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- 11-01-2005, 06:04 AM #1Ralph5407Guest
I'm shortly coming over from the UK to Alaska and wondered if anyone can
tell me if there are roaming agreements with UK phone providers,
Vodafone and T- Mobile. Their customer services say all the US is
covered but a friend who was in Alaska in July said that was incorrect,
he could not get any roaming connection.
--
Ralph5407
› See More: Alasca
- 11-01-2005, 12:53 PM #2Donald NewcombGuest
Re: Alaska
"Ralph5407" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> I'm shortly coming over from the UK to Alaska and wondered if anyone can
> tell me if there are roaming agreements with UK phone providers,
> Vodafone and T- Mobile.
Yes, Vodafone can roam on T-Mobile but that may not be of much help in
Alaska. Think of Alaska as being like The Isle of Man or one of the other
peculiar places attached to but not part of the UK. Yes, Alaska is a US
State but the US FCC awards licenses on a regional basis (like India does)
and the carriers were no in a big rush to try to cover Alaska. There are a
few smaller regional GSM carriers in Alaska but they may not have roaming
agreements with non-US carriers. Have you looked at gsmworld.com and seen
how many GSM carriers their are in the US? Check out compass.t-mobile.com to
see where T-Mobile US actually has service. Note the difference in color
between native coverage and domestic roaming? I only see roaming coverage in
Alaska. I believe that the GSM coverage there is provided by Alaska Digitel.
Finally, there may be GSM service but it may require a phone with the 850
MHz band.
--
Donald R. Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net
- 11-01-2005, 02:16 PM #3DogfartGuest
Re: Alaska
On Tue, 01 Nov 2005, at 10:10:29 [GMT -0500] (02:10:29 Wednesday, 2 November
2005 where I live) "Cyrus Afzali" wrote:
> Alternatively, if your phone is unlocked, you could pick up a T-Mobile
> SIM here in the U.S. when you arrive and use that. Although obviously
> going that route would mean you would have a different phone number
> when you're here.
According to http://www.gsmworld.com/cgi-bin/ni_map.pl?cc=us&net=we T-Mobile
have no coverage themselves in Alaska, but as stated might have roaming
agreements, which ~might~ allow others roaming on T-Mobile to piggy back, so
to speak.
I have a Tel$tra Australia sim; in California I roam on Cingular (and
previously AT&T as well). I went to Arizona and was roaming on a local
carrier not even listed as a Tel$stra roaming partner; probably a similar
set up as described above?
Why not double check with Voda in UK first? You will also need a tri band
or quad band phone, and roaming enabled.
- 11-01-2005, 08:18 PM #4SMSGuest
Re: Alaska
Ralph5407 wrote:
> I'm shortly coming over from the UK to Alaska and wondered if anyone can
> tell me if there are roaming agreements with UK phone providers,
> Vodafone and T- Mobile. Their customer services say all the US is
> covered but a friend who was in Alaska in July said that was incorrect,
> he could not get any roaming connection.
Alaska has very little GSM. There are beginning to be some TDMA to GSM
conversions, but it's slow because much of Alaska is covered only by
AMPS and there are very few, if any, GSM/AMPS handsets available so
Alaskans are reluctant to move to GSM because they'll have no coverage
at all in much of the state.
The CDMA coverage is good in the cities, and many CDMA/AMPS handsets are
available, but TDMA still reigns supreme.
You're better off getting a pre-paid TDMA/AMPS phone for use in Alaska.
They are very cheap, and will work well in Alaska, though you'll be at
the higher (roaming) rate.
- 11-02-2005, 01:39 PM #5Ralph5407Guest
Re: Alaska
SMS Wrote:
> Ralph5407 wrote:
> I'm shortly coming over from the UK to Alaska and wondered if anyone
> can
> tell me if there are roaming agreements with UK phone providers,
> Vodafone and T- Mobile. Their customer services say all the US is
> covered but a friend who was in Alaska in July said that was
> incorrect,
> he could not get any roaming connection.
>
>
Thanks guys for you input, I'll probably do without and rely on emails
to keep in touch.
--
Ralph5407
- 11-02-2005, 05:32 PM #6SMSGuest
Re: Alaska
Ralph5407 wrote:
> SMS Wrote:
>
>>Ralph5407 wrote:
>>I'm shortly coming over from the UK to Alaska and wondered if anyone
>>can
>>tell me if there are roaming agreements with UK phone providers,
>>Vodafone and T- Mobile. Their customer services say all the US is
>>covered but a friend who was in Alaska in July said that was
>>incorrect,
>>he could not get any roaming connection.
>>
>>
>
>
> Thanks guys for you input, I'll probably do without and rely on emails
> to keep in touch.
When I was in Alaska in 2003, there were a lot of very pissed off GSM
and iDEN (Nextel users). Well you expect Nextel to not have coverage,
but no GSM was a shock. I had good CDMA coverage in Anchorage,
Fairbanks, and Seward, and AMPS in most other places, including most of
the route of the Alaska railway. I would have had better digital
coverage if I'd had TDMA, since there is TDMA in smaller towns.
GSM is coming to Alaska, but slowly. The main problem is that most
Alaskans insist on having AMPS because in many areas it's the only
coverage. GSM/AMPS is not common, because AFAIK, only two handsets have
both, the Nokia 6340i, and the Sony-Ericsson t62u (both also have TDMA).
Nokia used to make an AMPS sleeve for the 5190/95 and 6190/95 ande 7190.
(see
"http://www.wirelesshotdeal.com/product_info.php?cPath=650_683&products_id=3009")
Basically, if you want coverage in Alaska, go to Wal-Mart and buy a
prepaid CDMA/AMPS or TDMA/AMPS phone.
Many hotels have a free computer to use for e-mail.
- 11-02-2005, 09:09 PM #7Donald NewcombGuest
Re: Alaska
"Joseph" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> According to gsmworld Alaska Digitel has no roaming agreements.
> Neither does Alaska Wireless Communications. gsmworld can be out of
> date so that may not be the end of it.
Exactly. GSMWorld is a nice site but the information there is based on what
the carriers report to them. But it would surprise me if Alaska Digitel had
much in the way of roaming with carriers outside the US & Canada.
--
Donald R. Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net
- 11-03-2005, 12:03 AM #8SMSGuest
Re: Alaska
Donald Newcomb wrote:
> "Joseph" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>>According to gsmworld Alaska Digitel has no roaming agreements.
>>Neither does Alaska Wireless Communications. gsmworld can be out of
>>date so that may not be the end of it.
>
>
> Exactly. GSMWorld is a nice site but the information there is based on what
> the carriers report to them. But it would surprise me if Alaska Digitel had
> much in the way of roaming with carriers outside the US & Canada.
Alaska Digitel appears to be CDMA/AMPS.
"Alaska DigiTel Wireless Communications has the most complete,
all-digital, advanced CDMA wireless network in Alaska."
There was one small GSM network in Alaska, that wasn't in the major cities.
Cellular One is rolling out GSM in Alaska.
- 11-03-2005, 11:22 PM #9Steve SobolGuest
Re: Alaska
Cyrus Afzali wrote:
> A quick check of the coverage map supplied by T-Mobile shows they have
> roaming partner coverage in Alaska.
Probably Cingular. AT&T Wireless used to be the only major carrier up there.
--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307
- 11-04-2005, 10:48 AM #10SMSGuest
Re: Alaska
Steve Sobol wrote:
> Cyrus Afzali wrote:
>
>> A quick check of the coverage map supplied by T-Mobile shows they have
>> roaming partner coverage in Alaska.
>
>
> Probably Cingular. AT&T Wireless used to be the only major carrier up
> there.
Cingular does not have operations in Alaska. The main GSM carrier in
Alaska is Dobson, dba Cellular One.
Go to http://cellularone.com/ and use ZIP code 99513 (Anchorage).
The problem is that there is still a lot of analog in AK, which you
don't get to use with GSM, i.e. see
http://alaskadigitel.com/postpaid.htm" go to the map.
But the original poster should be fine in the big cities with GSM,
provided he gets a prepaid SIM that allows roaming onto the Dobson network.
- 11-05-2005, 04:30 AM #11CharlesHGuest
Re: Alaska
SMS wrote:
> Cellular One is rolling out GSM in Alaska.
Just a nit, but "Cellular One" is not a company, it is a branding label
that local, independent, companies can buy the right to use. This was
more relevant in the "old days" when there were no national wireless
companies, and regional companies wanted to give the impression that
they were national, without actually merging. It is always "<some local
company> d.b.a. (doing business as) CellularOne". In this case, it is
Dobson Cellular System.
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