covert%covert.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (John R. Covert) (10/31/88)
>A few cellular service providers now offer to let the roamer dial a >call-forwarding-like feature access code from a roaming area, and >have calls forwarded there, by the home system, at the roamer's >expense. This will probably become the standard. Can you please provide examples of carriers who have actually implemented this? I certainly hope this does not become the standard; it's not very good human engineering to require the cellular user to "do something" whenever crossing from one system to another, or when getting off a plane in another city or when returning to the home city. Unless special trunks are installed between the two systems, the call-forwarded call will probably have to be routed via the existing roamer access ports, which go off-hook even when you don't answer. If this "follow-me" forwarding becomes the standard, lots of people are going to be annoyed by charges for unknown incomplete calls. Can you imagine how annoyed you would be if you had set up follow-me forwarding, and then went into a poor service area. Someone starts persistently trying to call you on your home number, which is forwarded to you via the roamer port. They get charged for n calls to your number, even though you didn't answer (and they didn't know they were calling a number that charges with no answer), and you get charged for n long-distance calls from your home system to the roamer access port. And none of them completed calls. >Cellular companies serving ajoining areas sometimes provide >transparent automatic roaming service to each other's subscribers. This has got to be what becomes the standard, not just to adjoining systems, but throughout North America. Currently it's only done with adjoining companies because no one is taking advantage of the feature in the protocol which allows a system to solicit sign-ons from telephones arriving in the area and because there is no underlying signalling network to carry the calls. Subscriber volume, especially of people with portables which they carry with them cross-country, is what is needed to make this happen. The number of cellular subscribers doubled from 1 Million to 2 Million during the past year; it is hoped to reach 18 Million by 1992. Subscribers shouldn't have to put up with what we "pioneers" have to do to use our phones when outside our home areas. It is unreasonable for me to have to give my secretary a list of twenty or forty different numbers to try to reach me if I'm driving from Bangor to Miami. It's also unreasonable for me to dial a "follow-me" code every time I cross an invisible system boundary. My normal ten-digit cellular phone number should work no matter where I am in North America. /john
jensen@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mark Jensen) (01/04/91)
I recently signed on with GTE Mobilnet for cellular service. I have heard that there are several different ways to obtain cellular service while roaming in California, including " Follow Me Roaming". I would appreciate any thoughts or information that newsgroup readers could provide on the diffrent types of roaming arrangements. Thank you, Mark Jensen [Moderator's Note: Perhaps readers will correspond direct with Mark and explain the different methods. PAT]