Data roaming works in Alaska for VZW!

[PCW]

Forgive me if this has been already addressed.

I was in Alaska in late July and discovered that my Verizon Wireless Blackberry 7250 worked flawlessly throughout the Anchorage/MatSu Valley/Seward areas, INCLUDING DATA! That's right - email, browser, IM. It all worked fine.

In my previous trips (about once a year), only voice worked. My last trip up there was in Nov '05.

Coverage has improved, too. The only time I dropped a call was on my approach to the Whittier tunnel, as we entered the toll gate area. Once in Whittier itself, coverage resumed.

When checking my Blackberry's network settings to see what carrier I was roaming on, it just said Verizon. When I dialed 611, I reached Verizon Wireless (instead of ACS, etc.). Hmmm...

[Andy]

Originally Posted by PCW

Forgive me if this has been already addressed.

I was in Alaska in late July and discovered that my Verizon Wireless Blackberry 7250 worked flawlessly throughout the Anchorage/MatSu Valley/Seward areas, INCLUDING DATA! That's right - email, browser, IM. It all worked fine.

In my previous trips (about once a year), only voice worked. My last trip up there was in Nov '05.

Coverage has improved, too. The only time I dropped a call was on my approach to the Whittier tunnel, as we entered the toll gate area. Once in Whittier itself, coverage resumed.

When checking my Blackberry's network settings to see what carrier I was roaming on, it just said Verizon. When I dialed 611, I reached Verizon Wireless (instead of ACS, etc.). Hmmm...

Thank you for posting this. This is very informative! Does your Blackberry always just say VERIZON or does it display EXTENDED NETWORK as well??? Verizon itself doesn't even have a license up there. Did you check what SID you were on?
I've noticed over the last few months that when dialing 611 calls now forward to VZW customer service, not the roaming partners'.

[Yankees368]

Originally Posted by Andy84094

I've noticed over the last few months that when dialing 611 calls now forward to VZW customer service, not the roaming partners'.

I've also noticed that while roaming on Verizon, if I dial 611 or *2, they foward me back to sprint.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Yankees368

I've also noticed that while roaming on Verizon, if I dial 611 or *2, they foward me back to sprint.

Seems like CDMA is finally becoming more GSM like!!!!

[jimwayda]

Originally Posted by Yankees368

I've also noticed that while roaming on Verizon, if I dial 611 or *2, they foward me back to sprint.

That is a bummer! If I could only get Verizon Customer Service on my Sprint phone.

[Quint101]

Originally Posted by Andy84094

Seems like CDMA is finally becoming more GSM like!!!!

I hope so... when I dial 611 while roaming on Alltel, I get a prompt to enter my phone number and then I'm transferred to VZ; on Sprint, I get transferred to VZW when dialing 611; when I dialed 611 on Cingular, I got Cingular's CS

[Andy]

That's interesting. On ALLTEL systems in UT and AZ that I've tried, it forwards you to VZW customer service without doing anything else. Just if you dial something like #611 it goes to ALLTEL CS.

[PCW]

For Andy 84094,
Forgive me for the very delayed response. To answer your question, my BB displayed Verizon while we were in Alaska in July. It did not display Extended Service or Roaming. I did not check the SID numbers (silly me).

Yea, I'm aware that Verizon does not have any licenses in the Alaska market. It would seem that 611 calls from Verizon phones are routed to Verizon customer service.

When I used to use my Motorola V60s (on Verizon) while in Alaska, it indeed would display Extended Service or Roaming, depending where I was.

[jayatmtu]

Yep...my Treo even worked in Kodiak!