[nabs-l] international roaming and your Cell Phones at Convention

[Joseph C. Lininger]

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Liz and others interested in this topic,
As for a customer service rep making a statement that you have to
physically be in Canada for there to be any chance of picking up a
roming provider instead of your own provider, I have to say, bullshit.
If you are interested in the technical details of why this can happen,
read on. If not, then simply do the following to help ensure you don't
accidentally rome.

1. If your carrier is Sprint PCS or one of the others whose phones let
you set the phone for no roming (Sprint PCS is the only one I know that
does it), then use this feature to deactivate roming.

2. Ask your carrier to deactivate international roming. Insist on this
if you must, don't accept an explanation that it "shouldn't matter". If
they can't, then explain the situation and ask them if they can issue
you a credit should this happen. Make sure they note your account. If
they have to issue a $400 credit, they'll be reluctant to do it me
thinks. LOL

3. See my previous message on methods of avoiding accidental roming.
Suggestion 1 in that message is preferred, with 3 and 4 as a backup option.

Ok, now for the details of how this problem can occur. Every carrier has
a list of prefered networks for roming purposes. This list is contained
in your phone in something called the prefered roming list, at least in
Verizon Speak. Others may call it something different. Anyway, this is a
list of networks that your carrier has agreements with to provide roming
service. If the carrier's network is unavailable, then your phone will
attempt to locate one of these. Your phone can also use networks that
aren't on the list in some cases, but we won't discuss that since doing
so generally requires you take special steps like billing the call to a
credit card. We'll only deal with prefered roming providers here.

The problem that can occur if you are in close proximity to both your
carrier's network and one of these roming providers is that your phone
might fail to pick up your carrier's network and then succeed at picking
up the roming provider's. For example, let's say you hit a dead spot in
the hotel where your network drops out for some reason. Your phone will
search for another, and it'll locate a roming providers if there is one
available. Now, even though you're technically in the coverage area,
you're roming because you're using a roming provider's network. And in
this case, it's an international one to boot. Your phone will switch
back to your provider's network when it can detect it in most cases,
since in general it's set to prefer your provider's network over all
other networks. But in the mean time, you're roming.

Being physically in Canada doesn't make any difference for this. It's
all a matter of how the radio waves travel. Radio waves don't know
anything about national borders. The representitive is correct in saying
it "shouldn't" happen. But "shouldn't" and "won't" aren't the same thing
by any means.

Finally, I want to point out that there is language in the terms of
service for most mobile carriers that specifically addresses this issue.
What it says varies a bit, but the basic points are this.

1. Your phone's indicator should show when you are roming.

2. It is possible to rome even if you are in the coverage area for your
provider if your phone connects to a roming provider's network. One of
them I read once specifically pointed out that this can happen if you're
right on the edge of the coverage area for your provider's network as an
example, but said that wasn't the only time it could happen.

3. Billing is based on what network you're actually connected to and
using, not based on your phone's roming indicator or whether or not
you're in the coverage area when you make or receive a call.

4. You're responsible for the bill, regardless of whether the phone
showed you were roming and regardless of whether you were within the
coverage area.

Here in the US it's not as big of a problem as it could be because many
carriers have agreements with one another to where a customer of one can
use the network of another with no extra charges. However, in the case
of a provider in another nation, that's not the case.

*gasps* That was a long message. If any of you have any questions about
this or need help dealing with it, feel free to contact me here or by
private email. I'm also on MSN IM using this email address, on AIM using
the name jcbahm99, and on Yahoo using the name jbahm99.
Joe
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