International Roaming

I recently switched to Cingular GSM because I travel internationally a
lot for business (mostly Brazil and Mexico) and I thought that GSM
would allow easy roaming and switching of SIM chips to local
providers. The salesman told me I was all set up to travel
internationally.
On my first trip to Brazil roaming did not work at all. (but
switching SIM chips worked). When I got back I was told by CS that
International Roaming was not set up on my account. They said that
they could set up International roaming but that they would not set up
International calling until I have been a customer for 1 year--NO
EXCEPTIONS!!!. Anyways, last week I traveled to Mexico City.
Cingular extend appeared on my phone, but I was only able to make
local calls in Mexico City. I was not allowed to call the U.S., or
even able to call a Mexico 01800 # for "ATT Direct" to call back to
the U.S. Also anyone calling my number got a busy signal.

Customer service call #1 said that it was a technology issue that
couldn't be resolved.

Customer service call #2 said that it was because I didn't have
International calling enabled--and again they would not enable that
for 1 year.

Customer service call #3 said that "Cingular does not guarantee
service outside the US so I can't help you."

Has anyone successfully roamed using GSM in Mexico City?
Does anyone have any other suggestions for me to try?
I will be back in Mexico City next week.

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› See More: International Roaming

RLT wrote:
> I recently switched to Cingular GSM because I travel internationally a
> lot for business (mostly Brazil and Mexico) and I thought that GSM
> would allow easy roaming and switching of SIM chips to local
> providers. The salesman told me I was all set up to travel
> internationally.
> On my first trip to Brazil roaming did not work at all. (but
> switching SIM chips worked). When I got back I was told by CS that
> International Roaming was not set up on my account. They said that
> they could set up International roaming but that they would not set up
> International calling until I have been a customer for 1 year--NO
> EXCEPTIONS!!!. Anyways, last week I traveled to Mexico City.
> Cingular extend appeared on my phone, but I was only able to make
> local calls in Mexico City. I was not allowed to call the U.S., or
> even able to call a Mexico 01800 # for "ATT Direct" to call back to
> the U.S. Also anyone calling my number got a busy signal.
>
> Customer service call #1 said that it was a technology issue that
> couldn't be resolved.
>
> Customer service call #2 said that it was because I didn't have
> International calling enabled--and again they would not enable that
> for 1 year.
>
> Customer service call #3 said that "Cingular does not guarantee
> service outside the US so I can't help you."
>
> Has anyone successfully roamed using GSM in Mexico City?
> Does anyone have any other suggestions for me to try?
> I will be back in Mexico City next week.


I travel to Mexico on a fairly regular basis, with my GSM Nokia 6340i,
with international roaming AND calling enabled - I have no problem with
local calls or LD calls inside Mexico or to the US. CS rep #1 was full
of it, CS rep #2 was spot on, CS rep #3 didn't try hard enough to help
you - they should've said Cingular will do their best to be certain your
account will validate as an international roamer.

Most places in Mexico went straight from AMPS to GSM, so TDMA service is
really spotty. And considering the capacity increase with GSM, I don't
expect AMPS to last long down there, as there is no magical sunset date
for AMPS, they could drop it tomorrow if they wanted to.

As far as a 1 year wait for international calling, offer them to accept
a deposit on your account to cover their heebee-geebee ass - returnable
on your first anniversary.

--
jer email reply - I am not a 'ten' ICQ = 35253273
"All that we do is touched with ocean, yet we remain on the shore of
what we know." -- Richard Wilbur

Jer <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> RLT wrote:
> > I recently switched to Cingular GSM because I travel internationally a
> > lot for business (mostly Brazil and Mexico) and I thought that GSM
> > would allow easy roaming and switching of SIM chips to local
> > providers. The salesman told me I was all set up to travel
> > internationally.
> > On my first trip to Brazil roaming did not work at all. (but
> > switching SIM chips worked). When I got back I was told by CS that
> > International Roaming was not set up on my account. They said that
> > they could set up International roaming but that they would not set up
> > International calling until I have been a customer for 1 year--NO
> > EXCEPTIONS!!!. Anyways, last week I traveled to Mexico City.
> > Cingular extend appeared on my phone, but I was only able to make
> > local calls in Mexico City. I was not allowed to call the U.S., or
> > even able to call a Mexico 01800 # for "ATT Direct" to call back to
> > the U.S. Also anyone calling my number got a busy signal.
> >
> > Customer service call #1 said that it was a technology issue that
> > couldn't be resolved.
> >
> > Customer service call #2 said that it was because I didn't have
> > International calling enabled--and again they would not enable that
> > for 1 year.
> >
> > Customer service call #3 said that "Cingular does not guarantee
> > service outside the US so I can't help you."
> >
> > Has anyone successfully roamed using GSM in Mexico City?
> > Does anyone have any other suggestions for me to try?
> > I will be back in Mexico City next week.
>
>
> I travel to Mexico on a fairly regular basis, with my GSM Nokia 6340i,
> with international roaming AND calling enabled - I have no problem with
> local calls or LD calls inside Mexico or to the US. CS rep #1 was full
> of it, CS rep #2 was spot on, CS rep #3 didn't try hard enough to help
> you - they should've said Cingular will do their best to be certain your
> account will validate as an international roamer.
>
> Most places in Mexico went straight from AMPS to GSM, so TDMA service is
> really spotty. And considering the capacity increase with GSM, I don't
> expect AMPS to last long down there, as there is no magical sunset date
> for AMPS, they could drop it tomorrow if they wanted to.
>
> As far as a 1 year wait for international calling, offer them to accept
> a deposit on your account to cover their heebee-geebee ass - returnable
> on your first anniversary.

I just received a call back from a supervisor. She told me she had
researched the problem and stuck with the technology issue. She said
that the 2 GSM networks won't work together. Her solution was to
switch me to a TDMA plan. The 6340i, I believe, is a GAIT phone. Is
it possible that in Mexico City you are roaming on TDMA or is this
another case of bad info from Cingular?

Also, I have a coworker who uses ATT TDMA and he hasn't had any
problems while in Mexico City.

Thanks

Rob

RLT wrote:


>
> I just received a call back from a supervisor. She told me she had
> researched the problem and stuck with the technology issue. She said
> that the 2 GSM networks won't work together. Her solution was to
> switch me to a TDMA plan. The 6340i, I believe, is a GAIT phone. Is
> it possible that in Mexico City you are roaming on TDMA or is this
> another case of bad info from Cingular?
>
> Also, I have a coworker who uses ATT TDMA and he hasn't had any
> problems while in Mexico City.
>
> Thanks
>
> Rob

I hadn't thought about the possibility of being on TDMA, since the 6340i
doesn't have a display indicator, per se - so this sounds plausible. On
TDMA, you need to be certain Cingular has you coded for international
use for TDMA as well, because a GAIT phone has an ESN used for roamer
validation. I don't believe you need to have a TDMA plan to use TDMA
abroad, because a GSM plan with a GAIT phone requires your carrier to
validate you in both their TDMA HLR (Home Location Register) and the GSM
HLR simultaneously - so roamer validation requests from abroad should
work regardless of which type of network you're trying to use.

Now that that's clear as mud.... you need to be certain your handset's
IRDB and PRL are current, and only your carrier can promise that it is.
The down side to this is you won't know if they're right until you're
already 'off network'. I have to assume this is possible because mine
works fine.


--
jer email reply - I am not a 'ten' ICQ = 35253273
"All that we do is touched with ocean, yet we remain on the shore of
what we know." -- Richard Wilbur