So, at my apartment I have a phone line. This line is necessary in order to get DSL and has no telephone attached to it. For some reason, however, various companies and governmental entities have discovered that my "home phone" number is the number of this line rather than my cell phone which I actually use.

Once I discovered this, I decided to try to rig something up such that any call to my land line would be automagically sent to my cell phone. Such things have been possible for some time due to the advent of "call forwarding", but I still had some apprehension as to the details of such a Rube Goldberg machine and so called up ATT.

Firstly, the ATT phone system is quite annoying. It requires you to speak commands to it and will not allow you to go to an agent without first selecting a "topic". After doing so the first time, I was disconnected before a person answered without warning or explaination. Upon navigating the automated system a second time, I was directed to a person who could "only handle customers in the Midwest". This person kindly forwarded to my call to a person who could handle "California customers". This second person also could not handle people in California. The third person could handle people in California, but not people who were in the U-verse coverage area (of which I apparently am). However, the fourth person could help me.

I had two questions of relevance. Firstly, since I have the lowest end phone plan available, I wanted to make sure that getting incoming calls wouldn't send me over the limit. It turns out that I can get unlimited incoming calls without getting a charge. This was the right answer. The second question was whether I would be forced to pay long distance charges to forward my California telephone number to my Indiana cell phone number. It turns out that, even though I use ATT for both my land line and my cell phone, I would be forced to pay for long distance for any incoming call. The only option they offered was to go from my $5/month plan to a $25/month plan which would have unlimited long distance. This was the wrong answer.

Upon trying to end the call, I was abruptly halted by a pitch to get the U-verse service for television and internet connectivity. Presumably, this would have replaced my DSL connection so I enquired as to whether or not this would be Business-class internet. The person on the line responding by telling me about the line speed available. I told them that I wasn't asking about the speed at which point they again told me about the speed. Once again I responded that speed alone does not business class make and the person attempted to forward me to a business U-verse at which point I bid them good day.

I should also note that, once you've had your call forwarded cross-country 4 times, it becomes very difficult to hear anything that is said over a telephone.

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