T-Mobile CEO comments on AT/WWCA merger, 3G, and 850 roaming

Cool, good to see that T-Mobile isn't being left out in the cold by the merger.

 

That's great. T-Mobile will become like Sprint where the roaming area is larger than their network.

 

Too true. Verizon and Cingular build the networks, and Sprint and T-Mobile can piggyback off the beaten path, ...(dun, dun, DUH!!!!!)... IF THE PRICE IS RIGHT!!!!(Que Evil Laughter!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA)

 

It looks like T-Mobile already offers GSM 850 roaming, in Alaska. "Alaska Roaming Digital Coverage" 49 cents a minute plus 20 cents a minute long distance. The only GSM network in Alaska is Dobson CellOne, and that network is GSM 850.

It's great to see T-Mobile is starting to come around and offer GSM 850 roaming, but 70 cents a minute is way too much! Cingular includes GSM 850 at no additional charge.

 

:lol: ...although one advantage TM could have is functional data services while roaming.

 

What really puzzled TM critics is
Why it Took TM that long
to figure it out.
TM management should have made 850 MHz
roaming from the start, so
They think TM management
is slow in Decision making.

 

850 roaming is fine, but how many phones are out there right now on the T-Mobile network that have the capability....maybe 1%? Most phones sent from T-Mobile do not have the 800 band availible. It may be something they look to do moving forward...

 

That's right they're late in the Game.
They should have done it from the start.

 

That's precisely their mistake. They should've made phones available with 850Mhz from the start. There's absolutely no logic in locking 850Mhz on the V600. But at least from this point forward they will have a coverage map they are not ashamed of.

Now the question is will they make all that roaming available at no extra charge (like Cingular) or will they be like Sprint where roaming is a big issue?

 

That $5 a month on Sprint isn't a big deal, but when you have carriers like Cingular allowing it for free, there is a little egg on thier face!

 

I also wonder why T-Mobile didn't start offering 850 roaming in the beginning, staying coverage competitive. They went through all the work to lock 850 roaming feature off some phones, and became less coverage competitive. Of course changes are coming, they can't keep going like this because having rural coverage is important for a lot of people, and for people that want GSM, Cingular is the one that offers this more than T-Mo right now.

 

I think it was dumb to block 850 roaming. I know it was until 2001 did we start to see GSM on Cellular. The idea is coverage and more coverage. Since the phone will only work on your networks and roam on who you want to roam, I see no reason to offer 850 roaming when they knew companies like Union Cellular and certain Cellular One's were going to offer it. One reason why living in an Iowa Wireless market can be better than a T-mobile market.

 

I agree.

I'm starting to wonder if this might be one reason AT acquired PSC in GA/AL -- AT could very well use the PSC GSM network to extend GSM into areas of GA/AL outside PSC's current footprint to capture roamers from Cingular and potentially TMO, while pulling CDMA into the PSC footprint via AT's existing Albany and Montgomery switches. (South GA/AL is a VERY weak region for GSM -- there's VZW and ALLTEL and basically nothing else away from major highway corridors and larger towns.)

BTW, to the person who asked about Alaska:

a) AK is indeed no longer roaming
b) there IS 1900 in AK via Alaska DigiTel, who has a roamer-only GSM overlay a la WWCA, although only in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and IIRC Juneau.

-SC