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Cellular forums Home > Archive > T-Mobile cellular service > May 2005 > Re: Verizon Worsens America's Choice Calling Plan--No more roaming, even at extra cost, No more Nat
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Re: Verizon Worsens America's Choice Calling Plan--No more roaming, even at extra cost, No more Nat
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| Joseph Huber 2005-05-26, 6:55 am |
| On Thu, 26 May 2005 00:48:44 GMT, "Steven M. Scharf"
quote:
>"Steve Sobol" <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in message
>
>I think that the only people signing up for NSR were people that were doing
>a great deal of off-network roaming, otherwise it would have been cheaper to
>use AC and pay for occasional roaming. So Verizon was probably losing money
>on NSR from too many customers to keep offering it.
My mother lived in a rural area, and had NSR. NSR is/was practically
a must for people in those areas, where the towers are few and far
between. You can be on a Verizon tower, drive 100 ft down the road,
and be on some other company's tower incurring roaming charges.
Great NSR story about my small rural hometown... I bought my mother a
Verizon cell phone with NSR. At that time, everything was analog (and
probably still is). NSR was not cheap, but she could afford it, and I
wanted to make things simple for her (i.e. not having to worry about
roaming). Lots of folks bought Verizion phones in that area, as the
other option was a regional provider with rather poor plans. The
nearest Verizon tower was about 20 air miles away. Reception was not
great, but usable most of the time (an external antenna helped
immensely). As I recall, one band (A or B, I'm not sure) picked up
the distant Verizon tower most of the time, but sometimes picked up a
non-Verizon tower. the other band picked up a tower from another cell
provider. I was sure glad we chose NSR! Surprisingly, many people
did not buy the NSR plan.
Some small company came in and built a cell tower a few miles outside
of town. The town was thrilled, as this closer tower would allow the
folks to ditch their antennas and bag phones. Then, the new tower was
turned on. I don't know the technical details, but somehow the
Verizon phones always connected to the new tower, and would no longer
pick up the distant Verizon tower. But this tower company did not
feel compelled to enter a roaming agreement with Verizion. So the
Verizon users who didn't have NSR started incurring roaming charges
for every call (both bands were roaming towers). The issue dragged
on for months, and it may still may not be resolved. There were
hearings and town meetings, but apparently no agency had the authority
to compell Verizon and this tower company to make an agreement. My
mother has since passed on, and my sister still has the phone with
NSR, but lives in a larger town that has better Verizion coverage.
She still benefits from NSR when she travels out away from town.
Joe Huber
huber.joseph@comcast.net
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