2.0 Hour Wait to Activate iPhone 2.0

I am in the middle of setting up an iPhone for work – I can see how this would be easy for personal use, but for a business’ IT department it is a real pain compared to the Windows Mobile phones. There is no real way to provision the phones on a massive scale. This would be a nightmare for more than a few phones.

I’d send the device home with the end user, but I had a feeling something like this would happen and I’m glad I didn’t trust the process. I just got through the iTunes configuration – a sixty minute ordeal since I need the iTunes account info, credit card, home billing and shipping address, super secret password, et cetera of the end user who, of course, is in another building two miles from here. He is mobile and guess what – he doesn’t have a cell phone because the number port from Verizon Wireless already went through.

To top it all off, I just got through talking to AT&T Wireless customer service and it turns out AT&T Wireless is so backed up with activation requests that it is going to take them two hours to turn on service for this $300 phone sitting on my desk.