Forward your old Verizon cell number to your new iPhone...how to set up call forwarding with Verizon

After waiting a full year I finally have an iPhone (woohoo!). I've had it about a week and I love it! I'm very impressed with it, actually.

My new iPhone even saved me $18 yesterday. I was totally out of toner on my printer. I went to BestBuy to purchase another printer. I remembered that I had received a 10% off coupon from BestBuy in my email, but I was so totatlly out of toner that it wouldn't print. So when I was at the register, in about 30 seconds I pulled up my Yahoo! email, pulled up the BestBuy coupon, zoomed in on it, and showed it the the cashier, asking if they would honor it since I couldn't print it out. The cashier called the manager over, who then promptly approved the use of the coupon, saying that they had the same phone (iPhone). Thus I saved $18 on my new printer that I couldn't have done without my iPhone.

I was reluctant to switch over to AT&T from Verizon, but I felt the iPhone was worth it. You may find yourself in a similar situation...with the question of 'What do I do with my old cell phone and my old cell phone number from Verizon?'

Here is my suggestion...set up call forwarding from your old cell phone to your new iPhone.

The call forwarding feature serves several handy purposes:

1) It allows me to not have to pay the $145 early termination fee that Verizon would charge to cancel my old number. Once my plan with Verizon is up I can choose to cancel it at no cost at that point, or I can keep it.

2) By keeping a separate cell number for forwarding to my iPhone, one that I use only for posting publicly to websites, job boards, and resumes, it allows me to keep my iPhone cell number private for just close friends and family. By keeping my iPhone number private this also greatly reduces unwanted telemarketing calls to my iPhone.

3) Friends that I haven't given my new iPhone number to can still contact me by using the old number they are familiar with (I can pick and choose who to give the new number to).

4) I can turn off my old cell phone, and even let the battery run dead, and I will still get calls that are forwarded to my iPhone. I also never have to upgrade my really old 'brick' cell phone that is on Verizon (I was able to use the 'new every 2' $100 credit to upgrade to a new cell phone for another member of my family who still uses Verizon.

5) I only have to carry one phone (unless I need to carry my Blackberry from work, as I am not yet using the Exchange mode with my iPhone, which I hopefully will be able to do soon).

A few other points:
If I am running over on my monthly allowed minutes with AT&T I can always drop back to my old cell phone on Verizon for a bit (which has plenty of minutes available even with the most basic plan) until I have more minutes to work with on AT&T.

If I want to conserve minutes on my iPhone, and I am willing to temporarily turn off call forwarding and use my old phone, I can use my old Verizon cell phone to talk to other members of the family without using up my minutes due to the 'friends and family' type feature.

I've been doing this for a few years now and it works great...originally I was forwarding calls to my Blackberry, now to my iPhone. The only down-side that I've experienced is that if someone sends a text message to my old cell phone I won't get it on my iPhone, but I find that most text messages I receive on that line are spam text messages anyway, so the up-side far out-weighs the down-side.

Here is a simple process for setting up the 'call forwarding' feature on Verizon...

Verizon call forwarding:

1) Enter *72

2) Enter the 10 digit phone number you want to forward to, plus include a 1 if it is forwarding to a different area code (long distance).

Follow this format (1, area code, 7 digit phone number): # ### ### ####

Example: 1 800 555 1212

(I'm pretty sure it doesn't hurt to put the 1 in the number even if you are forwarding to a local number.)

3) A beep will confirm that call forwarding was set up successfully.

4) *73 turns off call forwarding at any time.

I'd love to hear your comments, especially I'd like to know if this helps anyone in any way.

Sluggish Apple iPhone 3G? We May Know The Culprit

It's been a little more than a month since the Apple iPhone 3G hit the street and users are complaining about one of its biggest selling features: speed. The phone is supposed to operate on a third-generation network, a major upgrade from other networks the iPhone operates on and an even bigger advance over the older Edge network. Unfortunately, 3G iPhone users are finding that their shiny new piece of hardware isn't all roses and faster downloads. One analyst believes the perpetrator of the problem is an Infineon chip.

The iPhone 3G sold more than 1 million units in its first weekend, based largely on the selling point of a faster network. But like the lines anxious consumers encountered at the Apple store, using the phone is taking longer than expected.

Nomura analyst Richard Windsor believes the complaints that have been cropping up on blogs and Apple's own Web site point to something more than an isolated incident.

"There are too many instances on iPhone blogs and Apple's own Web site for it to be coincidence," he wrote in a report dated Aug. 12.

"Furthermore, it is not just the U.S. but other countries as well," he also wrote in the report.

The most common complaint is that Internet speeds have been inconsistent, with a 3G network being available sometimes before users slip back onto a slower network such as Edge.

Windsor believes the problem can likely be traced to Infineon, a German chip manufacturer that provides the majority of chips to Apple for the iPhone 3G.

"We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain that Infineon is the 3G supplier," Windsor wrote.

Meanwhile, AT&T, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the U.S., hasn't been confronted with the problem. In fact, the carrier has had very few complaints.

"This is not something that's high on our radar screen. It's not something we've had a lot of complaints about," said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel.

A spokesman from Infineon declined to comment.

---

Jeff Kemp (Golden, CO), www.jeff-kemp.com.

Former 3Com Channel Chief Joins D-Link

Nick Tidd, who earlier this year was phased out of his role as channel chief at 3Com (NSDQ:COMS), has landed a new gig developing North American

channels for D-Link.

According to Fountain Valley, Calif.-based D-Link, Tidd will play a major role in developing overall business sales strategies as general manager of business solutions for D-Link Canada and vice president of North American channel development for the business and networking vendor.

Steven Joe, president and CEO of D-Link's North American operations said Tidd's appointment is a move for D-Link to fortify its channel and engage its 4,500 registered North American partners as D-Link strengthens its focus on hitting the business-class market.

D-Link has long been recognized as a strong consumer player in North America, Joe said, but now wants to establish dominance as an end-to-end player in the business sector. Tidd comes aboard while D-Link is in the third year of its 5-year plan to grow sales in the business-class market, which has included the introduction of more than 40 new business solutions between 2007 and 2008.

D-Link's 5-year plan has also seen a simplified partner program and a host of end-user focused programs, including "switch for free," which lets potential customers try D-Link gear against the competition; "try before you buy," which lets customers test drive products before buying; and a buy one, get one free program, which offers many D-Link switches as a two-for-one option.

D-Link has also achieved growth in many of its product categories. According to research firm In-Stat, D-Link switches rank second behind Cisco Systems (NSDQ:CSCO) for units shipped and is the worldwide provider of unmanaged switch ports. Additionally, from April 2007 to April 2008, sales of D-Link's Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices grew more than 395 percent.

Joe said D-Link has created the new position for Tidd as part of its investment in its business market focus, tapping Tidd because he is a well known name in the channel and brings a new level of innovation.

"He's really established in channel programs and relationships," Joe said, noting that Tidd helped 3Com grow its channel program, despite some 3Com partners being critical of his performance. Joe said the past issues with Tidd in his previous roles stem from companies not taking advantage of his skills and being unable to adapt to meet market and channel demands.

"His capabilities and skills were kept in a box due to organizational limitations," he said, later adding that Tidd's former companies set up barriers that stifled the possibility for growth.

The goal is for Tidd to illustrate for partners that D-Link has grown beyond just a switching vendor by branching into other areas like IP security, storage, wireless and digital signage. D-Link will turn to Tidd to communicate D-Link's message to partners and educate them, Joe said.

Tidd, Joe said, will be charged with communicating to partners what D-Link does while educating partners on how D-Link fits in the market as D-Link creates its "next generation channel" centered on not only products, but a new level of services and support.

"Tidd is the latest example of the commitment we have made to further strengthen our business sales through the channel, which includes selling an ever-expanding line of end-to-end networking solutions through our growing network of value-added resellers, solution providers, distributors and retailers," Joe said.

Tidd left 3Com in March as the Marlborough, Mass.-based networking vendor shifted its channel strategy to focus on a more regionalized model. Tidd served as vice president of worldwide channels for two years at 3Com, a company he joined in 1997 during its U.S. Robotics acquisition. Before taking 3Com's top channel spot, Tidd spent five years running its North American channels.

At the time, Tidd said he and his team were "phased out" in favor of 3Com's new channel approach.

---

Jeff Kemp (Golden, CO), www.jeff-kemp.com.