Vodacom released Twincall into the wild untested

[nathanstevenson]

In November, Vodacom released a new feature onto their network called Twincall. What Twincall enables you to do is to have 2 phones using the same phone number. In theory, when you switch the one phone off, the other should log on to the network.

In December I received the iphone 4S upgrade which I was happy with. I also have an ipad which works perfectly with the datasim on the same phone number. I decided however to try the Twincall feature with a Blackberry Bold 9700 and the iphone 4S on a Iphone Talk500 contract.

This is when the problems started. A sim swop was done with the blackberry so that it would be the primary phone and BIS was activated. That all worked smoothly. Twincall was then activated and I received a message from the network saying so. The problem is that once the blackberry is switched off, the iphone does not connect to the network. It simply says "No Service".

I have since spent an hour on two separate occassions at Vodacom Craighall Park, an hour with Vodacom Data Services over the phone, and <another> hour with Vodacare flagship in Sandton. At the Sandton branch, all investigations showed that the correct sim cards are registered on the network, that twincall is activated and that there should be no problems. The final fix was that the micro sim in the iphone must be faulty. Another sim swop was done and I was told it would activate after a few hours.

It did not work. The iphone 4S still does not work still saying "No Service" and neither does Twincall - despite everything on my network profile indicating that it is working perfectly.

The conclusion that I have come to (as an IT professional) is that Vodacom engineers did not test this feature properly and released it into the wild too soon and are now selling a service that does not work.

I decided to post this on MyBroadband forum because I think it is irresponsible to rollout features to users before staff are sufficiently trained, systems have been configured to cater for the changes and thorough testing has been undertaken. Effective testing would have picked this up problem.

Vodacom - you've done great things with your HSPA+ network. Bettering 8ta and Cell-C. But you have dropped the ball in a bad way on this one. Love to speak with an engineer that worked on this.

 

[Ockie]

Twin Call is a old service...almost as old as Vodacom. It was orginialy designed to serve built in car phones. Just switching the one phone off wont make the other phone register automatically. The iphone will need to be rebooted aswell so that its sim can register on the network.

So, when you want to switch, do the following.

1. Switch current phone in use off completely
2. Switch the phone to be switched to off aswell and do a proper reboot

It should be ready to use now. The general rule of thumb is that the last phone to be switched on will be the one registered on the network.

 

[nathanstevenson]

Twin Call is a old service...almost as old as Vodacom. It was orginialy designed to serve built in car phones. Just switching the one phone off wont make the other phone register automatically. The iphone will need to be rebooted aswell so that its sim can register on the network.

So, when you want to switch, do the following.

1. Switch current phone in use off completely
2. Switch the phone to be switched to off aswell and do a proper reboot

It should be ready to use now. The general rule of thumb is that the last phone to be switched on will be the one registered on the network.

Thanks for that. Yes, I've done that each time I've visited the Vodacom shops. Also been advised that multiple times by the call centre. It's the first thing one tries right?

Also technically speaking there should be no reason why the phone has to be switched off completely for the service to be provisioned from the network (after the first time). It should just be a case of switching the radio off on the one and on on the other right?

 

[Ockie]

Also technically speaking there should be no reason why the phone has to be switched off completely for the service to be provisioned from the network (after the first time). It should just be a case of switching the radio off on the one and on on the other right?

That should do the trick...there there aint nothing like a proper reboot.

I have had two very similar cases where two different clients of mine had problems exactly..well very similar to yours. Their twin call worked as it should....BUT then the Iphone would not receive emails anymore and then it was a drama to sort it out and then the blackberry got kicked off and then they did not know which phone was actually working etc etc.

My advice to them was this: Do some soul searching....and decide which device you actually want to use and stick with it. Both decided on the Iphone and we removed BIS and twin call and now they happy.

What must be remember is that Twin Call was not designed for these kind of purposes. The data side of things have moved way ahead. If you are adament that you want to keep on carrying your BB with you to receive BBM and Email...then rather consider a Blackberry Data Sim. This is a new product and you can use both phones at the same time...BUT the Blackberry will not be provisioned for voice...only Blackberry data.

 

[morkhans]

I poked around and interestingly enough the terms and conditions for BB prepaid say TwinCall is not available (might just be because Twincall is contract only?). https://www.vodacom.co.za/personal/...lackberry/prepaidblackberrytermsandconditions

But maybe there is some issue with APN conflicts.

 

[Ockie]

I poked around and interestingly enough the terms and conditions for BB prepaid say TwinCall is not available (might just be because Twincall is contract only?). https://www.vodacom.co.za/personal/...lackberry/prepaidblackberrytermsandconditions

But maybe there is some issue with APN conflicts.

Is he OP on prepaid? How did I miss that. Twin Call is contract only.

 

[Ockie]

But maybe there is some issue with APN conflicts.

Could be. But Blackberry and Internet APN normally plays nicely together....the Iphone APN might be a different story...but he can switch the Iphone to the internet APN. Form what I read he mentioned a "No Service" message displayed on the phone. Sounds to me like the sim is not working at all.

 

[morkhans]

Is he OP on prepaid? How did I miss that. Twin Call is contract only.

He's contract. I just found the comment about Twincall and PrePaid BB interesting in the T&C.

 

[morkhans]

Could be. But Blackberry and Internet APN normally plays nicely together....the Iphone APN might be a different story...but he can switch the Iphone to the internet APN. Form what I read he mentioned a "No Service" message displayed on the phone. Sounds to me like the sim is not working at all.

Yes. I would also only expect the APNs to play a part for data transfer once the SIM is registered to the network.

 

[isie]

In November, Vodacom released a new feature onto their network called Twincall. What Twincall enables you to do is to have 2 phones using the same phone number. .

Twin Call is a old service...almost as old as Vodacom. It was orginialy designed to serve built in car phones. .

Yep very old indeed, My dad had twincall when he first got his contract, funny at that time the car phone and his cellphone were the same size

 

[nathanstevenson]

Yes. I would also only expect the APNs to play a part for data transfer once the SIM is registered to the network.

Thanks for the interest guys. I found the posting about changing the APN to INTERNET as opposed to the iphone APN and that didn't work. I also just retried the reboot on both phones. Iphone still says "No Service" my sense is that this is a network side setting that is not provisioning the sim card. Except a sim swop has already been done as the only logical conclusion was that the sim was faulty. That didn't unfortunately solve the problem.

The reason I need both BB and I4S is multiple - the BB is good for email and BIS saves me money on internet. The i4s is amazing for photos and also the personal hotspot which I use a huge amount as backup connectivity when I am travelling. Also I find i4S battery dies around early evening - hence wanting then to switch on the blackberry and go into the night (I work with US so need to make calls in evening).

So the use case for Twincall is a good one. And from another point of view I know others have had it working so I'd like to get it working for myself..

 

[nathanstevenson]

My phone number is XXXXX and I am on contract, Vodacom Iphone Talk 500 and already have a data sim for Ipad and two sims - the primary for Blackberry Bold 9700 with BIS activated SIM NO: XXXXX, the secondary microsim for iPhone SIM NO: XXXXX.

Really appreciate your help and insight moderators and senior members!

Just wish I could solve the "No Service" mystery on the iPhone. It's like the network hasn't linked the sim card to the phone number - except Vodacom systems say it <is> linked and activated. iPhone also finds all the networks on manual selection and when Vodacom is selected it very quickly comes up with "No Service" where the signal indicator is.

 

[morkhans]

PM ocleroux your details so he can check if the SIM is active or not.

 

[Ockie]

PM ocleroux your details so he can check if the SIM is active or not.

Oh really? Getting a bit familiar aint we?

OP...please remember to include the sim number with your PM that you using in the Iphone. It is printed on the sim and starts with 89 and is 20 digits long.

 

[nathanstevenson]

Super thanks guys - I have PM'd you ocleroux

 

[Ockie]

Super thanks guys - I have PM'd you ocleroux

Received. The sim you using for the Iphone is indeed showing correctly on my system. Currently busy with my helpdesk to log a call for a investigation to be done as to why it is not working. It has happened to me before where on Morpheus it shows it is active...but on Icap it is not linked....so even though on my system it shows, it might not have been provisioned on Icap.

 

[Ockie]

Call logged. TAT is 24 working hours.

 

[nathanstevenson]

Awesome! Thanks so much! As I'm sure you can imagine it's real tough finding the problem via call centre and/or Vodacare.. specially when system says it is fine. And after replacing the microsim.

 

[Haldex]

I have the same setup but BlackBerry package with iPhone on twincall, have both APNs both are working fine.
Oh and as everybody said before, Twincall was introduced in the 90s.

One thing you should be aware of if you not already, when making calls from the twincall it will register another number. So make sure the phone you intend to make the bulk of your calls from is the main sim.

Its a B1tch to manage with a normal sim and micro sim.

 

[Ockie]

Awesome! Thanks so much! As I'm sure you can imagine it's real tough finding the problem via call centre and/or Vodacare.. specially when system says it is fine. And after replacing the microsim.

Yeah I saw that a sim swop was done on the system....the chances of two sims being faulty for one client is like....well...minimal. I have a feeling the provisioning of the service/sim just aint going through properly.