Ping Dan Albrich; America's Choice coverage Souther Oregon..

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A year ago, you left your SRW for America's Choice only to lose coverage in
Southern Oregon. Any changes or comments?

Somehow, I started with Ore/Wa M2M on my SRW, lost it (who knows how or
when) and Verizon very recently gave me 1000 M2M at no charge, no contract
extension covering the entire 12 state region. I rarely leave the West, and
last time back East I took a Discount Cell phone on a month 2 month.

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I'll add... I'm sticking with my Singlerate USA+Canada plan rather than
going to NAC. I have a free 3200 N&W minute promo, which I probably
couldn't get back if I moved to NAC and then coverage changed, and I
wanted to move back.

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> A year ago, you left your SRW for America's Choice only to lose coverage
in
> Southern Oregon. Any changes or comments?

Hello Alesandra-

The short answer is that I would gladly trade my current America's Choice
(AC) plan
to get my old SRW plan back if I could. The "contraversy" with AC in Oregon
is that Verizon added all of the US Cellular coverage it normally provides
to the AC plan
back in June of 2003, then removed all of it from AC in September 2003. This
change did not effect where a Verizon phone works, just who pays for the
call when roaming. At the moment it
is all back and included with AC.

The real issue is that network plans like AC will trade out roaming partners
from time to
time. Since *all* of Verizon's southern (and eastern) Oregon coverage is
roaming, this
can be dangerous if you depend on that coverage. This is what makes regional
plans
like SRW so great-- you don't have to worry about which carriers are
preferred
from month to month, or year to year. If your phone can find a signal, and
you're physically located inside your 12 state coverage area, you can make
and receive calls with no chance of being
charged roaming.

At the moment, Verizon's AC coverage in Oregon is excellent. They added back
all of the US Cellular coverage, and added Ramcell as well. I have no
complaints. The main issue is this could change, and with SRW plan it
doesn't effect you even if it does.

Here's a logical reason Verizon might reduce AC coverage in Oregon:
- We know Verizon purchased PCS licenses back in 2000 for the counties along
I5 in southern Oregon.
- They probably will eventually offer native service in southern Oregon at
least along I5.
- When they do this, you may see them remove all those US Cellular and
Ramcell SID's. i.e. They are provided today, in part or in whole because
Verizon has no native coverage there.
- US Cellular covers vast amounts of geographical area in Oregon, and if
some or all of those SID's are lost, your native Verizon coverage may be
confined to I5. Keep in mind it is not possible for Verizon to build out as
extensive coverage as US Cellular in Oregon (at least with existing
licenses) and even with new licenses would be unlikely given the low
population density of some areas.

So the real issue is that once Verizon has native coverage in S. Oregon,
will they allow AC users to roam for free? No one can say for sure, and I
certainly hope I am wrong, but the point is that if you get AC, and the
coverage you depend on gets removed, you'll be sad you lost SRW.

I don't travel to the East enough to make it worth my while, but if you do,
you certainly can take the risk of choosing AC to save money on that travel.
If you don't travel to the east much, I'd pay the roaming or maybe carry a
prepaid nationwide phone just for those trips (or simply use a calling
card).
Note that Verizon allows truly free call forwarding (well it just uses
minutes). This allows my friends to call my Verizon phone number even when
I'm roaming and have it forwarded to my prepaid phone with no roaming
charges.

-Dan

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Dan,
We have so much Verizon coverage statewide, we don't worry about 'losing'
included coverage. But I also wonder 'what if...?' with anybody's plans.
But if you have concerns about possible service reductions when and if
Verizon actually turns up their own PCS service in S. Oregon, let's look at
their other PCS`areas. In Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and possibly others,
they have not only maintained roaming agreements with carriers in these
areas, they have actually added additional roaming partners, most notably in
Texas. If my info is up to date, Sprint and AT&T (analog) are both
available as roaming partners in VZ TX PCS`areas.

Service in OR has gone from awful to wonderful. Enjoy. Don't waste a good
worry.

I once had a very thoughtful discussion with a VZ CS agent who took it upon
herself to discuss the pros and cons of keeping my SRW plan. Among other
things, she suggested I just Call Forward my VZ calls to the landline phone
of the people (family) I was visiting in the east. While it would still use
minutes, it would eliminate roaming charges. While you and I know that, i
found it very refreshing to hear it from CS. You know most customers will
not think of it and may needlessly switch plans to cover such short trips.

BTW, I travel east of the SRW area at least twice a year and do exactly as
you suggest. I have a pre-paid phone to which I forward all VZW calls. It
is nice that the call made to initiate or cancel Call Forwarding can be made
in a Verizon roaming area without charge. Additionally, I can remotely
change (Qwest) Call Forwarding from the home phone, from the VZ phone to the
Pre-paid phone. It's one of those rituals done at the state line, or at the
airport.

However, I'm sure by now you have heard of the unfortunate change in the
CallPlus roaming charges, so my roaming plan may have hit a snag. In some
cases it's cheaper to just pay Verizon roaming charges if I may find myself
off (the AT&T) network. At least for this summer, I also have a GoPhone and
T-Mobile phone to forward to if I'm eastern urban areas.

-Bill

"Dan Albrich" <junkmail@shaney.uoregon.edui> wrote in message
news:IpGdnVE_LOvBIUrdRVn2hg@comcast.com...
> >
> So the real issue is that once Verizon has native coverage in S. Oregon,
> will they allow AC users to roam for free? No one can say for sure, and I
> certainly hope I am wrong, but the point is that if you get AC, and the
> coverage you depend on gets removed, you'll be sad you lost SRW.
>
> I don't travel to the East enough to make it worth my while, but if you
do,
> you certainly can take the risk of choosing AC to save money on that
travel.
> If you don't travel to the east much, I'd pay the roaming or maybe carry a
> prepaid nationwide phone just for those trips (or simply use a calling
> card).
> Note that Verizon allows truly free call forwarding (well it just uses
> minutes). This allows my friends to call my Verizon phone number even
when

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

One advantage of the Singlerate plan is that you can use systems
which aren't in the PRL when there is no or inadequate Verizon or AC
partner signal present without paying roaming fees. There are a lot
more roaming agreements in place with VZW than systems in the PRL.
Sometimes non-preferred roaming partners fill in coverage holes.

Some examples:

1. On the Oregon coast I occasionally will use AT&T or Cellular One
analog when the VZW signal is unusable. The roaming agreement exists
and works just fine.

2. in Santa Barbara County, CA a VZW phone can use native coverage,
can roam on Sprint (not in the PRL, SID 4145, but probably won't get
charged roaming on AC-not sure), or on AT&T analog (SID 531). Having
three systems to select means that coverage is pretty much guaranteed
in almost any location.

3. also SID 1075 in NorCal comes to mind. USCC. Verizon coverage in that
general area isn't very good. On the other hand, USCC coverage is not
bad. Still analog though. Edge Wireless has pretty good GSM for
customers of T-mobile, Cingular, AT&T - but that doesn't help with a
Verizon phone.

Southern Oregon is now pretty much optimal for AC. Can roam on Sprint
(PCS), Ramcell (B-side), USCC (A-side), and it is all included in AC.

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

In article <yIqdnWw7zJ6In0fdRVn2sg@comcast.com>,
Dan Albrich <junkmail@shaney.uoregon.edui> wrote:
>--> Just some comments inserted...
>>
>> 1. On the Oregon coast I occasionally will use AT&T or Cellular One
>> analog when the VZW signal is unusable. The roaming agreement exists
>> and works just fine.
>--> I see this at Yachats and Newport specifcally. Historically Verizon
>could
>not roam on AT&T in the NW of Oregon (and vice versa).

I can even roam on AT&T in Portland itself. Make calls, receive
calls, etc. Perhaps something to do with having a Seattle number
instead of a number based in Oregon. SID 61. I suspect that local
roamers are barred from roaming on AT&T. I certainly can't roam on AT&T
in my local area (Seattle, SID 47).

>> 3. also SID 1075 in NorCal comes to mind. USCC. Verizon coverage in that
>> general area isn't very good. On the other hand, USCC coverage is not
>> bad. Still analog though. Edge Wireless has pretty good GSM for
>> customers of T-mobile, Cingular, AT&T - but that doesn't help with a
>> Verizon phone.
>--> This is another area where Verizon users cannot roam on AT&T (well
>without a credit card).

I've roamed on USCC (SID 1075). I understand that local roamers are barred,
but no problem roaming with my Seattle based phone.