Help! new wireless user in Port Townsend, WA

You can just set your Verizon phone to HOME ONLY and then you won't have to worry about Canadian Marine coverage around the water, which a Verizon phone would only pick up if there is no native/Extended Network available and I think Sprint is even in the PRL as Extended for the area, so roaming on a canadian carrier would be very rare.

 

The problem with the Home Only option is that it locks you to your home SID only (00006 in this case). This would lock you out of using Sprint coverage if it were available, even though you can roam for free on it.

In the area in question, it's not as rare as you might think to pick up a signal out of Canada. The Olympic Peninsula communities are situated on a coastal plain with an enormous mountain range behind them. There is nothing but a flat expanse of water, clouds, and enormous Telus and Rogers Wireless towers sitting right on the US/Canada boundary, in order to provide marine coverage to Canadian boaters. And, of course, roaming coverage to any unfortunate US wireless customers who are unlucky enough to pick up their signal when the atmospheric conditions are right (which happens fairly often).

Go out to the Dungeness Spit or Cape Flattery with your VZW handset, and if you're not locked to Home Only, you'll probably be surprised how often you pick up Telus. It's common enough to worry about, and common enough that VZW wrote into their contract that you still have to pay roaming charges even if you never leave their coverage area.

 

There is no problem in setting your phone to home only. I always have my phone set to home only here in my area, even though spring roaming is included for free, and if I go out of northern Utah I set my phone to automatic, or if I ever need Sprint roaming, which I have never needed yet.