iPhone in the Adirondacks

[WJSmith]

I was within seconds of completing my switch from a moto v-whatever with Verizon service to a shiny new iPhone with AT&T, when the sales rep informed me that if I spend more than 50% of my time roaming, I will likely be cancelled in about 3 months. FCC rules you see. Since Unicel provides "Partnership" coverage of my area, I'd expect that 90+% of my calls would be roaming, so I'd be shut off. Though I only average 30 or 40 minutes a month, I need a phone(e.g. beeper goes off, gotta call). Does anyone know what happens if they turn you off? Is the 2 year contract null and void? Can I demand an out, perhaps paying a fee, and then activate my precious new iPhone with Unicel? The nice service rep at Unicel suggested all I'd need would be the activation code. At&T seems dumbfounded by my request to pay more or pay roaming fees to stay online.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by WJSmith

I was within seconds of completing my switch from a moto v-whatever with Verizon service to a shiny new iPhone with AT&T, when the sales rep informed me that if I spend more than 50% of my time roaming, I will likely be cancelled in about 3 months. FCC rules you see. Since Unicel provides "Partnership" coverage of my area, I'd expect that 90+% of my calls would be roaming, so I'd be shut off. Though I only average 30 or 40 minutes a month, I need a phone(e.g. beeper goes off, gotta call). Does anyone know what happens if they turn you off? Is the 2 year contract null and void? Can I demand an out, perhaps paying a fee, and then activate my precious new iPhone with Unicel? The nice service rep at Unicel suggested all I'd need would be the activation code. At&T seems dumbfounded by my request to pay more or pay roaming fees to stay online.

Hi there.
Actually there is no such thing as an FCC rule about canceling your service if you spend more than 50% of your minutes roaming. It's an AT&T rule because they don't want to be slammed with roaming fees from people using another carriers service too much.
I believe AT&T's roaming rule is this: You cannot use more than 40% of your anytime minutes or 750 Total minutes off network per month, whichever comes first. So, if you only use 30 or 40 minutes per month, you may not even have to worry about that rule, but someone else should probably chime in that has more experience with this.
Although, if you only use 30 to 40 minutes per month, do you really want to be on a $59.99 (I think that's the cheapest iPhone plan AT&T allows)?

[Bill Clinton]

Originally Posted by Andy

Although, if you only use 30 to 40 minutes per month, do you really want to be on a $59.99 (I think that's the cheapest iPhone plan AT&T allows)?

Well put Andy.
You should look into a Unicel prepaid plan or a regular contract. You would save a lot of money. If you really want the iPhone you don't have a choice, but paying $500 or $600 and then $60 a month for 2 years seems kind of silly when you are just using the phone for 30 or 40 minutes each month. Too bad you can't sell roll over minutes to someone because you are going to have a pile of them after 2 years of using a phone for 40 minutes each month.

[carpentierk]

I was wondering the same thing, AT&T seems so much cheaper and less douch-ey than verizon and I wanted to switch, but the whole roaming thing disgusted me. I'm just going to switch to unicel and bite the bullet and pay full price for a phone i want. There's no sense paying $60/mo for verizon if I don't get reception within 10 miles of my house!

[llockejr]

Originally Posted by WJSmith

I was within seconds of completing my switch from a moto v-whatever with Verizon service to a shiny new iPhone with AT&T, when the sales rep informed me that if I spend more than 50% of my time roaming, I will likely be cancelled in about 3 months. FCC rules you see. Since Unicel provides "Partnership" coverage of my area, I'd expect that 90+% of my calls would be roaming, so I'd be shut off. Though I only average 30 or 40 minutes a month, I need a phone(e.g. beeper goes off, gotta call). Does anyone know what happens if they turn you off? Is the 2 year contract null and void? Can I demand an out, perhaps paying a fee, and then activate my precious new iPhone with Unicel? The nice service rep at Unicel suggested all I'd need would be the activation code. At&T seems dumbfounded by my request to pay more or pay roaming fees to stay online.

I live in the Adirondacks, specifically Hadley NY.

You will not get any type of reception with AT&T. We had Sprint and AT&T and for some reason, even though we allowed the phone to roam, the reception always.. and I mean always sucked. We finally switched to verizon and get 4 bars in the middle of no where. (My town has a population of like 600)

Same area, same cell towers, but for some magical reason, the verizon phone always had solid signal. (Parts of lake george used to be dead zones, but for the most part those are good to go now too)

[WJSmith]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I currently use the cheapest business plan with verizon, still pay $50 - $60 a month, and still have no reception at my home. I expect gsm roaming on unicel towers to be at least equivalent to my current cdma phone, because my partner, who has decidedly anti-Verizon views, got a Cingular phone and contract while visiting family in New Jersey. He has been using it for months with about the same success as me, and so far has heard nothing about roaming excesses, certainly no threats to shut him down. Both Unicel and Verizon have towers atop the Crown Plaza Hotel in Lake Placid.

For me the iPhone offers communication beyond phone. For example, I can log onto my hospital's servers using web access to search and view digital xray images. This is a killer app for me, well worth the 10 or 20 bucks extra it will cost, which is business expense anyway.

But if I get kicked of the network for roaming too much, what can I do? Can I unlock my new iPhone/xray viewer and switch to unicel?