BV problem.
I politely but firmly suggested that this is not a problem with at least two wireline and one wireless carrier that I have used, and that they use whatever escalation process they have to get this resolved. End of call #1.
I turned to Google in an attempt to find some other non-BV numbers in the same exchange. To my pleasant surprise, Telesthetics provides free access to IAXtel, SIPphone, and FWD via a number on this exchange. And, as I completely expected, calls from my Cingular phone do not go through.
This brings me to call #2. I explained my problem as briefly and accurately as possible, i.e. that I was able to call from three other carriers without any trouble, and that I had the same message when I called either of the numbers in this exchange. She agreed that it sounded like a routing problem but since it wasn't a wireless to wireless call, she wasn't able to do any direct troubleshooting. The tech support folks had gone home 40 minutes before I called this time; this was ironically a blessing in that I didn't get any indirect pushback from them, and we were able to diagnose this further.
What we eventually found was that the entire 906-232-XXXX exchange is allocated to "Local Exchange Carriers of Michigan, Inc.", and test calls to a random sampling of these all result in the same message. This was hardly surprising since I did a bit of this on my own before calling. Now, here's the kicker: sitting in the exact same spot, I can switch my phone over to the other GSM provider in my local area (Einstein/Airadigm Communications) and complete the call!
The support rep ran with this one. The fact that I can place the call from the same phone in the same physical location, presumably through the same CO and perhaps even ultimately through the a common switch, was obviously troubling. She put together a report for her supervisor detailing our findings. I'm hopeful that this will finally be fixed in the next day or two. | 
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