hawaiian roaming debacle...

[Nextel32708]

hello, well i have an ic902 and never have roaming issues on the mainland. but while in hawaii i decided to force roam and see who i would roam on. when i try to place a call i just get a busy tone. so i dialed 611 and it turns out to not be vzw as i expected but rather mobi pcs. upon dialing 611 the automated system informs me that i have a balance of 56.40 due june 20th... then i choose to check the available minutes and it said there were none, explaining why i am getting a busy tone. so... my sprint esn and florida phone number is attached to someones mobi pcs account. which is really odd. so i wonder what will happen when the bill is paid, or minutes added, will i finally be able to place a roaming call...

[larry]

Remember that hybrid phones cannot roam on 850 CDMA networks. So therefore you can't roam on Verizon in Hawaii because that's the frequency they use there.

[Nextel32708]

right, right, right. i understand ics are cdma 1900 only, and vzw is 850 on the island. but mobi pcs is the other 1900 provider here. but my question is, why is my sprint esn and phone number tied to a mobi pcs account...

[larry]

Why they told you you had a balance and due date is a mystery to me.

[Mobile Mike]

Mobi PCS is like MetroPCS. They're a simple, unlimited plan mobile carrier. They are obviously very small and have a primitive computer system. I wouldn't worry about the message you got. You are obviously a Sprint/Nextel customer so you don't owe Mobi anything.

I bet you anything the reason why you got an account balance message is because the seven-digit portion of your number matches a Hawaiian customer. Don't forget, all of Hawaii is area code 808. There's no reason for 10-digit dialing. Mobi PCS's system probably saw your number (without your Florida area code) and matched it to a Hawaiian customer with that same seven-digit number.

[Nextel32708]

so does that mean my phone would use the persons plan minutes if i was on the mobi pcs network.

[KyleAndMelissa22]

Originally Posted by Nextel32708

so does that mean my phone would use the persons plan minutes if i was on the mobi pcs network.

No, when you roam on any system, all usage gets reported to your home system.
Right now the Sprint system knows you are roaming, so your normal plan minutes will count.

The system would block you from roaming if your ESN & phone were cloned.
(which would enable you to use someone elses plan & minutes).

[Mobile Mike]

Originally Posted by Nextel32708

so does that mean my phone would use the persons plan minutes if i was on the mobi pcs network.

Kyle's right. so you're OK.

When you called 611, it thought you were one of it's customers. It's a system glitch. Cell phone cloning is a remnant of a distant analog past.

[Nextel32708]

omg. i thought my esn was cloned when i read kyles post. phew, thanks to everyone who helped me. so even if the person fills there account with minutes i would still get the busy tone, right...

[KyleAndMelissa22]

Originally Posted by Nextel32708

omg. i thought my esn was cloned when i read kyles post. phew, thanks to everyone who helped me. so even if the person fills there account with minutes i would still get the busy tone, right...

My guess is that Mobi thinks you are their customer, and won't let you use their system,
(because they think you are a customer who has a large unpaid balance).

Usually the roaming system should recognize you as a roamer, and thats obviously the problem.

Either way, it won't matter, because you are Sprint customer.
and if you do get to successfully roam on Mobi then it would show up as roaming usage on your Sprint bill.