Roaming in the Carribean

I had an interesting conversation with Cingular Customer Care this
morning. One of the handsets on my plan is with a relative roaming in
Jamaica and apparently isn't able to place or recieve calls.

I checked my plan online and I do have South and Central America and
Carribean roaming on all lines on my plan, and I know the phone is
capable of global roaming as it's a quad-band Motorola V551.

Here's the good bit: Cingular customer care said that Jamaica uses
1900MHz GSM technology and the V551 wasn't capable of using that
frequency, and I must have meant to order the V3 (which I thought was
very similar to the V551, just in a different package)

So now I'm stumped. I know that the V551 is quad-band capable, Motorola
says so, as did Cingular when I ordered it. If roaming is enabled on my
plan, how come the V551 in Jamaica won't register to a network and isn't
able to place calls?

I'm planning on going to the UK and France in a few months. Does this
mean my cellphone won't work over there either? I ordered a V551's for
it's quad-band ability. Did Cingular intentionally cripple the phone
before shipping it out to me so I couldn't go international?

---

› See More: Roaming in the Carribean

In article <qbc3qd.oep6.ln@tristan>,
Steven Harrison <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>I had an interesting conversation with Cingular Customer Care this
>morning. One of the handsets on my plan is with a relative roaming in
>Jamaica and apparently isn't able to place or recieve calls.
>
>I checked my plan online and I do have South and Central America and
>Carribean roaming on all lines on my plan, and I know the phone is
>capable of global roaming as it's a quad-band Motorola V551.
>
>Here's the good bit: Cingular customer care said that Jamaica uses
>1900MHz GSM technology and the V551 wasn't capable of using that
>frequency, and I must have meant to order the V3 (which I thought was
>very similar to the V551, just in a different package)

The customer care rep is full of ****. You are absolutely correct in your
conclusions.

>So now I'm stumped. I know that the V551 is quad-band capable, Motorola
>says so, as did Cingular when I ordered it. If roaming is enabled on my
>plan, how come the V551 in Jamaica won't register to a network and isn't
>able to place calls?

As I found out during a trip to the Bahamas, it has a lot to do with the
local phone company. Everyone at Cingular swore up and down that
EVERYTHING was in place that would allow me to use my phone in the
Bahamas. I could register on Batelco towers, but not place or receive
calls. Something they did (or did not do) made it impossible to roam as
expected. Live with it.

>I'm planning on going to the UK and France in a few months. Does this
>mean my cellphone won't work over there either? I ordered a V551's for
>it's quad-band ability. Did Cingular intentionally cripple the phone
>before shipping it out to me so I couldn't go international?

I have used a Cingular V551 in Europe, as well as on T-Mobile US (which is
1900 MHz =only= ... see my comments on the technical awareness of the
customer care reps above). As long as your plan has international dialing
***AND*** international roaming listed on your statement, you should be
fine.

If all else fails, call Cingular and request the SIM subsidy password so
that you can unlock the phone to other carriers before you leave. Then you
can buy a prepaid SIM while in UK or France, and make calls for a lot less
money anyway.


>

I used my razor in The Bahamas and St. Marteen with no problems at all.
"Mike S." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> In article <qbc3qd.oep6.ln@tristan>,
> Steven Harrison <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>I had an interesting conversation with Cingular Customer Care this
>>morning. One of the handsets on my plan is with a relative roaming in
>>Jamaica and apparently isn't able to place or recieve calls.
>>
>>I checked my plan online and I do have South and Central America and
>>Carribean roaming on all lines on my plan, and I know the phone is
>>capable of global roaming as it's a quad-band Motorola V551.
>>
>>Here's the good bit: Cingular customer care said that Jamaica uses
>>1900MHz GSM technology and the V551 wasn't capable of using that
>>frequency, and I must have meant to order the V3 (which I thought was
>>very similar to the V551, just in a different package)
>
> The customer care rep is full of ****. You are absolutely correct in your
> conclusions.
>
>>So now I'm stumped. I know that the V551 is quad-band capable, Motorola
>>says so, as did Cingular when I ordered it. If roaming is enabled on my
>>plan, how come the V551 in Jamaica won't register to a network and isn't
>>able to place calls?
>
> As I found out during a trip to the Bahamas, it has a lot to do with the
> local phone company. Everyone at Cingular swore up and down that
> EVERYTHING was in place that would allow me to use my phone in the
> Bahamas. I could register on Batelco towers, but not place or receive
> calls. Something they did (or did not do) made it impossible to roam as
> expected. Live with it.
>
>>I'm planning on going to the UK and France in a few months. Does this
>>mean my cellphone won't work over there either? I ordered a V551's for
>>it's quad-band ability. Did Cingular intentionally cripple the phone
>>before shipping it out to me so I couldn't go international?
>
> I have used a Cingular V551 in Europe, as well as on T-Mobile US (which is
> 1900 MHz =only= ... see my comments on the technical awareness of the
> customer care reps above). As long as your plan has international dialing
> ***AND*** international roaming listed on your statement, you should be
> fine.
>
> If all else fails, call Cingular and request the SIM subsidy password so
> that you can unlock the phone to other carriers before you leave. Then you
> can buy a prepaid SIM while in UK or France, and make calls for a lot less
> money anyway.
>
>
>>
>
>