Motorola phones dumb-down GSM forwarding with bad effects.... ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. I have a Motorola 6000e GSM phone (1900 MHz). It's a pretty good phone in my opinion, though many others disagree with me. Well, I just discovered one thing about it that sucks, and I actually think it's a bug. Since the menu firmware is the same that's in the StarTac as far as I can tell, StarTac owners would also be affected.

A. I use call-forwarding a lot. My carrier does not charge airtime or any fees for forwarded calls (Bell South DCS rules in this regard!). Most GSM-aware people know that GSM has several times of call forwarding: no-answer, busy, unreachable, all. Well, the call-forwarding menu on my Moto 6000 only has the unreachable and all choices. No biggie generally, but in GSM if you reject a call (by pressing END on Nokia phones or C on Motorola phones while it's ringing), the call is supposed to be forwarded to the forward-if-busy-number. What I have discovered is that if I use the menu on the Motorola phone to set "forward if unreachable," the phone actually sends the signals to the switch to change most of the forwarding settings (busy, unreachable, no-answr) to that number. In other words, the phone treats unreachable, no-answer, and busy as the same and changes all three of them when you use its menu to change the unreachable number! I know it's my phone and not the network doing this, because if I use the GSM ** codes to do the forwarding, rather than the phone's menu, it works correctly. To me, this is not only a bug, it's an incorrect implementation of GSM. It has bitten me a few times before I finally figured out what was going on. Gory details follow, skip if they bore you and you already understand why this is unacceptable. I have the following speed-dials set up on my phone: 5: GSM code for forward if unreachable to my office phone 6: GSM code for forward if unreachable to my home phone 7: GSM code for forward if unreachable to my cellular provider's voicemail When I come into the office I speed-dial 5 and turn the phone off. When I leave I speed-dial 7 and keep the phone on (so I get calls, but if I'm out of range the voicemail gets it). Then when I get home I speed-dial 6 and turn the phone off. When I go out again I speed-dial 7. You get the idea. I don't understand why you forward if unreachable for 5 and 6 if you are turning the phone off. Why not use forward immediate (**21*x#). When you leave the office or home you can then cancel the forward immediate. Your forward if unreachable to voicemail will still exist. I don't now about the Motorola phone but my Nokia has an icon on the screen showing that forward immediate has been set. It doesn't appear for the other types of forwarding. So I won't accidentally leave the forward immediate on. If you used forward immediate at your parent's place you would have cancelled the forwarding as it would have been obvious. Another advantage of using forward immediate is that the mobile network does not have to search for your phone. The call will go directly to the forwarded number. If you didn't use forward immediate the network would try to find your phone, not find it since it is off, and then forward the call. Call forward immediate is especially advisable if you are roaming on other networks as the call does not have to leave your home network to find you.

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