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Which cell phone company has the BEST roaming?

Discussion in 'GENERAL Wireless Discussion' started by Wireless525, Oct 29, 2006.

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  1. Wireless525

    Wireless525 New Member

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    I decided to research this up a bit, and here's my stats:

    Now, there is one flaw in my math. The flaw is the total people I have at the end of each addition. See, I added up the number of people covered by the carriers AND the number of people covered by it's roaming partners to get the total number of people it can cover. The flaw? Well, there will be lots of over-lapping in coverage. For example, Cingular and t-mobile will both have coverage in say New York city. So since cingular covers 9 million in New York, and so does T-mobile, adding 9+9 together isn't really the right way to do it. Because it's not really reaching 18 million people, just 9 million, as both carriers are overlapping and having coverage in the same spots. So although it's off, it was the only way I could figure it out because of so many carriers having coverage in the same spots.

    Cingular
    Cingular's standard GSM voice service reaches 270 million people. Now if Cingular roams with t-mobile, that means potential 270 million from cingulars coverage + 275 million from t-mobile = 545 million people

    Verizon
    Verizon offers standard voice coverage to 255 million people, but 291 million people if you include it's roaming partners.

    Sprint
    Sprint's standard voice service reaches more than 295 million people + roaming. Since sprint can roam off Verizon+Alltell, add 255 million from Verizon, and 72 million from Alltell. = 622 million (plus analog roaming)

    Alltel
    Reaches 72 million people off Alltell network. + roaming from Sprint (295 milion) + Verizon = 255 million = 622 million

    T-mobile
    T-Mobile reaches 275 million people + roaming from cingular (270) = 545 million

    Nextel
    Nextel iDen network reaches 264 million people.

    So from that it seems like:

    #1= Sprint and Alltel
    #2 = Cingular and t-mobile
    #3 = Verizon
    #4 = Nextel

    (information above thanks to: http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/null/3554)

    BTW, does anyone know who Cingular roams with? I know they roam with t-mobile, but I wasn't sure with who else. Because if you have Cingular in a small rural area, and there is no t-mobile signal either, who will Cingular use to roam off of then? Or will it be no one, and you'll just have no signal?
     
    #61 Wireless525, Nov 17, 2006
  2. TWX

    TWX Mobile Enthusiast
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    If you have Cingular in a small rural area, and Cingy doesnt have coverage there, and T-Mobile doesn't. Than most likley they would roam offa' Dobson/Cellular One because they are the largest GSM rural provider (so they say)

    Cingy and T-Mobile both roam off of Dobson/Cellular One.
     
    #62 TWX, Nov 17, 2006
  3. Jay2TheRescue

    Jay2TheRescue Resident Spamslayer
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    The flaw is that you cannot always roam, even if a roaming partner is present. It is common for carriers to prevent their phones from roaming in areas that they have native coverage. Take my area for example. I live in the DC area, and I'm on Cingular. When I do a network search I can see a T-Mobile signal, but my phone won't allow me to register on that network, because roaming is not allowed in my area. This is not to say that I can't ever roam on TMO, just not here. The same is true with just about all the other carriers. They want you to use the native network and roam only in areas that it is not available. I know that when I drove to Pennsylvaina about 2 months ago I saw my phone roaming on CellularONE. Who Cingular roams with just depends on where you are, and that is also true with just about any carrier.

    -Jay
     
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    #63 Jay2TheRescue, Nov 17, 2006
  4. Wireless525

    Wireless525 New Member

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    Actually...

    Sprint you you can roam by choice. You can put your phone to "roaming only" mode, or sprint mode, etc. So if your sprint signal is weak/keeps going in and out of signal at a certain place, just set it to roaming mode and now you're running off Verizon basically. It's really neat, and this is exactly why sprint does have the most powerful and largest network. If sprint isn't working good, switch over to roaming and now you've got Verizon/Alltell/Analog/other Digtial roaming to run off of. I so far haven't had any spot where I haven't had a signal, because if I don't, I just choose roaming mode only!

    For example: I'm a store, such as target, and then I noticed my Sprint phone has only 1 bar, and is going in and out of service. So I just set the phone to roaming only mode, and then it roams - probably off verizon - and then all of a sudden my phone has 5 bars on it! If sprint doesn't have a good signal in one place, chances are verizon, alltell, analog, etc probably have reception in that spot!

    This honestly is why sprint is so awesome.

    So IMO I think Sprint is the best for roaming, and having a signal.

    I actually just got it recently for the fact that it roams so much, it's really nice to almost always have a signal.
     
    #64 Wireless525, Nov 18, 2006
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2006
  5. QLR

    QLR RIP Note!
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    Wirelessly posted (Q's Mobile Device: Opera/8.01 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/2.0.4719/1378; en; U; ssr))





    I know that in the SE, cingular roams on tmobile, alltel, centennial, and Unicel. The partner chosen is dependent on location. They used to roam on Suncom but the agreement seems to be revoked. I'm in Florida, and cingy doesn't roam... But they have decent coverage in the state... The same cannot be said about Tmobile and they only roam in the SW part of the state.
     
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    #65 QLR, Nov 18, 2006
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2006
  6. kjo

    kjo Bronze Senior Member
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    I would think it would be verizon...but of course I could be wrong :rolleyes:
     
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    #66 kjo, Nov 18, 2006
  7. strunke

    strunke .:|Always Covered|:.
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    That's why I like Alltel. Very few restrictions with the roaming, they're mostly a customer first organization.
    I think you will be happy with Sprint. I have heard they have one of the best in LA. I haven't heard much about Denver.

    The whole analog turning off thing will have very little affect on the overall coverage. Only a small amount of it is still analog, and by the time it is supposed to be turned off it will be overlayed with digital or left on until that is done, it will likely be turned off a site at a time as they go to each one to upgrade.

    The basics....
    Sprint covers the most people with roaming. Alltel has the geographically largest native (thier own) network. Cingular covers the most population natively.
     
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    #67 strunke, Nov 23, 2006
  8. larry

    larry Sprint loyalist and former mod
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    Sprint doesn't really have that flaw. They have roaming agreements in every market and all you have to do is flip it to 'roaming mode' and it will find a network to use in almost every case.
     
    #68 larry, Nov 23, 2006
  9. Andy

    Andy Diamond Senior Member
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    Very few times do we agree on something larry, but this is one of those times. :D
    One of Sprint's best advantages is that most(if not all...I haven't really kept up with Sprint's plans lately) include free roaming and Sprint's PRL allows for at least ONE roaming partner per geographic area. This is something that no other carrier does. ALLTEL would probably be second; in most areas they allow roaming even within their native coverage area.
     
    #69 Andy, Nov 23, 2006
  10. TelcomJunkie

    TelcomJunkie Bad Handoff Investigator
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    Yeah I can set my Sprint phone to roaming at anytime, any location and it will go no matter how strong the Sprint signal is.
     
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    #70 TelcomJunkie, Nov 23, 2006
  11. Andy

    Andy Diamond Senior Member
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    Yup, that is true, and I believe Sprint is the only company to have a 'force roam' feature on their phones.
     
    #71 Andy, Nov 23, 2006
  12. larry

    larry Sprint loyalist and former mod
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    In the old days you could only force analog though. Thankfully Sprint has fixed that now on all of the newer phones.
     
    #72 larry, Nov 23, 2006
  13. Andy

    Andy Diamond Senior Member
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    Thankfully they have fixed/continued providing the use of this feature.
    Updating this force roam feature was necessary to keep customers happy I'm sure since Analog has degraded a lot in some areas.
     
    #73 Andy, Nov 23, 2006
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