T-Mobile to cancel line for excessive roaming

[JasonWells]

On a family plan with 4 lines with 1500 minutes, one line is in a roaming area most of the time. T-Mobile sent a letter that the line used in roaming a lot is going to be cancelled. The other 3 lines use the T-Mobile network 95%. I didn't think they would fuss over this. The usage has been about the same for the last 1.5yrs. Upon a call to CS, the rep mentioned that at least 20% of usage must be on the T-Mobile network. They offered up a hotspot @ home for $10/month on a new line of service, and said to use at least 20% on that.

I was surprised to hear this! Is this a new thing for T-Mobile? Has Sprint backed away from dropping customers from excessive roaming, since the military situations? Any advice? This situation is for a friend.

[RJB]

Well if you think about it Tmobile is making no money on this in fact they are loosing probably alot more than you think. As loyal as a customer may be sometimes they have to do things to make money. I mean consider you had your own business and someone was costing you money not making you money wouldnt you want to do something about. it??

On a personal note yeah I am surprised to hear Tmobile do this. Can you scan in the letter and make sure to blank out any personal info. Did Tmobile send you any kind of a warning?

I have not heard Sprint drop anyone lately but then again maybe people think this is the norm and they just deal with it if it happens.

[Quint101]

T-Mobile started this sometime last year, according to the Boy Genius Report. The article has an insider letter.

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2007/...roam-too-much/

[spleck]

If you have a UMA (HotSpot@Home) phone, you don't need to pay the $10/month fee. That's just for unlimited usage--if you don't sign up, then it just uses your plan minutes normally.

Is it an option for you to get a UMA phone for that line? You can use any wireless, it doesn't have to be the T-Mobile router. If this is a college student, you may have success getting a UMA phone to use the campus Wi-Fi. You might even be able to talk T-Mobile into a bigger discount on the UMA phone.

[tmobileman]

At Tmobile twice a year beginning last year we will be cleaning up our excess roaming and yes the reason is that the roaming is costing us a lot of money. so for six months if 80% of your calls are made while roaming you will probably be getting a letter. From what I have seen is that this is effecting less than a tenth of 1 percent of our customers. Seems to be pretty much Standard operating procedure from now on, but who knows this could change

[KyleAndMelissa22]

At Tmobile twice a year beginning last year we will be cleaning up our excess roaming and yes the reason is that the roaming is costing us a lot of money. so for six months if 80% of your calls are made while roaming you will probably be getting a letter.

From what I have seen is that this is effecting less than a tenth of 1 percent of our customers. Seems to be pretty much Standard operating procedure from now on, but who knows this could change

I guess that's standard for Alltel also....
Six months.... up to 80% roaming.....

I've heard Alltel could cancel you for excessive roaming,
but I've also heard of people moving to Non-Alltel areas with their phone for 2 years with no problem.

[tmobileman]

I guess that's standard for Alltel also....
Six months.... up to 80% roaming.....

I've heard Alltel could cancel you for excessive roaming,
but I've also heard of people moving to Non-Alltel areas with their phone for 2 years with no problem.

Same with T-Mobile, it's usually the heavier users that are getting the boot, I don't know what the exact average of usage it takes to get flagged but for example I spoke with this older customer who is in North Carolina in an Alltel roaming area...lol... who averages only about 350 min per month, and she moved there six years ago she never got an ERR letter from what I've seen it has been people who average a lot of calling during the unlimited times...i.e. nights, weekends that seem to be getting the letters

[Barciurek]

I read that you can't get dropped with T-Mobile To Go Pay As You Go plan...

but since the new Pay by day plan has unlimited nights, can turn it off for excessive roaming?

[walkguru]

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: Opera/9.50 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.1.11328/308; U; en))

my Sprint phone roams on altell so i hope i dont get a letter.

[Matt]

At Tmobile twice a year beginning last year we will be cleaning up our excess roaming and yes the reason is that the roaming is costing us a lot of money. so for six months if 80% of your calls are made while roaming you will probably be getting a letter. From what I have seen is that this is effecting less than a tenth of 1 percent of our customers. Seems to be pretty much Standard operating procedure from now on, but who knows this could change

And an important addition is that they are only doing this on lines that are out of contract.

[JasonWells]

Thank you for the comments and help! My friend has ordered a WIFI phone for home, where a lot of N&W mins are used. This should put him well over the 20% of minutes to be used on T-Mobile or a WIFI network. The original line being cancelled was started 3/07 with a 2yr contract. T-Mobile is cancelling the line, but the new WIFI phone will arrive shortly. In his area (sioux falls, sd), the roaming options it allows to roam on are: Alltel GSM, Unicel rover & Long Lines Wireless. Between the three picks, GSM coverage is great in that area for a T-Mobile customer!

LongLines Wireless has tremendously expanded in the Sioux Falls area. They offer great plans, great customer service and good coverage. Their footprint of coverage is a nice compliment for T-Mobile customers to roam. .. I wonder if T-Mobile will buy them??

[tmobileman]

And an important addition is that they are only doing this on lines that are out of contract.

Not true, we are cancelling people even if they are under contract if they are under contract they are not being charge early termination fees, more accts that I have seen have actually had the contract than not, just FYI

[M in LA]

Not true, we are cancelling people even if they are under contract if they are under contract they are not being charge early termination fees, more accts that I have seen have actually had the contract than not, just FYI

tmobileman, it's good to have you here, as a T-Mo employee, to help out with stuff like this. I'm learning a lot from your information.

[tmobileman]

Thanks Mike I also appreciate your info and have learned quite a bit from most people on this site.

[RJB]

Not true, we are cancelling people even if they are under contract if they are under contract they are not being charge early termination fees, more accts that I have seen have actually had the contract than not, just FYI

tmobileman, it's good to have you here, as a T-Mo employee, to help out with stuff like this. I'm learning a lot from your information.

I agree 100% with Mike it is so very nice to have actually inside people here who can really go outside the box and help us out with any questions. So tmobileman thank you very much for all you provide and share we appreciate it very much.

[n9upc]

I have been manually forcing my phone into roam over the past 3 months in order to get T-Mobile to bump me.

But, in talking to there CS department and technical department they advise that there is no policy and even asking at a T-Mbl store they advise there is no written policy on it either.

I make sure my wife and I force our pones every chance we get. So maybe it will pay off for us very soon here.



On a side note: Ido not know why people are so worried about ETF these days. Every cell phone company has a clause (I guess even T-Mbl now) to address excessive off network roaming. So just force the phone and give it a month or two and boom you are out of a contract with them. In addition you should get a phone to boot, unless you sign up through a 2nd party vendor and then they can hit you if it is under there time frame clause.

[tmobileman]

I have been manually forcing my phone into roam over the past 3 months in order to get t-mobile to bump me.

But, in talking to there CS department and technical department they advise that there is no policy and even asking at a T-Mbl store they advise there is no written policy on it either.

I make sure my wife and I force our pones every chance we get. So maybe it will pay off for us very soon here.



On a side note: Ido not know why people are so worried about ETF these days. Every cell phone company has a clause (I guess even T-Mbl now) to address excessive off network roaming. So just force the phone and give it a month or two and boom you are out of a contract with them. In addition you should get a phone to boot, unless you sign up through a 2nd party vendor and then they can hit you if it is under there time frame clause.

You should have cancelled when you had the chance, REMEMBER THAT CSR that gave you the option of cancelling with no penalty...GEEZ let's be reasonable here, you called because of service issues in WI, and finally after multiple sessions of you crying to customer service you were given the option that you wanted, then YOU declined that offer, Stop trying to look for loopholes and either cancel and move on pay your ETF like YOU agreed you would, or get over it and realize that WE AT Tmobile gave you an opportunity to cancel with no ETF, you DID NOT do so. Man Life is too short to worry about stuff like you do, move on already, do yourself a favor, port your numbers out so you don't even have to cancel with a rep, your service will cancel automatically, then you can pay the bill. It's cheaper than keeping until the end of your contract if you have more than about six months left probably anyway. But man if you're that unhappy that you have to bash Tmobile like you did in the central coverage section of this forum, then move on already

I am sorry if you were not happy with Tmobile, but my god man, be reasonable

[n9upc]

First TMobileman sorry I did not update my original post, but it turns out your company lied to me about being able to leave my contract like they said I could!

Second, when you have a service you pay for and it is crappy AND you are told it is your problem and not there's YOU GET PISSED. (Even when you proved it was there issue.)

Third, and finally I was replying to the thread about roaming with T-Mobile and getting the boot.


Here let me make you happy ALL GOD OF T-Mobile!



Part of the thread topic:

AT&T does enforce the off network roaming issue also and will cancel your contract with no ETF, refund the money you spent on phones, and pay back your activation fee's.





On a final note if you want we can go back over to my thread about service issues and continue the coversation over there. you very much! Sorry to everyone else I am not trying to hjack this thread, it stops with me here.

[tmobileman]

you're right I guess it is frustrating for you all I did was point to the facts, if reality is frustrating for you then I apologize. But you're right I will reply to you in your other Thread this is not the right one I do feel it is important to note though that you can still NOT FORCE YOUR Tmobile PHONE TO ROAM WHILE IN A Tmobile COVERAGE AREA, so please stop giving incorrect information about our services. Thanks

[n9upc]

I have a Blackberry Pearl, unmodified-branded, and I can go into the menu settings and select to do a manual netowrk scan WHILE IN T-MOBILE COVERAGE, and it will then ask me what network I want to select based on what shows up from the scan.

When I force my phone to do this manual scan I always get the options of T-Mobile, Cellular One DCS, and about 50% of the time AT&T. Now since AT&T and T-Mobile do not have roaming agreements over where I live (and all I can use AT&T is for 911 calls only) I have either the choice of T-Mobile or Cellular One DCS.

So it is not false information it is truthful and you can do it with a branded T-Mobile phone. My wife has a Nokia and she can do the same thing also. If you still do not think that I am telling the truth do you want me to make a video and post it for you?


Guess who just had reality come crashing down on them!!!

[tmobileman]

Ok yes you can see the networks that are available but a Tmobile branded device that is unmodified will not allow you to register on another network that is available if you can pull a Tmobile signal. So when you select the other network while in manual network selection mode, the phone will not register and your calls will go back to Tmobile. I am merely explaining to you how the service works, I don't appreciate your comments being so abrasive. But hey it's a free country still right, good luck to you I hope you get all that you want in whatever you do, this going back and forth isn't worth my time or yours so again I will ask you to stop bothering me. Thanks

[M in LA]

you're right I guess it is frustrating for you all I did was point to the facts, if reality is frustrating for you then I apologize. But you're right I will reply to you in your other Thread this is not the right one I do feel it is important to note though that you can still NOT FORCE YOUR TMOBILE PHONE TO ROAM WHILE IN A TMOBILE COVERAGE AREA, so please stop giving incorrect information about our services. Thanks

Tmobileman is correct. You can't force the phone to roam, though you can still see the available networks. Even if you select one of the other carriers, it won't go through (even if it happens to, it will revert to T-Mobile fairly quickly).

I have a Blackberry Pearl, unmodified-branded, and I can go into the menu settings and select to do a manual netowrk scan WHILE IN T-MOBILE COVERAGE, and it will then ask me what network I want to select based on what shows up from the scan.

When I force my phone to do this manual scan I always get the options of T-Mobile, Cellular One DCS, and about 50% of the time AT&T. Now since AT&T and T-Mobile do not have roaming agreements over where I live (and all I can use AT&T is for 911 calls only) I have either the choice of T-Mobile or Cellular One DCS.

So it is not false information it is truthful and you can do it with a branded T-Mobile phone. My wife has a Nokia and she can do the same thing also. If you still do not think that I am telling the truth do you want me to make a video and post it for you?


Guess who just had reality come crashing down on them!!!

All T-Mobile phones do this. There's nothing new or special about it.

Ok yes you can see the networks that are available but a tmobile branded device that is unmodified will not allow you to register on another network that is available if you can pull a tmobile signal. So when you select the other network while in manual network selection mode, the phone will not register and your calls will go back to tmobile. I am merely explaining to you how the service works, I don't appreciate your comments being so abrasive. But hey it's a free country still right, good luck to you I hope you get all that you want in whatever you do, this going back and forth isn't worth my time or yours so again I will ask you to stop bothering me. Thanks

This has been my experience as well in Southern California, even prior to the Cingular/T-Mobile roaming/network-sharing unwind here.

[n9upc]

Gentleman I have to disagree and here is my proof:

1.) T-Mobile was havng known issues with not being able to broadcast an EDGE signal as of late and I was only able to GPRS
2.) In my apartment when I am in my hallway, bathroom, or bedroom I can only get 1 to 2 bars of service

Now when I went into scan for manual networks I get the options as listed: AT&T Wireless, Cellular One DCS, and T-Mobile

I select Cellular One DCS and the following happens after registering with the network:

1.) The name banner changes from T-Mobile to Cellular One DCS

2.) The signal goes from one or two bars to fully pegged signal (Cellular One tower is about an 1/8 mi away from me)

3.) Then phone goes from GSM -> EDGE after registering with the Cellular One DCS network


To even push the proof further if I start a conversation on Cellular One DCS and travel on to AT&T the phone will roam and switch networks during the call but once I end the call the phone goes into "Searching For Network". If this was the case that you describe then how come I have to put the phone back into automatic or manually scan for a network again!

Finally proof is that a rep at the T-Mobile store in Woodbury, MN advised that the phone is capable of doing this due to the no roaming feature. He advised that all phones can be pushed manually over to another network and sometimes that is better because the phone will try to hold on to a 1 or 2 bar signal and you just need more.


If this issue of being unable to force roam then what is T-Mobile doing to impair signal until you do a force roam. My wife has a Nokia 6133 also and this is the same case.

Since it seems that people say it is not true I will make a video and post it with the link to the video address here. Maybe then you will see that it is true and is possible!

Have a good day and keep tuned to this thread for the video link!

[M in LA]

It looks like Cellular One DCS is a roaming partner or T-Mobile hasn't yet closed the option to roam on Cell One (this is not unusual). As you stated, you can make a call while roaming on Cell One, it will hand-off to AT&T eventually, but once your call ends, your phone searches. So T-Mobile will not allow roaming on AT&T.

This wasn't made clear in your earlier post. Now what you said makes sense.

[Barciurek]

So does that mean with a T-Mobile branded phone I cannot roam within T-Mobile coverage area and with unbranded I can?

[M in LA]

So does that mean with a T-Mobile branded phone I cannot roam within T-Mobile coverage area and with unbranded I can?

OK, misinformation is starting to get out of hand as far as "roaming ability" is concerned.

Let me take a stab at this: Whether you can roam or not is dependent on your area and whatever agreements T-Mobile has for that area. Whether you see the option to view networks depends on the phone and its menu structure. As far as I know, T-Mobile hasn't begun to lock out the network view option as AT&T has. It is something programmed into the SIM by the carrier (in this case, AT&T).

So whether you can roam on a branded or unbranded phone is beside the point. Search your phone's owners manual to find how to access the "Network" feature. I've never had any restriction with T-Mobile branded phones accessing this menu. The same is true for me with unbranded/unlocked phones. Whether your phone sticks to another available chosen network is another story.

In SoCal, you can try to select AT&T (the only other available network), but it will deny access. So there is NO roaming agreement with AT&T here.

[tmobileman]

Wow I am going to bed

[Barciurek]

In SoCal, you can try to select AT&T (the only other available network), but it will deny access. So there is NO roaming agreement with AT&T here.

I understand that. From those posts I just figured that with T-Mobile phone, even if there is an agreement, you won't be able to roam if there is T-Mobile signal.. someone said something like taht at least.

[RJB]

So let me get this straight since it has been a long time since I had Tmobile. Most phones you can scan and see what carriers there are. If there is a roaming agrement then by all means you can force to get on them. But if not then you can try but you will not be able to do anything at all. Also in areas where Tmobile is most likely you wont be able to roam is this it in a nut shell??

[tmobileman]

that's it in a nut shell you can always see the networks, but you will only be able to register on another network if Tmobile is not available, and if the other network has a roaming agreement with Tmobile most AT&T agreements have expired this is with Tmobile branded handsets, with a Tmobile SIM card in them. I don't know about unbranded handsets.