Teelcom Customisation

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sarnold

60 posts

Master Geek

#1611 26-May-2004 21:36

While this doesn't involve the usual esoteric around smart phone performance I'd appreciate some wise advice.

I've just upgraded two telecom phones to a Nokia 6225 and a Gtran 4020. I find that both make an awful noise (aka music) when you turn them on, and despite requests to the retailer (Telecom mobile) we don't seem to be able to turn the noise off.

Every time we turn on our cellphones we are reminded of the association of the Telecom brand with an unplesent experience. Over time we suspect it will work.

This is in the category of TV One playing their new promotional theme tune - I switch to TV3 and watch their news instead.

I suspect whoever in Telecom marketing who thought of this degree of customisation is in the pay of Vodafone.

Before i send the phones back (none of their advertisng suggested we would have to listen to unpleasent music before we made use of our phones); take up Vodafone's tempting offers for people that switch from Telecom; and whinge loundly to telecom mobile management, can anyone confirm that this "feature" is part of the customisation or can it be switched off?

Ta

freitasm

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#6045 26-May-2004 21:42

I don't have the answer for your question, but I'm curious to know about our users' mobile phone habits. For example, I never turn my mobile off, I can turn it into Silent mode when needed. I think it's a way of seeing this thing. I really would like to ditch my landline and use the mobile only. But I have one reason to keep the old POTS here.

Certainly leaving the phone always On would save you of this problem, at least temporarily?

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sarnold

60 posts

Master Geek

#6046 26-May-2004 22:06

Without wanting to distract from the orginal question, I'd ask how would you feel if every 15 minutes your cellphone played a silly tune and showed an ad for you service provider and you couldn't turn it off?

freitasm

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#6047 26-May-2004 22:13

In this case I wouldn't stick with that provider more than 29 minutes. But the tunes are played only when the phones are powered on, isn't it? Or is there anything else going on?

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sarnold

60 posts

Master Geek

#6049 26-May-2004 22:23

Sorry, hypothetical question. You said "why worry, you can leave your phone turned on", I said (thinking I don't want to use my phone that way so why should I put up with this, and how can I get my point across) "How would you feel if the way you used your phone got interupted all the time". You said "I'd give them 29 minutes". I agree, but want to check that I can't turn it all off so I can be satisfied with the phones.

alasta

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#6064 27-May-2004 08:43

Generally, I don't turn mine off either, but there are some situations where you have to. For example, on an aeroplane, in a hospital, etc.

Sarnold - The only possible solution that I can think of is to switch the handset over to silent mode before turning it off. In that case, it might not play the tune when you turn it back on, although it would be a pain in the backside to have to turn silent mode on and off like that all the time.

Bunty

58 posts

Master Geek

#6080 27-May-2004 15:27

Regretfully this is not something that Telecom does. The pwr up/dwn sounds are inbuilt by each manufacturer and Telecom has little influence over these settings.
It thankfully does vary by manufacturer. For example in the Sanyo 8100 you can reduce/increase the level of the pwrup sound and turn it off all together.

Thankfully most of us don't turn our phones off too often.

sarnold

60 posts

Master Geek

#6133 28-May-2004 15:59

Yes that's right (aka yer right) - I guess that's why Sprint customers are always complaining about having a Telecom logo on their Nokia 6225s on power up.

Anyway got it licked on the Nokia. Turn off warning tones in the appropriate profile. Not sure what else gets turned off (perhaps the ticking noise b4 it explodes).

Now to the GTran.

sarnold

60 posts

Master Geek

#6311 4-Jun-2004 20:39

Some more triva that might be of mild interest to potential buyers (more about the 6225 since the wife's made off with the Gtran - the clamshell does give a good screen and keyboard but we are definitely not the target market for built in wallpaper on menus and the cartoons on startup).

You can download images on the Gtran that replace the images on boot and shutdown, but they don't replace the noise. The noise doesn't seem to be altered by any of the volume settings but putting one's thumb across the earpiece on boot and shut down does seem to help.

Found the usual problem on both phones that Xtra email on the Xtra menus doesn't serve HTML formatted mail (ie Telecoms server doesn't convert mail from HTML to plain text - a feature that is available on every desktop in the country via MS Outlook and was available via Djuice - however try and read a HTML formatted message via the Xtra menus and after a couple of screen fulls you get an embeded message - "Sorry message too big!" - on any phone I've tried).

Did my civic duty and complained yet again to the help desk and got a denial that anyone had had this problem before - why do they bother - and a promise that some one would be in touch. A week later I wait. When I rang about this happeningon my Kyocera after Djuice died I was told that it was a problem with my phone.

Moved on with the 6225 and find that xtramail does serve HTML formatted mail when using the WAP browser. At least that gives some options (something Paradise webmail doesn't provide).

Try using 6225 as a data modem over infrared and that works fine, but while I can POP my non-Xtra email account not surprisingly I can't send email (who wants to give spammers access to open relays anyway).

In summary the 6225 is doing the business (wouldn't bother with camera, but the 6585 won't work in the US because of inadequate code in the handset) and the GTran is meeting the need, but why do we have to put up with providers sticking their oars in and trying to sell their other products, rather than just meeting customer needs?