I Need to know whose tower this is! No one seems to know.

[lway56]

Thanks to all of you in advance for your info.
I thought the Tower Hunting Club might be able to help. Last fall a large tower dressed up as a tree was planted in the condo complex next door. After having a bad experience with one wireless carrier I decided to go with Cingular wireless which my boyfriend has. Suddenly all his rollover minutes are gone. and he owes $700 in one month. Prior to that he had the $40 plan and it was working for him.

Now I want to get a Family plan with 2-3 phones, the 1400 minute plan.

Cingular told him that he's using another carriers cell tower too much. He has roaming charges too. I don't understand. Also since AT&T took over Cingular Wireless the voice mail message system redirects his call. Roaming charges too????

Asking the various wireless phone carriers, no one seems to know. It makes me want to think twice about having a cell phone. I couldn't afford that kind of phone bill!

I saw someone from this website mention there may be several carriers on one tree. Don't they have some agreement to share?

My Google searches have turned up only partial listings. This is a huge tree so it should be on the maps.

Location is South Coast Dr and Fairview Ave, Costa Mesa, CALIFORNIA
There is a Huge American flag flying near there and the 405, 5, 55, and 73 freeways all converge in this area, Called South Coast Metro.

Thinking about getting the RAZR Camera phones but hear some negatives but I think I'd like them. Any complaints about this phone?

Thanks again,
LWay

[ShoresGuy]

You might want to ask in the Western Wireless forum as to what solution there is for the roaming charge problem. Secondly, the only other GSM network that exists along with Cingular in Southern California is T-Mobile. Cingular and T-Mobile used to share a GSM 1900-only network but as part of the AT&T merger, Cingular sold that network to T-Mobile.

The only very remote possibility that comes to mind is that somehow your bf's SIM is roaming on the old Cingular (now T-Mobile) network. It is also possible that his SIM is still being allowed to use the old network code (known as MNC, Cingular's MNC is 310-170) on T-Mobile. What phone does your bf use?

Some phones (such as Symbian OS based smartphones: http://www.symbian.com/phones) can run cell tower tracker/Netmonitor apps that allow the user to see which towers the phone is connected to. The MNC is also displayed some programs which would make it possible to determine which Cell ID (cell tower ID), LAC (Local Area Code is a kind of sector ID that tells the network which area the phone is being used in) are being displayed.

Hope this helps,

[lway56]

Thank you Mr ShoresGuy,
Finally someone who knows ,but the info flew way over my newbie head. I'll have to ask bf about his phone. I think that a person who thinks he's under the same contract would not be held liable for these type of charges.

Also do you think the tower has anything to do with the problem? One of the operators said his calls were going through another carriers tower. They could give no more info.

I want to go Cingular but I'm leary of getting involved with any wireless co because of that tower.

Thanks again ShoresGuy I appreciate the info and links.

Lway56

[ShoresGuy]

If Cingular is not the solution for you, simply try out other carriers through their trial periods to see how your coverage experience is in your area. MNC refers to the provider's network code which tells the SIM card which network is which and also which networks it is allowed to roam on outside of its home network.

This applies to GSM networks only though. Verizon and Sprint use CDMA.

[chuikov]

lway56. Go over to the tree and take some photos of the equipment and signs and post the photos. It should be possible to sort out who is on the tower.

I hope you sort out the boyfriend's billing problems. If he was making calls from the edge of a roaming area, and a new site was built in the area, things may have gotten confused.

It can take a while for networks to iron out the bugs when new sites are added.

good luck.