"Peter B. Hayward" <pbhx@midway.uchicago.edu> (08/16/90)
Does anyone know if it is possible to make arrangements for a roaming daily activation fee other than the (seeming widespread) $3/day? I will be in two separate service areas in Maine for several weeks each next month, and the idea of $3/day seems excesssive. Peter B. Hayward N9IZT University of Chicago Computing Organizations pbhx@midway.uchicago.edu .........rutgers!oddjob!midway!pbhx [Moderator's Note: If I were going to be in the distant service area at least a month, I'd opt to have service turned on locally by the carrier in that area. But the start up fee and service for one month would probably not save enough over the daily roaming fee to make it very worthwhile. If you do have service turned on there, then simply do your own call forwarding from Chicago before you leave. But if you are only going to be there a month in total, then two local services for a month each, plus start-up fees might even wind up costing more than the estimated $90 ($3 times 30 days) the roaming would cost. I think you might be outta luck. Any ideas from readers? PAT]
jjwcmp@ultb.isc.rit.edu (Jeff Wasilko) (08/18/90)
Peter B. Hayward asked about avoiding the $3/day roaming charge... One possible solution is a feature called MSNR (Mobile Subscriber Non Resident), that is generally available on Ericsson switches. This feature maps your home city number to a local number. So, when you are in the other city, you can receive calls to your 'other city' number normally. Placing calls generally involves a slightly different dialing pattern (ten digits for local calls and eleven digits for LD). Since you are essentially a customer of the 'other city', you'd need to make arrangements for billing. This way, you avoid the roaming charge and high per minute rates. While most Ericsson switches provdies this feature, I haven't found many companies that offer it. It never hurts to ask... Jeff Disclaimer: I used to be a CS rep for a cellular company. RIT VAX/VMS Systems: | Jeff Wasilko | RIT Ultrix Systems: | BITNET: jjwcmp@ritvax +----------------------+ INET:jjwcmp@ultb.isc.rit.edu| INTERNET: jjwcmp@ritvax.rit.edu |____UUCP:jjwcmp@ultb.UUCP____| 'claimer: I speak only for myself. Opinions expressed are NOT those of RIT.|
rpw3%rigden.wpd@sgi.com (Rob Warnock) (08/18/90)
In article <10991@accuvax.nwu.edu> by pbhx@midway.uchicago.edu, the Moderator adds: | [Moderator's Note: If I were going to be in the distant service area | at least a month, I'd opt to have service turned on locally by the | carrier in that area. But the start up fee and service for one month | would probably not save enough over the daily roaming fee to make it | very worthwhile... But we should not forget that the per-minute airtime change will also be (typically) a factor of two higher than service in one's home area, so if you talk for several minutes a day while roaming, it just might be cheaper to turn on local service. Rob Warnock, MS-9U/510 rpw3@sgi.com rpw3@pei.com Silicon Graphics, Inc. (415)335-1673 Protocol Engines, Inc. 2011 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94039-7311