My cell is switching to Mexican phone system

Any ideas here? I live in El Paso Tx abot 15 miles from border. When I
signed up for Cingular i had a reception problem and talked to CS they
did someting which may r may not be related to my current problem. My
phone without any warning will switch to TelCel GSM in Mexico. When
this happens most of the time I just miss calls. I cannot send text
and when people do call they hear a messag ein spanish. I have called
CS at Cingular they have tried different things etc.. used their
firums and email.. so far no one has been able to correct this.. I am
just waiting to receive a bill with international calls <g. any
ideas??

---

› See More: My cell is switching to Mexican phone system

Habla espanol, senor Dan

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Fri, 07 Oct 2005 15:20:25
GMT, Dan <[email protected] > wrote:

>Any ideas here? I live in El Paso Tx abot 15 miles from border. When I
>signed up for Cingular i had a reception problem and talked to CS they
>did someting which may r may not be related to my current problem. My
>phone without any warning will switch to TelCel GSM in Mexico. When
>this happens most of the time I just miss calls. I cannot send text
>and when people do call they hear a messag ein spanish. I have called
>CS at Cingular they have tried different things etc.. used their
>firums and email.. so far no one has been able to correct this.. I am
>just waiting to receive a bill with international calls <g. any
>ideas??

Call Customer Care and ask to have International Roaming turned off.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

"Dan" <[email protected] > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Any ideas here?

>used their firums and email.. so far no one has been able to correct this..

What is a firum?

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Fri, 07 Oct 2005
16:12:10 GMT, "John S." <[email protected]> wrote:

>"Dan" <[email protected] > wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> Any ideas here?
>
>>used their firums and email.. so far no one has been able to correct this..
>
>What is a firum?

<http://forums.cingular.com/>

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

Somewhere around Fri, 07 Oct 2005 15:20:25 GMT, while reading
alt.cellular.cingular, I think I thought I saw this post from Dan
<[email protected] >:

>Any ideas here? I live in El Paso Tx abot 15 miles from border. When I
>signed up for Cingular i had a reception problem and talked to CS they
>did someting which may r may not be related to my current problem. My
>phone without any warning will switch to TelCel GSM in Mexico. When
>this happens most of the time I just miss calls. I cannot send text
>and when people do call they hear a messag ein spanish. I have called
>CS at Cingular they have tried different things etc.. used their
>firums and email.. so far no one has been able to correct this.. I am
>just waiting to receive a bill with international calls <g. any
>ideas??
Well, my suggestion may be too obvious to have not been tried, but can't you
set your phone to only use the Cingular network instead of automatically
switching?

--
Marty - public.forums (at) gmail (dot) com
"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...
well, I have others." - Groucho Marx

John S. <[email protected]> wrote:

> "Dan" <[email protected] > wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> Any ideas here?

>>used their firums and email.. so far no one has been able to correct this..

> What is a firum?

Spanish for forum? ;-)

Maybe turn off international roaming, or get in touch with the new
acquiring carrier and ask to be blocked from their network.

Any of your neighbors have this problem?

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> John S. <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> "Dan" <[email protected] > wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>>> Any ideas here?
>
>>>used their firums and email.. so far no one has been able to correct
>>>this..
>
>> What is a firum?
>
> Spanish for forum? ;-)
>
> Maybe turn off international roaming, or get in touch with the new
> acquiring carrier and ask to be blocked from their network.
>
> Any of your neighbors have this problem?

He can't tell. They only speak Spanish!

the have tried everthing they say

On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 16:05:39 GMT, John Navas
<[email protected]> wrotd:

>[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
>
>In <[email protected]> on Fri, 07 Oct 2005 15:20:25
>GMT, Dan <[email protected] > wrote:
>
>>Any ideas here? I live in El Paso Tx abot 15 miles from border. When I
>>signed up for Cingular i had a reception problem and talked to CS they
>>did someting which may r may not be related to my current problem. My
>>phone without any warning will switch to TelCel GSM in Mexico. When
>>this happens most of the time I just miss calls. I cannot send text
>>and when people do call they hear a messag ein spanish. I have called
>>CS at Cingular they have tried different things etc.. used their
>>firums and email.. so far no one has been able to correct this.. I am
>>just waiting to receive a bill with international calls <g. any
>>ideas??
>
>Call Customer Care and ask to have International Roaming turned off.

They obviously haven't.

In <[email protected]> on Sat, 08 Oct 2005 03:42:02
GMT, Dan <[email protected] > wrote:

>the have tried everthing they say
>
>On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 16:05:39 GMT, John Navas
><[email protected]> wrotd:

>>Call Customer Care and ask to have International Roaming turned off.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

Dan wrote:
> Any ideas here? I live in El Paso Tx abot 15 miles from border. When I
> signed up for Cingular i had a reception problem and talked to CS they
> did someting which may r may not be related to my current problem. My
> phone without any warning will switch to TelCel GSM in Mexico. When
> this happens most of the time I just miss calls. I cannot send text
> and when people do call they hear a messag ein spanish. I have called
> CS at Cingular they have tried different things etc.. used their
> firums and email.. so far no one has been able to correct this.. I am
> just waiting to receive a bill with international calls <g. any
> ideas??


If your phone can be set to "home only" system selection...

--
jer
email reply - I am not a 'ten'

"Dan" <[email protected] > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Any ideas here? I live in El Paso Tx abot 15 miles from border. When I
> signed up for Cingular i had a reception problem and talked to CS they
> did someting which may r may not be related to my current problem. My
> phone without any warning will switch to TelCel GSM in Mexico. When
> this happens most of the time I just miss calls. I cannot send text
> and when people do call they hear a messag ein spanish. I have called
> CS at Cingular they have tried different things etc.. used their
> firums and email.. so far no one has been able to correct this.. I am
> just waiting to receive a bill with international calls <g. any
> ideas??

After reading the replies I would only add that when you see the alpha tag
that says TelCel if you power of you phone and then power it on you "should"
acquire a Cingular tower and thus fix the problem. The big however here is
that if TelCel has turned up the power of their tower it is a matter of time
before you get hooked to their tower.

And ABSOLUTELY make sure that you call in often about this issue so there is
a record that you see the wrong alpha tag and want to do what ever you can
to get this fixed. This will make the problems well documented and also
make crediting any international roaming charges easier.

Cliff wrote:

> After reading the replies I would only add that when you see the alpha tag
> that says TelCel if you power of you phone and then power it on you "should"
> acquire a Cingular tower and thus fix the problem. The big however here is
> that if TelCel has turned up the power of their tower it is a matter of time
> before you get hooked to their tower.

I would bet real money that this is exactly what's going on. I lived in
that same area as the OP (El Paso, TX) back in the day when AMPS was THE
cellular standard, and a typical tactic of TelCel and UNEFON (the
cellular carriers in Juarez Mexico, which is the adjoining city across
the US/Mexico border) was to build out towers along the Mexico side of
the border that pointed towards the US side, and turn up the transmit
power as high as possible, almost ensuring that unless you had your
phone configured to Home SID only, you'd get hit with huge roaming
charges, PLUS tarriffs for international calls from mexico to the US.

The US, El Paso-based carriers of the day (GTE on the B-side, Now
Verizon, and SouthwestCo Cellular One on A-side, now AllTel) would throw
tantrums and complain to the FCC who would in turn file a protest with
the appropriate Mexican government officials, but nothing would ever get
done. And why would a fix ever be expected? What they were doing was
(and probably still is) a quick and easy source of income and
consequently, tax revenue, from "customers" who weren't even on their
soil. It was easy money effectively taken from people who either didn't
know about how to configure SID preferences and the sales rep they
purchased from forgot to set them to Home Only, or who travelled often,
and didn't remember to switch the setting when back home. The US
carriers really didn't want to sever the roaming agreements with Mexico
because there was a lot of legit travel (and roaming) from US citizens
into Mexico, and likewise Mexican citizens traveled into the US and gave
the carriers lucrative (and legit) international roaming revenue as well.

Unfortunately, it would seem that Cingular has configured current phones
to prevent users from networks they can be on, and this is causing a
problem if TelCel is still using this tactic on their GSM network.
UNEFON is CDMA now, but some NEG entries in the PRL for CDMA handsets
takes care of that problem pretty quickly.

--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

When you notice the alpha tag being the Mexican carrier try a manual
network select. You can call customer car to ask how it is done or
maybe try support.cingular.com.


--
movak

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Sat, 15 Oct 2005 14:08:22 +0000,
movak <[email protected]> wrote:

>When you notice the alpha tag being the Mexican carrier try a manual
>network select. You can call customer car to ask how it is done or
>maybe try support.cingular.com.

Many network selection is disabled on many Cingular handsets.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>