Roaming on 850 with Cingular, etc

I just bought an unlocked quad band phone so I can take advantage of T-Mobile's 850 mhz roaming. I had a Sony Ericsson T610, but it got 1900/1800/900.

I now have a Motorola V545. Works at least as well as the Ericsson. I took it on a test run out to a friend's house where I know I didn't get reception before, but where the 850 roaming map from T-Mobile's website said I ought to get it. The friend has Cingular and his works out there.

Well, I got no bars at all. When I searched for a network, it apparently found a Cingular tower, but it wouldn't register. I drove to a couple of spots nearby (within 3/4 of a mile) and tried registering and I finally got a response from one that said "No Access".

Now I will say that I was rarely even seeing a bar -- and I think that's where I got the "No Access" -- when I actually did see a bar. Otherwise, it was wimpiness and not even a response when I went to register.

First question is -- is that how you do Roaming? You go search for a network and hope it's a roaming partner and try to access that tower by registering? With the Ericsson, I remember it automatically switching to WestLink and a few others out west on a trip to Colorado.

Should all phones "auto roam"?

Next question is -- is a "pullout" replacement antenna better than the little nub that comes on most phones?

Can somebody fill me in on roaming in general? I have a national plan, so from what I've read I should be fine doing it if I only know how it works.

The blue "X" (attached map) is approximately where I was, incidentally.

-P

 

Well, it IS right near the fringe. I got the map from T-Mobile.

When I'm at my friend's house and I search for a network, the only one it finds is Cingular. But like I said, I don't even see one bar.

Which makes me wonder about the other question I asked -- antenna. Does a telescoping antenna help?

I need to test it in other areas. But I'd sure like to be able to use the phone out at Sam's place.

 

Oh, I guess I should mention -- the diagonal hatched area is where T-Mobile says it has 850 mhz roaming. There's also a very tall cell tower within a mile of his house. I got the "one bar" from a road nearby the tower -- it was maybe a half mile away at the time. Perhaps it is not a Cingular tower. Or maybe it only does 1900 mhz, I don't know.

Just trying to figure out how all this works.

 

Ah, the plot thickens. He uses US Cellular, and his bars are maxed out. Which points to that tower being a US Cellular tower.

So now I've got it narrowed down to a reception issue.

Will a better antenna help? Are there better antennas?

 

Yes, he has US Cellular.

Cingular coverage should be pretty freakin' awesome at his house, though -- still, I'm thinking that, according to the T-Mobile site, the roaming agreement with Cingular in this area is only on the 850 mhz band and that coverage could be on 1900.

I'm not planning on switching, I just want to know what the issues and options are. I like to understand things.

 

Yeah, I didn't buy it because it was quad band, but because it had 850 in addition to 1900 unlike my Ericsson T610.

 

It was a phone that retails (or retailed) at ~$270. I paid $130. It had 850 mhz, and bluetooth. Believe me, I went on price and features.

 

Yes, I can -- but of course all of their maps carry a caviat that says something like "may not be entirely accurate" or "this is to give a rough idea".

That being said, I went down to Rolla today and it automatically roamed to Cingular wireless right about where the map said it would.

Now that could be for one of three reasons -- one... it could be that the area I was in the other day had too little signal in the 850 band and the one I was in today was fine, or I was denied in the other place because it was considered too close to where a T-Mobile service area ended (not likely since it picked up right away today about the place I crossed the "boundary"...

or....

Yesterday I added 310-410 (Cingular Wireless) to my "Network List" on the phone ... and maybe that means that the phone wouldn't auto-roam to a network that wasn't on its list and today, since it was ... it did it. There were other Network ID numbers on my list for Cingular, but not that one. Maybe it needs to be in your list for it to auto-register, or even manually register.

I'll have to go back out to Sam's now and see if it works there.

Note that I'm more interested in HOW this works and what I can expect, what kinds of things to look for, what special actions one might have to take... to do this.

I shall try again as soon as I get the chance.

 

Well -- according to T-Mobile's website, 850 mhz roaming is available in the area in question from SOMEBODY (see attached graphic on one of the original posts)... and the only tower I can find via the phone is Cingular.

I'm going to run up there and re-test at lunch time today and see if it'll do it now.

 

And the verdict is in.

It doesn't work there. I get registered with T-Mobile off and on with little or no "barrage" on US Hwy 63 North of there. It finds Cingular towers but won't register or get a "No Service" message. It isn't until I hit the overpass at Sturgeon (63 & 22) where it auto-roams over to USA-010.

Hmmmm.

Nowhere in the green crosshatched area (T-Mobile's 850 mhz roaming map) along N Tucker School or E Pinnacles do I get any access to anything. Perplexing.

Need to find out how to contact T-Mobile and find out if I've done everything I need to do and if I'm just out of luck there.