telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) (07/09/90)
My trip earlier this week to the land of Ah's went off mostly without a hitch, although my cellular phone from Radio Shack (CT-301) with service from Ameritech gave me some hassles. From Chicago going down I-55 we have Ameritech here at home and again in the Springfield, IL area. Some other small cell carrier comes in further downstate, which I belive is Contel Cellular, which is a division of some other cell carrier. Shortly before St. Louis. Southestern Bell came in, then Missouri was served in a sketchy way by United States Cellular over much of Route 54. The trouble is, I could make no outgoing calls (or receive incoming calls via Ameritech's 'follow me' roaming feature) on the way down. It seems even tough I told Ameritech earlier in the week to turn on the 'Fast Track Follow Me Roaming' feature (which they did), since this was my first trip out of town with the cell phone, for some reason Ameritech got paranoid when they picked up my signal from central Illinois instead of Chicago ... so ... they cut me off immediatly. Being the Fourth of July, there was no one in their office to complain to, but Thursday morning, July 5 I was on their 800 numbber at 9 AM sharp to raise cain. I got a call back an hour or so later from a man who apologized and said I had inadvertently been placed on the 'abandoned listing'. On the way back everything worked fine, except that on a few occasions when between carrier areas, the roaming light (as opposed to 'no service' light) would come on, leading me to believe there was service at that point when there was not. Patrick Townson
doug@letni.lonestar.org (Doug Davis) (07/10/90)
In article <9507@accuvax.nwu.edu> TELECOM Moderator writes: >On the way back everything worked fine, except >that on a few occasions when between carrier areas, the roaming light >(as opposed to 'no service' light) would come on, leading me to >believe there was service at that point when there was not. This is usually due to a phone being programmed to scan the b and a carriers, sometimes they mistakenly lock on a (insert opposing carrier)'s signal and roam to it. The solution is to program your phone to only scan the correct ( b [wireline] or a [non-wireline] ) carrier for whomever you have a roaming agreement with. Also sometimes on the CT-301 (and all the other phones made by Mobira) a close proximity tower of the other carrier will cause your phone to roam on it, if that tower overpowers the correct carrier for your phone. On most phones this is a user option and can be changed "on the fly" without going into program mode. Doug Davis/4409 Sarazen/Mesquite Texas, 75150/214-270-9226 {texsun|lawnet|texbell}!letni!doug or doug@letni.lonestar.org
rpw3%rigden.wpd@sgi.com (Rob Warnock) (07/11/90)
In article <9537@accuvax.nwu.edu> doug@letni.lonestar.org (Doug Davis) writes: | >On the way back everything worked fine, except... the roaming light | >(as opposed to 'no service' light) would come on... | This is usually due to a phone being programmed to scan the b and a | carriers, sometimes they mistakenly lock on a (insert opposing carrier)'s | signal and roam to it. The solution is to program your phone... | On most phones this is a user option and can be changed "on the fly" | without going into program mode. On the CT-301 this is done with <SEL>"1", then pushing "1" to rotate among: A - "A" system only B - "B" system only H - your "home" system (whichever of A or B your basic service is with) S - scan for best signal They do warn you quite explicitly in the CT-301 User's Guide that "S" may sometimes lock onto the "wrong" system. By the way, I use this all the time to temporarily slide over to the "B" system here (GTE Mobilnet) to call "*227" ("*CBS"), the "KCBS Cellular Phone Force" (traffic spotter) number. It's supposed to be a free call, and indeed I haven't been charged yet, even both the "NON-HOME" + "ROAM" indicators come on. (The "A" system, PacTel Mobile, has "*KGO81", but I listen to KCBS, not KGO.) ["Oh", not "zero". -----^ Blettch!] Does anyone have an example where calling a "free" "*xxx" number resulted in charges to a roamer? 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