Hwy 395/Bishop roaming report

[larry]

On my last trip along Hwy 395 to Bishop in Dec. 2002 my Sprint phone would pick up analog roaming about 50% of the time and digital roaming about 50% of the time while on Verizon. Outgoing calls worked fine but incoming calls would not ring through most of the time for some reason.

On my current trip my phone was in digital roaming mode the entire time while mostly using the Cellular One brand (their latest roaming partner for the area). Both outgoing and incoming calls worked fine. Caller ID and call waiting worked. No Vision. Text messaging on my brother's Sanyo VM4500 also worked. My LG is not capable of texts while roaming even though it is available now (fix this with a firmware udpate Sprint!).

Nextel has a new tower right in the heart of Bishop in the K-mart shopping center. *::hoping Sprint will add CDMA to it soon::*

[jimwayda]

That is really good news. I wonder when Sprint will have native coverage on Hwy 395?

Originally Posted by larry

On my last trip along Hwy 395 to Bishop in Dec. 2002 my Sprint phone would pick up analog roaming about 50% of the time and digital roaming about 50% of the time while on Verizon. Outgoing calls worked fine but incoming calls would not ring through most of the time for some reason.

On my current trip my phone was in digital roaming mode the entire time while mostly using the Cellular One brand (their latest roaming partner for the area). Both outgoing and incoming calls worked fine. Caller ID and call waiting worked. No Vision. Text messaging on my brother's Sanyo VM4500 also worked. My LG is not capable of texts while roaming even though it is available now (fix this with a firmware udpate Sprint!).

Nextel has a new tower right in the heart of Bishop in the K-mart shopping center. *::hoping Sprint will add CDMA to it soon::*

[larry]

Probably not for a while however coverage on Hwy 14 has been extended past Rosamond now whereas before it would end about 5 miles short of Rosamond (North of Lancaster). A new tower was recently built by Ubiquitel (their CA affiliate) in Rosamond.

[RJB]

Is this a pretty remote place or just a dead spot??

[larry]

Originally Posted by RyanB

Is this a pretty remote place or just a dead spot??

Yes it is a pretty remote stretch of road that mainly travelers/tourists going back and forth to Reno, NV and a famous ski resort take. I believe there are some parts where every carrier has dead spots.

[budney]

That is very good news, thanks for the report Larry.

[Yugopro]

T Mobile comes on strong with 850 roaming on 395.

[deron]

Originally Posted by Yugopro

T Mobile comes on strong with 850 roaming on 395.

Three years ago traveling to Mammoth using a 1900 only phone going up 395 I had a constant 3 bars. The whole time I was wondering where the heck are the antennas? The only structure I could see was power lines but I saw no kind of antennas? Does anybody know where the heck they are mounting the antennas?

[larry]

Originally Posted by deron

Three years ago traveling to Mammoth using a 1900 only phone going up 395 I had a constant 3 bars. The whole time I was wondering where the heck are the antennas? The only structure I could see was power lines but I saw no kind of antennas? Does anybody know where the heck they are mounting the antennas?

There are towers along the way. You have to look hard to spot them sometimes. I have a trained eye and I spotted at least 7 towers along 395 North of Ridgecrest to Bishop.

[sid pearlman]

Does SPCS have the abilty to force registration on a roaming partners network, somehow?

With Verizon, *18 or (*350 A side) tell the network where to find my phone when roaming, notifying the network where to send incoming calls to.
*18 has worked wonders with Verizon, when I couldn't get incoming calls, when using a roaming partner's analog network, out in the boonies.

I'm not sure if SPCS can even use a code to help the network locate a roaming phone, but just thought I'd ask. Has anyone tried forcing a network registration, using *18 when analog roaming (800Mhz) with an SPCS handset? PCS used different rules, but in analog it seems like the 800Mhz/A/B network rules might apply?

Although little trafficked, and usually a sparsely populated region, the generic term, "Middle of Nowhere" is exactly the kind of area I want to be able to make a cellular call, in case of an emergency or automobile breakdown.

[larry]

Originally Posted by sid pearlman

Does SPCS have the abilty to force registration on a roaming partners network, somehow?

With Verizon, *18 or (*350 A side) tell the network where to find my phone when roaming, notifying the network where to send incoming calls to.
*18 has worked wonders with Verizon, when I couldn't get incoming calls, when using a roaming partner's analog network, out in the boonies.

I'm not sure if SPCS can even use a code to help the network locate a roaming phone, but just thought I'd ask. Has anyone tried forcing a network registration, using *18 when analog roaming (800Mhz) with an SPCS handset? PCS used different rules, but in analog it seems like the 800Mhz/A/B network rules might apply?

Although little trafficked, and usually a sparsely populated region, the generic term, "Middle of Nowhere" is exactly the kind of area I want to be able to make a cellular call, in case of an emergency or automobile breakdown.

Using that *18 feature on Sprint only turns on or off the ability to receive incoming calls while roaming in analog or digital. It's an outdated feature that's no longer necessary to use. In fact I don't think it's necessary on Verizon either anymore as all or most roaming has become automatic now.

[sid pearlman]

Originally Posted by larry

Using that *18 feature on Sprint only turns on or off the ability to receive incoming calls while roaming in analog or digital. It's an outdated feature that's no longer necessary to use. In fact I don't think it's necessary on Verizon either anymore as all or most roaming has become automatic now.

I used *18 about 2 years ago in Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park, when I couldn't receive incoming analog calls. Although Verizon's Roaming may be automatic, I suspect there are some old interchanges and equipment belonging to rural roaming partners, that may not be up to date. If they are still using analog, it's not such a great leap to think they may still be using some of the old "follow me roaming" codes.

-
Sid

[larry]

I get some Sprint users asking me why they can't receive incoming calls while roaming. It's usually because the ability was somehow turned off by calling *180 (which is the toggle to *18)

[BillRadio]

Originally Posted by larry

I get some Sprint users asking me why they can't receive incoming calls while roaming.

On the B-Channel cellular systems around here, *19/*18 toggles "Follow Me Roaming" Off/On. Reference here.

On Sprint, my phone often loses track of me when out of my home market but still on the Sprint network. ANY number dialed re-registers your phone on the network, *2 being the shortest. While *18 is not recognized by Sprint, they do send a response to that number because so many users try it.

[larry]

Originally Posted by BillRadio

On the B-Channel cellular systems around here, *19/*18 toggles "Follow Me Roaming" Off/On. Reference here.

On Sprint, my phone often loses track of me when out of my home market but still on the Sprint network. ANY number dialed re-registers your phone on the network, *2 being the shortest. While *18 is not recognized by Sprint, they do send a response to that number because so many users try it.

Bill,

As you probably already know Sprint no longer uses a home SID when they activate phones. So the network really has no way of knowing what your home market is when they see your phone. The past 3 Sprint phones I've used had home SID's of 4139 (factory default) even though my market is 4145. According to a Sprint tech I know you could even change that number to 1111 or 1234 and it would still work just as good.

I've never noticed any difference at all when traveling out of state with regards to Sprint being able to find my phone for call delivery. I never have to dial *18 or anything else.

[BillRadio]

Originally Posted by larry

I've never noticed any difference at all when traveling out of state with regards to Sprint being able to find my phone for call delivery. I never have to dial *18 or anything else.

I make reference to "home" only because I never have these problems anywhere in the west, and that is switching between Sprint's & Alamosa's network. But if I get off the plane in the east (usually Cleveland) and turn on the phone, things are different.

[AnthroMatt]

Originally Posted by BillRadio

I make reference to "home" only because I never have these problems anywhere in the west, and that is switching between Sprint's & Alamosa's network. But if I get off the plane in the east (usually Cleveland) and turn on the phone, things are different.

I had this happen to me in Columbus in December. As you mentioned, simply placing any outgoing call works to fix the problem.

[danny boi]

Originally Posted by AnthroMatt

I had this happen to me in Columbus in December. As you mentioned, simply placing any outgoing call works to fix the problem.

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with what you guys are talking about, but.....

I recently flew in from the east coast. When I powered on my TREO when I arrived back in Los Angeles, my phone's digital clock was still 3 hours ahead.

I didn't dial a number like you guys did, but instead just powercycled my phone once more and the clock re-synched with the local time.

[larry]

Yeah I normally had to power cycle my phone to get the correct time when changing time zones. Haven't tried it in a while though.

[Andy]

Weird how you guys phones don't update the times w/out restarting the phone. My Verizon phone automatically changes time when connecting with a cellsite in a different time zone. Both are CDMA so I figured it would be the same.

[AnthroMatt]

My phone updates for the time zone without a problem. I noticed how immediate that was this summer driving from NM to AZ. No daylight time here in AZ, so I looked at my phone just after crossing the border and it had already updated the time.

On the other hand, my Cingular phone took over 15 hours (and numerous power cycles) to automatically update itself from Central to Mountain time near El Paso/Las Cruces along the same drive. My Sprint phone was again an almost immediate change.