Digital Roaming on 5300. Are you charged for roaming while in this mode?

Yes unless you are on one of the higher priced business plans which include roaming.

 

I have found that my service is great; I have had no need for roaming. Question for you Time, have you tried setting your phone to Sprint PCS only?

 

The only time I have to roam is when I'm in Bishop, CA and most of the ride up on Hwy 395.

 

I dont really remember as my phone never goes into roaming anymore (the T8367 did), but I know YOU are charged if you take/ make called while roaming, but I'm not sure if you are charged if your phone is in that setting (digital roaming) but dont take/make calls.

 

Roaming is roaming whether it be analog or digital. You will always be charged for roaming unless you have a special business plan that includes it.

 

Set your phone to Sprint only, unless you need your phone to roam in an emergency. Keeping it set this way will preserve your battery life, since your phone isn't trying to determine which signal out there is the storngest. Additionally, you could be standing in the middle of a Sprint coverage area, if your phone is set to Automatic and you are standing next to another provider's tower, your phone WILL roam.

 

I have found that Sprint-Only mode doesn't always prevent the phone from going to Digital Roaming mode. I have a 4900, and one of the first things I did was to configure it this way, since 99% of my life falls within Sprint coverage. What I have found that causes the Digital-Roam to display is a temporary loss of signal. I work in a basement, and if I wander too far from the window, it will go to Digital-Roam. When I get back to my cubicle (near a window) I can usually force it back to normal by shutting the phone completely off and then turning it back on again.

 

I have not heard of a phone that goes into digital roam while set to Sprint only, since the Kyocera 2035. Even if your signal is lost, you shouldn't be going into a roaming mode, your phone should just be searching for service. (Not to say you're wrong, I've seen phones do much crazier stuff than that.) The 2035 had a software fix for this problem. I'll look into this tomorrow and keep you posted if I find out anything about it.

 

esunny,
this may be a question everyone knows the answer to but me
but *are* there sprint plans that offer roaming included for an additional $$ per month?

In hunting it down on sprintpcs.com, I saw a brief reference to it, but could find no detailed info....

 

Very weird. The 4900 is a dual band dual mode phone. It's not capable of digital roaming unless on the 1900 Mhz band. I don't believe there are any other 1900 Mhz CDMA carriers in Tennesse in which you can roam on

 

Maybe it's because I'm surrounded by computer equipment. Maybe I'm wandering too close to something in that frequency at the same time I'm too far from the window to get the Sprint signal

 

laithis,
Sprint does offer roaming bundles. This is 50 minutes to use in any roaming situation (in the US). It is an extra $10 per month. I only recommend this if you are in a spotty coverage area. In most cases, you save money by not having a roaming bundle on your plan. You are still able to roam without it, but there is a charge per minute. Using roaming in an emergency is normally less expensive for a one time thing that paying an extra $10 every month.