What is the use of 'xxxxx@sprintpcs.com' email address?

[saumil]

Go to Device info

Click on Hardware

Scroll all the way down - There is a field named as "NAI", which cannot be changed.

It has "myfirstname01@sprintpcs.com" email ID.

What is the use of this ID? Can I use this for anything? Is it something related to my phone? I tried emailing to this ID, it does not bounce back and I don't know it it comes back to me!! I don't know how to check it out?

Who created that, may be autogenerated!! But why? Other carrier uses cellphonenumber@carrier.com for texting. I am wondering what is this?

Does anyone has any idea about this?

Post relates to: Pre p100eww (Sprint)

[ElPhantasmo]

I got a SpringPCS.com address when I signed up for my PCS account several years ago.  I don't know if they create those accounts anymore for new customers.  Are you a new or relatively new customer?  Maybe you should ask Sprint.  I think email was required before they used SMS messaging.

Anyone feel free to correct me.

[saumil]

I bought Pre and I became a Sprint customer. Well, for the email ID, the rep in the store did ask for my personal email IDs for both of the Pre I bought that day and that is what is in my Palm profile right now. Now that I see, both of these Pre has two SprintPCS IDs. When they wanted an email ID to start with I did give them so why would they create an additional one for confusion? or is it just an alias for my phone?

I will ask Sprint later today. Thanks for your reply.

[madredrive]

i think its a default email address for your phone...

and you can't use it...

[saumil]

That means it is created for me but I cannot use it. I mean if they wanted t oset a unique id, why don't they generate a random key#, why an email address. Doesn't make any sense to me.

[madredrive]

naaah just leave it.. it won't hurt the phone anyway... its like one of those days wherein you don't know what is the function of your appendix...

[wrprice]

It's essentially your user ID for the data side of the Sprint network, sort of like your phone number for voice.

Your phone sends it to the tower, which uses it to verify that your account is authorized for data access.

They used to let customers pick their user id, but I think they've started auto-assigning them.

There was once a PCS Mail system, but it's probably not available (or worth using, if it is) any more.

[decibel]

Precisely. It is known as an NAI.. Network Access Identifier. It's how some data services know who you are. Sprint also uses the MSID (Mobile Subscriber Identification), MDN (Mobile Directory Number... your phone number) and ESN (Electronic Serial Number) to authenticate services, but relies more on the NAI for subscription based services. The NAI used to be the same as your PCS Mail address. But a couple years ago, Sprint dropped the PCS Mail feature. The most common use for the NAI now is to use it as your "username" for authenticating to "smtp.sprintpcs.com" when sending email through the sprint servers. You can set the password in the same place you used to be able to, in fact when you set the password, it takes you to the old PCS Mail area. Funny. Sprint.com->My Tools->Email Password.

Other than some subscription services, the NAI is not important to you or I. If you really want it changed, Sprint Tech Support still has access to this information. "Update Vision Profile" on old devices is where this got transferred to your phone from Sprint.