[Ohio-talk] international roaming and your Cell Phones at Convention

[Deborah Kendrick]

I just had a lovely chat with a Verizon rep -- who happens to live in 
Detroit!  She said that international roaming actually can not be turned 
off, but that, instead, I should update my phone before leaving home turf 
(with star 228), and then be aware that if my phone goes into roaming mode, 
that it is picking up the  Canadian signal.  She said that it is rare, but 
that sometimes the signal bounces off the water and roaming occurs.
Bottom line: update before leaving home, and call if the roaming icon 
occurs.  I have a phone with speech, but the roaming icon doesn't speak.  I 
told her that, so she made a note and said she would just follow up with me 
in the next bill cycle.  I told her there would be a few thousand blind 
people there for convention and to expect more calls!
Obviously, info for other providers might be different.
Hope this is useful.
Deborah
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wilson,Joanne (by way of David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>)" 
<JWilson at nfb.org>
To: <david.andrews at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 8:36 PM
Subject: [Ohio-talk] international roaming and your Cell Phones at 
Convention



----------
From: Berggren, John
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 2:17 PM
To: NCB Staff

For those of you travelling to convention, you'll notice that just a
couple hundred yards across the Detroit River is Canada, our neighbor
to the north (or in this unusual case, our neighbor to the
south).  Though you will need a passport to cross the border, your
cell phone doesn't.  Depending where you are in the hotel, your cell
phone (or data card) may give up on a weak signal from your carrier
and switch to the Rogers Communications cell signal from
Canada.  This constitutes international roaming and can be very
expensive.  Unless you have a contract that includes it, you might
consider contacting your provider to disable international roaming,
if only for the first couple of weeks of July.  I found AT&T to be
very helpful in providing assistance with my request.  To make it a
bit easier for those interested, here are contact numbers for the
various carriers:

AT&T : 611 or 800-331-0500
Sprint : *2, press Talk or 888-211-4727
T-Mobile : 800-937-8997
Verizon : *611 or 800-922-0204
Virgin Mobile : 888-322-1122

Here's to no cell phone bill surprises, eh?  If you supervise anyone
without e-mail, please advise any of those attending convention.

Regards,
John
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