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  1. #1
    XFF
    Guest
    I was wondering whether someone could shed some light on who
    Cingular's preferred roaming partners in MS are. Here is the
    situation:

    Cingular has B-side licenses for about 60% of the state, including
    Tupelo, Grenada, Vicksburg, Jackson, Meridian, and the southern
    suburbs of Memphis, TN. The rest of the state is covered on the
    B-side by Cellular South, including Greenville/Cleveland,
    Columbus/Starkville, Natchez, Hattiesburg, and Gulfport/Biloxi. (I
    realize Cingular covers some of these with PCS licenses, but that's
    not what I'm interested in.)

    The A-side is split 4-ways. VZW has the southern suburbs of Memphis,
    TN. RCC has the northwestern corner, including Cleveland, Clarksdale,
    Charleston, Grenada, and east to Houston/Aberdeen. Centennial has the
    southwestern corner, including Natchez and Brookhaven/Mccomb. ALLTEL
    has the rest of the state on the A-side.

    According to Cingular's Preferred Nation map, all of MS is included
    for free, so I would like to know who are the preferred roaming
    partners where Cingular does not have native coverage? Since Cellular
    South is a CDMA carrier, I would assume that RCC and Centennial are
    favored over Cellular South and ALLTEL. Is that correct?

    What about the Luisville/Macon area and Columbia/Laurel/Waynesboro
    where Cellular South and ALLTEL are the only options, which one does
    Cingular prefer there?



    See More: Preferred Nation coverage in Mississippi




  2. #2
    Todd Allcock
    Guest

    Re: Preferred Nation coverage in Mississippi

    [email protected] (XFF) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > I was wondering whether someone could shed some light on who
    > Cingular's preferred roaming partners in MS are. Here is the
    > situation:
    >
    > Cingular has B-side licenses for about 60% of the state, including
    > Tupelo, Grenada, Vicksburg, Jackson, Meridian, and the southern
    > suburbs of Memphis, TN. The rest of the state is covered on the
    > B-side by Cellular South, including Greenville/Cleveland,
    > Columbus/Starkville, Natchez, Hattiesburg, and Gulfport/Biloxi. (I
    > realize Cingular covers some of these with PCS licenses, but that's
    > not what I'm interested in.)


    Why aren't you interested? In many markets, PCS coverage is
    required for certain areas to be no-roam. In Missouri, for example,
    only tri-mode TDMA users get the southern part of the state
    (Springfield, etc.) at "home" rates, because coverage is 1900MHz.
    There is no 800MHz "preferred carrier" there.

    > The A-side is split 4-ways. VZW has the southern suburbs of Memphis,
    > TN. RCC has the northwestern corner, including Cleveland, Clarksdale,
    > Charleston, Grenada, and east to Houston/Aberdeen. Centennial has the
    > southwestern corner, including Natchez and Brookhaven/Mccomb. ALLTEL
    > has the rest of the state on the A-side.
    >
    > According to Cingular's Preferred Nation map, all of MS is included
    > for free, so I would like to know who are the preferred roaming
    > partners where Cingular does not have native coverage?


    Since Preferred Nation requires newer phones (triband, GAIT, or
    GSM depending on area), the Cingular 1900MHz will be the
    "preferred" carrier anywhere it exists.

    > Since Cellular
    > South is a CDMA carrier, I would assume that RCC and Centennial are
    > favored over Cellular South and ALLTEL. Is that correct?


    Not necessarily- it's all about roaming rates, Not the technology. If
    Cingular can get a better deal from a CDMA company they'll take it, and
    let roamers run analog on TDMA phones. AT&T does the same with
    their TDMA network. You don't see that scenerio much, since AT&T and
    Cingular are each other's biggest roaming parer, but in other areas it
    sometimes happens.

    > What about the Luisville/Macon area and Columbia/Laurel/Waynesboro
    > where Cellular South and ALLTEL are the only options, which one does
    > Cingular prefer there?


    I don't know the specifics for your area, but dialing 611 from the area
    next time you're there might tell you. (I say "might" because many
    companies now pass roamer's 611 calls to the roamer's native carrier.
    Many times I've dialled 611 from non-Cingular areas to be connected
    to Cingular, who then played a recording telling me they couldn't serve
    me because I was outside their service area!)



  3. #3
    XFF
    Guest

    Re: Preferred Nation coverage in Mississippi

    [email protected] (Todd Allcock) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...

    > [email protected] (XFF) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...


    > > I was wondering whether someone could shed some light on who
    > > Cingular's preferred roaming partners in MS are. Here is the
    > > situation:
    > >
    > > Cingular has B-side licenses for about 60% of the state, including
    > > Tupelo, Grenada, Vicksburg, Jackson, Meridian, and the southern
    > > suburbs of Memphis, TN. The rest of the state is covered on the
    > > B-side by Cellular South, including Greenville/Cleveland,
    > > Columbus/Starkville, Natchez, Hattiesburg, and Gulfport/Biloxi. (I
    > > realize Cingular covers some of these with PCS licenses, but that's
    > > not what I'm interested in.)

    >
    > Why aren't you interested? In many markets, PCS coverage is
    > required for certain areas to be no-roam.


    Because even if I did consider PCS coverage that would only cover
    small portions (those with high population density) of the areas in
    question. Sure, a Cingular user will get native PCS service in
    Natchez, but drive 10 miles either way it's a different story (see
    http://onlinestore.cingular.com/weba...pi/home_ms.htm).
    I want to know who Cingular uses to cover the areas that are NOT
    native Cingular (including PCS), for instance Jefferson county or
    Wilkinson county.

    > Since Preferred Nation requires newer phones (triband, GAIT, or
    > GSM depending on area), the Cingular 1900MHz will be the
    > "preferred" carrier anywhere it exists.


    Understood. My question was about the areas where native coverage
    does not exist. I should have been more clear about that.

    > Not necessarily- it's all about roaming rates, Not the technology. If
    > Cingular can get a better deal from a CDMA company they'll take it, and
    > let roamers run analog on TDMA phones.


    True, but chances are Cingular will get much better roaming rates from
    a carrier that uses compatible digital technology, since their
    operating cost of supporting one caller for one minute will also be
    much lower.



  4. #4
    Todd Allcock
    Guest

    Re: Preferred Nation coverage in Mississippi

    [email protected] (XFF) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...

    > True, but chances are Cingular will get much better roaming rates from
    > a carrier that uses compatible digital technology, since their
    > operating cost of supporting one caller for one minute will also be
    > much lower.


    A lot of it has to do with cross-ownership and stuff like that. When I was
    a SBMS (eventually Cingular) dealer in Kansas City, AT&T used to have a
    small % ownership of the KC Cellular One franchise (now Verizon). At
    that time, AT&T's TDMA customers roamed in KC on Cell One in analog
    (C1 was CDMA then, just like Verizon today.) AT&T eventually sold their
    interest in C1 (in order to get a PCS license in KC) and started using
    Cingular as a roaming partner.

    A few years ago, my family vacationed in San Diego. We took our
    Cingular TDMA phones. Mine, a 5165 with a more recent IRDB roamed
    on AT&T (in TDMA of course), my wife's 8260 roamed on Verizon in
    analog!

    My only point with the above anecdotes was that in negotiating
    roaming contracts, technology takes a big backseat to economics.

    When I managed a Radio Shack store in Fremont, NE in the late 80's,
    I talked to one of the owners of Nebraska Cellular, a company who
    then provided virtually all of Nebrask's rural coverage (they had
    licenses for all RSAs- basically the whole state except Omaha and
    Lincoln). He explained that his company derived over half their
    revenue from roamers. (These were the $3.00/day +
    $0.75-$1.50/minute days, BTW.) Roaming is big business, and rural
    carriers compete for the chance to be the "preferred carrier" of the
    big boys.

    If you get the chance to visit those areas, you can figure out who's
    providing service yourself- Andrew Shepard compiled a list of who
    owns what SID (System ID) and if you have a Nokia phone, you can
    put it in "field test mode" which allows it to display the SID it's
    receiving. A link to Andrew's list is in the thread "Cellular SIDS
    Database posted" dated today (10/7) and putting your phone in
    field test mode is easy: enter programming mode key in
    *3001#12345## and then scroll to "field test", select, and then
    choose "enabled". Power off, power on and arrow down to screen
    2 which disays the SID as well as other data (in FT mode, the arrow
    keys toggle you through a half-dozen or so diagnostic displays
    instead of the usual boring "Cingular.") when you're tired of field
    test mode, follow the instructions above that got you into it, except
    select "disabled" and reboot the phone.

    Good luck!


    display.



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