Is calling a cell phone from home always local?

If I am in Maryland and call my cell phone which is in Texas will my
long distance carrier charge me for a long distance call.
My long distance carrier on my regular home phone is Verizon.
My cell phone is Sprint with free long distance.
In other words if I go to Texas with my cell and my wife calls me from
our regular phone is Verizon going to charge us for a long distance
call.

Thanks,
JW

---

› See More: Is calling a cell phone from home always local?

In article <UnNld.6636$pP5.5081@trnddc05>, [email protected] says...
> If I am in Maryland and call my cell phone which is in Texas will my
> long distance carrier charge me for a long distance call.
> My long distance carrier on my regular home phone is Verizon.
> My cell phone is Sprint with free long distance.
> In other words if I go to Texas with my cell and my wife calls me from
> our regular phone is Verizon going to charge us for a long distance
> call.
>=20

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by your cell phone being "in=20
Texas." Let's just put it this way: for a landline, the long distance=20
status is based on the phone number you're calling. So if the NUMBER is=20
a local call, it's always a local call. If that number is a cell phone,=20
then it doesn't matter where the cell phone is physically located.

This is why some cell companies want to force you to change your number=20
when you move (or they did, when I looked into this some time ago). =20
Sprint does not force you to change. In fact, the trainers went to some=20
effort to point this out as an advantage of Sprint back when I was hired=20
by them. You can move to Texas, keep your Maryland number, and all your=20
friends from Maryland don't have to pay LD to keep in touch with you.

--=20
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
~+~
A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be.
Moderation in temper is always a virtue,
but moderation in principle is always a vice.
Thomas Paine, "The Rights of Man", 1792

"Steve Crow" <[email protected]> wrote in message =
news:UTRld.4055$m36.2503@trnddc02...
> O/Siris wrote:
>=20
>> This is why some cell companies want to force you to change your =
number
>> when you move (or they did, when I looked into this some time ago).
>> Sprint does not force you to change. In fact, the trainers went to =
some
>> effort to point this out as an advantage of Sprint back when I was =
hired
>> by them. You can move to Texas, keep your Maryland number, and all =
your
>> friends from Maryland don't have to pay LD to keep in touch with you.
>>=20
>=20
> Rob, it's been a while since I looked at the T's & C's, but once upon =
a time
> it was specifically stated in Sprint's Terms & Conditions of Service =
that
> if the customer's usage was "substantially" in another area code, =
Sprint
> PCS would change the customer's phone number accordingly. I do not =
have the
> exact verbiage handy, but that's the gist of it. Now I never knew =
ANYONE
> who had fallen victim to this policy, so perhaps it's simply =
unenforced (as
> it is kinda silly). Has this policy changed or been removed =
completely?
>=20
> Steve

I think it said that they "could" change it, not that they "would" =
change it.
Just a tiny shade of difference.
---JRC---

O/Siris wrote:

> This is why some cell companies want to force you to change your number
> when you move (or they did, when I looked into this some time ago).
> Sprint does not force you to change. In fact, the trainers went to some
> effort to point this out as an advantage of Sprint back when I was hired
> by them. You can move to Texas, keep your Maryland number, and all your
> friends from Maryland don't have to pay LD to keep in touch with you.
>

Rob, it's been a while since I looked at the T's & C's, but once upon a time
it was specifically stated in Sprint's Terms & Conditions of Service that
if the customer's usage was "substantially" in another area code, Sprint
PCS would change the customer's phone number accordingly. I do not have the
exact verbiage handy, but that's the gist of it. Now I never knew ANYONE
who had fallen victim to this policy, so perhaps it's simply unenforced (as
it is kinda silly). Has this policy changed or been removed completely?

Steve

"John R. Copeland" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
"Steve Crow" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:UTRld.4055$m36.2503@trnddc02...
> O/Siris wrote:
>
>> This is why some cell companies want to force you to change your number
>> when you move (or they did, when I looked into this some time ago).
>> Sprint does not force you to change. In fact, the trainers went to some
>> effort to point this out as an advantage of Sprint back when I was hired
>> by them. You can move to Texas, keep your Maryland number, and all your
>> friends from Maryland don't have to pay LD to keep in touch with you.
>>
>
> Rob, it's been a while since I looked at the T's & C's, but once upon a
> time
> it was specifically stated in Sprint's Terms & Conditions of Service that
> if the customer's usage was "substantially" in another area code, Sprint
> PCS would change the customer's phone number accordingly. I do not have
> the
> exact verbiage handy, but that's the gist of it. Now I never knew ANYONE
> who had fallen victim to this policy, so perhaps it's simply unenforced
> (as
> it is kinda silly). Has this policy changed or been removed completely?
>
> Steve

I think it said that they "could" change it, not that they "would" change
it.
Just a tiny shade of difference.
---JRC---

Been in another area code for 3 years. No warnings or changes.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

"John R. Copeland" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
"Steve Crow" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:UTRld.4055$m36.2503@trnddc02...
> O/Siris wrote:
>
>> This is why some cell companies want to force you to change your number
>> when you move (or they did, when I looked into this some time ago).
>> Sprint does not force you to change. In fact, the trainers went to some
>> effort to point this out as an advantage of Sprint back when I was hired
>> by them. You can move to Texas, keep your Maryland number, and all your
>> friends from Maryland don't have to pay LD to keep in touch with you.
>>
>
> Rob, it's been a while since I looked at the T's & C's, but once upon a
time
> it was specifically stated in Sprint's Terms & Conditions of Service that
> if the customer's usage was "substantially" in another area code, Sprint
> PCS would change the customer's phone number accordingly. I do not have
the
> exact verbiage handy, but that's the gist of it. Now I never knew ANYONE
> who had fallen victim to this policy, so perhaps it's simply unenforced
(as
> it is kinda silly). Has this policy changed or been removed completely?
>
> Steve

I think it said that they "could" change it, not that they "would" change
it.
Just a tiny shade of difference.
---JRC---

Yup, key words there John. I've got a friend, who moved from Charlotte, NC
to Columbia, SC 3 years ago or so. He has kept his Charlotte number, without
being notified by SPCS he had to change his phone number.

Bob

>I think it said that they "could" change it, not that they "would" change
>it.

I had my wife out of state in North Carolina with a Dallas number for 2 & 1/2
years and Sprint never said anything at all to us.

When she changed to AT&T WS with a Dallas number AT&T never said anything
either.

--
John S.
e-mail responses to - john at kiana dot net

"John S." wrote:
>
> >I think it said that they "could" change it, not that they "would" change
> >it.
>
> I had my wife out of state in North Carolina with a Dallas number for 2 & 1/2
> years and Sprint never said anything at all to us.
>
> When she changed to AT&T WS with a Dallas number AT&T never said anything
> either.

You had your WIFE out of state, or your wife's PHONE out of state? <g>

Notan

jw wrote:
> If I am in Maryland and call my cell phone which is in Texas will my
> long distance carrier charge me for a long distance call.

It depends on the phone number of the cell phone. If the cell phone
number is a local call from the landline phone, then the home phone call
the cell phone from anywhere and not be charged LD.

The way to think of it is this way: your landline phone only cares about
the location of the switch that routes calls to your cell phone, and not
the location of the cell phone itself. Verizon just routes the call to
that "home switch" and then says "I've done my job, now YOU find out
where this guy is located and connect the call."

Generally, that switch location is determined by the rate center in
which your phone number resides. So, if you're in Texas, live in Texas,
and use a phone in Texas, but you ask Sprint to give you a Maryland
number, then the phone's "home switch" will be in Maryland, and local to
Maryland numbers but not Texas numbers. This is because a Texas
landline will have to route its call all the way to Maryland to one of
the Sprint switches there, which must then route the call all the way
back to Texas to complete the loop.


> My long distance carrier on my regular home phone is Verizon.
> My cell phone is Sprint with free long distance.
> In other words if I go to Texas with my cell and my wife calls me from
> our regular phone is Verizon going to charge us for a long distance
> call.

No. However, anyone in Texas with a landline who calls your cell phone
WILL get charged LD, even if the two phones are phsycially right next to
each other.


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

O/Siris <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I'm not sure I understand what you mean by your cell phone being "in
> Texas." Let's just put it this way: for a landline, the long distance
> status is based on the phone number you're calling. So if the NUMBER is
> a local call, it's always a local call. If that number is a cell phone,
> then it doesn't matter where the cell phone is physically located.
>
> This is why some cell companies want to force you to change your number
> when you move (or they did, when I looked into this some time ago).
> Sprint does not force you to change. In fact, the trainers went to some
> effort to point this out as an advantage of Sprint back when I was hired
> by them. You can move to Texas, keep your Maryland number, and all your
> friends from Maryland don't have to pay LD to keep in touch with you.
>

I read in the Sunday paper (Minneapolis Star Tribune) about how Sprint
PCS touts the advantage of being the only wireless company that can
natively route all of its long distance [when using the Sprint PCS
network] through its own long distance backbone. Even Verizion does not
come close to having the native digital coverage and long distance
offerings in the same areas.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1
Spammers please contact me at [email protected].

In article <UnNld.6636$pP5.5081@trnddc05>, jw <[email protected]> wrote:

> If I am in Maryland and call my cell phone which is in Texas will my
> long distance carrier charge me for a long distance call.

Whether the call is local or toll depends only on the number you dial,
not on the physical location of the cellphone. Since the caller
ordinarily has no way of knowing where the cellphone is physically
located, it would be unreasonable to charge differently.

The reverse is true, though: if someone is visiting you in Maryland,
carrying a cellphone with a Texas number, and you dial that Texas
number from your Maryland home phone, you will pay for the toll call to
Texas, even if the cellphone is literally in your house.

Likewise, anyone in Texas who calls your Maryland cellphone number
while you are in Texas will still pay for the toll call to Maryland,
even if they can see the cellphone in your hand.

There used to be "roamer ports" that offered a way around this last
part, but I've never been able to find out if SprintPCS has them; since
long-distance rates have dropped so dramatically, and "roamer ports"
muddy most people's concepts of roaming, they've fallen into disfavor.
To use a roamer port, you would dial a local number and then enter the
ten-digit cellphone number, but you had to know the carrier and you
also had to know that the cellphone was in the same metropolitan area.
You couldn't, for example, use a Cingular roamer port to call a Sprint
cellphone, nor could you use a Los Angeles roamer port to call a
cellphone that was physically located in Las Vegas.

--
Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * [email protected]
<http://www.LincMad.com> * primary e-mail: Telecom at LincMad dot com
All U.S. and California anti-spam laws apply, incl. CA BPC 17538.45(c)
This text constitutes actual notice as required in BPC 17538.45(f)(3).
DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED E-MAIL TO THIS ADDRESS. You have been warned.

In article <UTRld.4055$m36.2503@trnddc02>, Steve=20
[email protected] says...
> O/Siris wrote:
>=20
> > This is why some cell companies want to force you to change your number
> > when you move (or they did, when I looked into this some time ago).
> > Sprint does not force you to change. In fact, the trainers went to som=
e
> > effort to point this out as an advantage of Sprint back when I was hire=
d
> > by them. You can move to Texas, keep your Maryland number, and all you=
r
> > friends from Maryland don't have to pay LD to keep in touch with you.
> >=20
>=20
> Rob, it's been a while since I looked at the T's & C's, but once upon a t=
ime
> it was specifically stated in Sprint's Terms & Conditions of Service that
> if the customer's usage was "substantially" in another area code, Sprint
> PCS would change the customer's phone number accordingly. I do not have t=
he
> exact verbiage handy, but that's the gist of it. Now I never knew ANYONE
> who had fallen victim to this policy, so perhaps it's simply unenforced (=
as
> it is kinda silly). Has this policy changed or been removed completely?
>=20
> Steve
>=20

In December of 2002, when I was trained in basic Customer=20
Service procedures with Sprint PCS, this was taught to us=20
as a specific selling point of Sprint. We do *not* force=20
customers to change area codes. Ever. In fact, so long as=20
you can provide us with a valid address (it doesn't even=20
have to be yours), We... errr... dammit, *still* doing that=20
now and again... *SPCS* will setup lines in any area code=20
desired, so long as SPCS has numbers to give in that area=20
code (more precisely, in that CSA).

That was still true when I left in July. Now that I'm=20
gone, that *could* have changed. But I doubt it.

--=20
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
-+-
**A thing moderately good is not so good as it=20
ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a=20
virtue, but moderation in principle is always a
vice.**
-Thomas Paine. The Rights of Man. 1792-