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- 10-06-2003, 11:11 AM #1XFFGuest
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
- 10-07-2003, 11:22 AM #2Todd AllcockGuest
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!)
- 10-07-2003, 05:01 PM #3XFFGuest
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.
- 10-07-2003, 10:53 PM #4Todd AllcockGuest
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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