The death of distance... not yet...

I went to SZ for a customer meeting and by chance there's another teleconf scheduld at day end. I needed to make the call from the customer's office.

I started to arrange the call after lunch. There are basically several options:

(1) Ask my HK colleague to call my HK mobile.
(2) Ask my HK colleague to call my CN mobile.
(3) Call GZ office to join the call using my CN mobile.
(4) Call HK office using my CN mobile.
(5) Call HK office using PCCW IDD.

For various reasons, I didn't take #1 & #2.

I tried #3. But then found that we moved the GZ office a while ago and I deleted the relocation e-mail. I tried to look up my mail log and found those from GZ. Faile to find one with updated main line. I then SMS'ed a colleague that I briefed contacted before. He sent me the main line with a question about who I was... So I just told him my old job role... Not sure he recalled though.

#3 and #4 aren't attractive as I would need to use my local CN mobile to make DDD/IDD which would be expensive. The more important issue is that I might not be able to claim it... :)

Therefore, I tried #5. I used IDD before when I was in BJ without any problem. But then I found that I couldn't do so in SZ. I re-checked my address book and found same numbers. I called P2 to check for me and she gave me same numbers. I polled Mo (she was in BJ) and got the same numbers. I was about to give up.

Time's up. Needed to join the call. I requested for a meting room at the customer office. The gal was kind enough to ask if I needed DDD access and she was about to dial for me. But I though it's not a good practice. I decided to try IDD again. It worked!

I think somehow there's problem calling the local IDD number using my mobile. Not sure if it's barred by China Mobile or for other reason.

The call was OK. It's not the cheapest way though... :)