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

I was speaking with a local brick and mortar agent the other day, and he
told me something I don't think makes sense. He said that Sprint roams on
all of the local Verizon towers. Being a current Verizon customer who has
been searching for more dependable coverage, and having personally spent a
good deal of time researching the local tower issue, this doesn't make sense
to me. 4 years ago, Verizon customers were allowed to roam on the only local
Sprint tower (yes, there's only one), and at some point that was closed to
us. That's when signal got a lot worse at the house since the Sprint tower
is closer to us than any of the Verizon towers. Currently I'm searching for
a better solution, since Verizon seems to be like swiss cheese here. Can you
confirm or deny this claim? I'm in Dutchess County, NY.


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

* wrote:
> I was speaking with a local brick and mortar agent the other day, and he
> told me something I don't think makes sense. He said that Sprint roams on
> all of the local Verizon towers.

I don't think that's necessarily incorrect. Sprint uses Verizon for roaming in
many areas. If your area is one of them, then yes, the agent was right.

But what he didn't say is that it's more likely to be analog roaming than CDMA
roaming.

You can pay a flat fee of $5/month for off-network access, and not have to pay
the roaming charges, but with the $5/month addon you're limited to 50% or less
of your monthly usage* being off-network and if you go over that, Sprint
reserves the right to remove the $5 addon from your account.

FYI.

**SJS


*50% of your monthly minutes...

> to me. 4 years ago, Verizon customers were allowed to roam on the only local
> Sprint tower (yes, there's only one),

If there's only one Sprint tower in your area, perhaps you might be better off
using Cingular or T-Mobile.

I strongly suggest checking out all of the carriers, and taking full advantage
of their trial periods to determine which one is the best for you.

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

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

"Steve Sobol" <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in message
news5gpm3$h51$13@ratbert.glorb.com...
>* wrote:
>> I was speaking with a local brick and mortar agent the other day, and
>> he told me something I don't think makes sense. He said that Sprint roams
>> on all of the local Verizon towers.
>
> I don't think that's necessarily incorrect. Sprint uses Verizon for
> roaming in many areas. If your area is one of them, then yes, the agent
> was right.
>
> But what he didn't say is that it's more likely to be analog roaming than
> CDMA roaming.
>
> You can pay a flat fee of $5/month for off-network access, and not have to
> pay the roaming charges, but with the $5/month addon you're limited to 50%
> or less of your monthly usage* being off-network and if you go over that,
> Sprint reserves the right to remove the $5 addon from your account.
>
> FYI.
>
> **SJS
>
>
> *50% of your monthly minutes...
>
>> to me. 4 years ago, Verizon customers were allowed to roam on the only
>> local Sprint tower (yes, there's only one),
>
> If there's only one Sprint tower in your area, perhaps you might be better
> off using Cingular or T-Mobile.
>
> I strongly suggest checking out all of the carriers, and taking full
> advantage of their trial periods to determine which one is the best for
> you.
>
> --
> JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
> Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
>
> "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
> --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"



As a matter of fact, i've been doing just that. This agent sells all three.
T-mobile is useless where I need it. I checked the street level coverage
map on their site. And someone on the Cingular forum looked up the 4 zip
codes nearby where I really need it. The 2 most important came back as
'partner coverage'. I'm still trying to get a clear answer as to what that
means. The 2 less important ones came back as moderate coverage. Do you
know what 'partner coverage' means? I'm afraid that it would be roaming on
T-mobile, which has no signal at all. Could Cingular roam on Dobson Cell
One, cause we have that here too, altough I can't get a read on signal
levels.

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

I know in Louisville KY in the VA Hospital, Verizon roams on Sprint, as
Sprint PCS has antennas on all four corners of the hospital. So I'm sure
there is somewhere in the area where Sprint users roam on Verizon. That is
the cheapest and easier was to make trade offs in coverage and not directly
compete.

AL


"*" <momcat1@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:5JRee.9536$Hf6.9128@fe11.lga...
> I was speaking with a local brick and mortar agent the other day, and
he
> told me something I don't think makes sense. He said that Sprint roams on
> all of the local Verizon towers. Being a current Verizon customer who has
> been searching for more dependable coverage, and having personally spent a
> good deal of time researching the local tower issue, this doesn't make
sense
> to me. 4 years ago, Verizon customers were allowed to roam on the only
local
> Sprint tower (yes, there's only one), and at some point that was closed to
> us. That's when signal got a lot worse at the house since the Sprint tower
> is closer to us than any of the Verizon towers. Currently I'm searching
for
> a better solution, since Verizon seems to be like swiss cheese here. Can
you
> confirm or deny this claim? I'm in Dutchess County, NY.
>
>
>

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

* wrote:

> Could Cingular roam on Dobson Cell
> One, cause we have that here too, altough I can't get a read on signal
> levels.

Yes, Cingular and Dobson CellularONE both started out as TDMA and migrated to
GSM. Other CellularONE properties might not be compatible... keep in mind that
C1 is a *franchise*. For example, Western Wireless C1 (now Alltel) is not
GSM/TDMA, they're CDMA. But Dobson is GSM/TDMA.

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

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

* wrote:
> I was speaking with a local brick and mortar agent the other day, and he
> told me something I don't think makes sense. He said that Sprint roams on
> all of the local Verizon towers. Being a current Verizon customer who has
> been searching for more dependable coverage, and having personally spent a
> good deal of time researching the local tower issue, this doesn't make sense
> to me. 4 years ago, Verizon customers were allowed to roam on the only local
> Sprint tower (yes, there's only one), and at some point that was closed to
> us. That's when signal got a lot worse at the house since the Sprint tower
> is closer to us than any of the Verizon towers. Currently I'm searching for
> a better solution, since Verizon seems to be like swiss cheese here. Can you
> confirm or deny this claim? I'm in Dutchess County, NY.

It's hard to tell what he means. First off, does that one Sprint tower
cover the area well? If it boradcast a particularly strong signal and
blankets the area, then chances are roaming isn't necessary.

But if it doesn't, then it IS possible to get a Sprint plan add-on that
lets you use up to have of your minutes roaming, without any extra
charges. It's called Free & Clear America (or Fair & Flexible America,
depending on what plan type you're on), and in corporate markets, the
add-on is available for $5.

So in that case, yes, you CAN roam off the Verizon towers. You just
have to make sure that for every minute you roam, you've used up at
least as many minutes on the Sprint network.

--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

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

"Steve Sobol" <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in message
news5h13p$jbo$1@ratbert.glorb.com...

> Yes, Cingular and Dobson CellularONE both started out as TDMA and migrated
> to GSM. Other CellularONE properties might not be compatible... keep in
> mind that C1 is a *franchise*. For example, Western Wireless C1 (now
> Alltel) is not GSM/TDMA, they're CDMA. But Dobson is GSM/TDMA.

Actually, depending on where Western Wireless is they might be TDMA/GSM or
CDMA. They basically tried to be the "roam to" carrier for many of the
nationwide carriers.

I am sure that this is going to standardize now they the Alltell merger is
going to take place.

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

John S wrote:

> Actually, depending on where Western Wireless is they might be TDMA/GSM or
> CDMA. They basically tried to be the "roam to" carrier for many of the
> nationwide carriers.

*Actually*

Western Wireless migrated to CDMA 1x but maintains TDMA/GSM for roamers. If
you're a customer, you're on CDMA.

As I understand it, anyhow.

> I am sure that this is going to standardize now they the Alltell merger is
> going to take place.

I'm not. I'd be surprised if Alltel dropped TDMA/GSM roaming. Roaming fees can
bring a lot of money into the company. Alltel's *customers* are CDMA... but...


--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"