T-Mobile cellular service - Roaming pricing on family plan

Author

Roaming pricing on family plan

mvl_groups_user@yahoo.com

2005-07-24, 1:59 pm

I noticed T-mo's website that on the individual and regional plans,
nationwide roaming is included. (but not for free m2m and NW).

They make no mention of this on the family plans. Is this also the
case, or do family plans charge for all roaming?

-MVL

Joseph

2005-07-24, 1:59 pm

On 20 Jul 2005 03:31:59 -0700, mvl_groups_user@yaho
o.com wrote:

>I noticed T-mo's website that on the individual and regional plans,
>nationwide roaming is included. (but not for free m2m and NW).
>
>They make no mention of this on the family plans. Is this also the
>case, or do family plans charge for all roaming?

All national plans (there are no regional family plans) have long
distance and roaming included.) Night and weekend minutes are
included when roaming. Mobile-to-mobile is not (if you are on a
non-T-Mobile network.)

- -

Steve Sobol

2005-07-24, 1:59 pm

mvl_groups_user@yaho
o.com wrote:
> I noticed T-mo's website that on the individual and regional plans,
> nationwide roaming is included. (but not for free m2m and NW).
>
> They make no mention of this on the family plans. Is this also the
> case, or do family plans charge for all roaming?

I *just* signed up for the family plan with 1000 minutes... T-Mobile's
website says nationwide roaming is included in the plan price. IIRC it says
that on the other share plans too.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Cyrus Afzali

2005-07-24, 1:59 pm

On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 12:08:31 -0700, Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
wrote:

> mvl_groups_user@yaho
o.com wrote:
>
>I *just* signed up for the family plan with 1000 minutes... T-Mobile's
>website says nationwide roaming is included in the plan price. IIRC it says
>that on the other share plans too.

It is indeed included, so you won't get any surprises you don't
expect. The only TM plans that never included roaming were the old
regional plans that they don't sell anymore.

Dan

2005-07-24, 1:59 pm

"Joseph" <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:nclsd1ph6re7q99
lonp7eumbp1kbc217m4@
4ax.com...
> On 20 Jul 2005 03:31:59 -0700, mvl_groups_user@yaho
o.com wrote:
>
>
> All national plans (there are no regional family plans) have long
> distance and roaming included.) Night and weekend minutes are
> included when roaming. Mobile-to-mobile is not (if you are on a
> non-T-Mobile network.)
>
> - -
>
Mobile to Mobile is being included in more and more roaming areas.

Search http://t-mobile.howardforums.com for more info.

Steve Sobol

2005-07-24, 1:59 pm

Dan wrote:

> Mobile to Mobile is being included in more and more roaming areas.
>
> Search http://t-mobile.howardforums.com for more info.

Wow. Given that Carrier A must pay Carrier B for the privilege of allowing
A's customers to roam, I'm shocked to see *any* carrier allowing off-peak
and mobile-to-mobile billing on roaming calls.

TM must have some pretty sweet contract with their roaming partners,
otherwise they'd lose money on that deal.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Joseph

2005-07-24, 1:59 pm

On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 15:15:06 -0400, Cyrus Afzali <pnsmnyv@lnubb.pbz>
wrote:

>It is indeed included (roaming), so you won't get any surprises you don't
>expect. The only TM plans that never included roaming were the old
>regional plans that they don't sell anymore.

T-Mobile still sells a 3,000 minute regional plan for $60. No extra
night or weekend minutes and roaming minutes outside of your area are
20 cents/minute plus long distance.
- -

Steve Sobol

2005-07-24, 1:59 pm

Joseph wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 15:15:06 -0400, Cyrus Afzali <pnsmnyv@lnubb.pbz>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> T-Mobile still sells a 3,000 minute regional plan for $60.

Would that be "Get More 3000"?

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Joseph

2005-07-24, 1:59 pm

On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 21:28:51 -0700, Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
wrote:

>Joseph wrote:
>
>Would that be "Get More 3000"?

As a matter of fact yes.

- -

Cyrus Afzali

2005-07-24, 1:59 pm

On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 21:28:51 -0700, Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
wrote:

>Joseph wrote:
>
>Would that be "Get More 3000"?

Yes, that's what it's called. I just found it on the Web site. The
pricing depends on where you are. In the NY metro market, it's
actually $50.

Steve Sobol

2005-07-24, 1:59 pm

Joseph wrote:

>
> As a matter of fact yes.

OK. I was just asking because I saw somewhere (maybe here) a disclaimer that
the free roaming didn't apply to that plan.

**SJ "not that I care, I have a nationwide plan" S

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Joseph

2005-07-24, 1:59 pm

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 15:10:39 -0700, Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
wrote:

>Joseph wrote:
>
>
>OK. I was just asking because I saw somewhere (maybe here) a disclaimer that
>the free roaming didn't apply to that plan.

There is *no* free roaming and *no* long distance on regional plans.
Generally the regional plans encompass two states and within those
states there is no roaming or long distance charges. If you call out
of those states or roam in any states outside those two states you
will be charged roaming *and* long distance charges. That's why
they're called *regional* plans rather than national plans. National
plans include long distance and roaming.
- -

wild bill

2005-07-25, 5:48 pm

On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 13:59:50 -0700, Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
wrote:

>Dan wrote:
>
>
>Wow. Given that Carrier A must pay Carrier B for the privilege of allowing
>A's customers to roam, I'm shocked to see *any* carrier allowing off-peak
>and mobile-to-mobile billing on roaming calls.
>
>TM must have some pretty sweet contract with their roaming partners,
>otherwise they'd lose money on that deal.

Something tells me the carriers involved in non-paying-customer
roaming have some way of SWAPPING those minutes around.

Sort of like Enron and electrical energy. Some 'minutes' just
cancel out, some pile up as 'credits' to one side or the other.

Maybe they can swap for the minutes-used they need, so they
can essentially balance out the books?

One local company actually told me he's making a 'profit'
from his roaming agreements with national carriers. Sounded
like he gets more than 1:1 in trade for his 'minutes'.

Bill

wild bill

2005-07-25, 5:48 pm

On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 10:34:57 -0500, wild bill <bill@sunsouthwest.com>
wrote:

>One local company actually told me he's making a 'profit'
>from his roaming agreements with national carriers. Sounded
>like he gets more than 1:1 in trade for his 'minutes'.

Which reminds me ... there's folks heavily into buying cell
towers, just like oil and gas leases in the good old days.

One day I sorta stumbled onto a website where they listed
properties available and wanted ...... while searching
for something about coverage maps and tower locations.

Bill

Steve Sobol

2005-07-25, 5:48 pm

wild bill wrote:

> One local company actually told me he's making a 'profit'
> from his roaming agreements with national carriers. Sounded
> like he gets more than 1:1 in trade for his 'minutes'.

Of course he's making a proft. Roaming agreements *can* be very profitable.
Small carriers still (as I understand it) charge pretty high per-minute fees
to the roaming carriers.

How do you figure there's a trade? If A roams on B, A pays B. If B roams on
A, B pays A. Maybe T-Mobile pays him more per minute than he pays T-Mobile
(or another big carrier).

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Cyrus Afzali

2005-07-25, 5:48 pm

On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 10:39:41 -0500, wild bill <bill@sunsouthwest.com>
wrote:

>On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 10:34:57 -0500, wild bill <bill@sunsouthwest.com>
>wrote:
>
>
>Which reminds me ... there's folks heavily into buying cell
>towers, just like oil and gas leases in the good old days.

Sure there are. Western Wireless is a prime example. If you ask anyone
on the street who they are, nobody would know. But chances are, many
of the GSM customers -- especially T-Mobile -- have roamed on their
system at some point or another. IIRC, WW is now adding other spectrum
and/or including antennas for other types of systems (e.g. CDMA) on
their systems.

Cyrus Afzali

2005-07-25, 5:48 pm

On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 10:34:57 -0500, wild bill <bill@sunsouthwest.com>
wrote:

>On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 13:59:50 -0700, Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
>wrote:
>
>
>Something tells me the carriers involved in non-paying-customer
>roaming have some way of SWAPPING those minutes around.

Roaming agreements specify the fees that the roaming partners will get
paid for allowing another carrier's customers on to their network.
Obviously, these financial arrangements aren't made public except in
the aggregate for competitive reasons.
>
>Sort of like Enron and electrical energy. Some 'minutes' just
>cancel out, some pile up as 'credits' to one side or the other.

Enron basically operated an "exchange" for electricity that operators
needing extra capacity could tap into. Their customers bought
contracts, sort of like airlines buy futures contracts for jet fuel.
That way, they pay less. The reason you see Delta struggling, for
example, is because all the fuel they consume comes to them at spot
market prices. Those are roughly double what carriers with good
futures contracts paid.
>
>Maybe they can swap for the minutes-used they need, so they
>can essentially balance out the books?
>
>One local company actually told me he's making a 'profit'
>from his roaming agreements with national carriers. Sounded
>like he gets more than 1:1 in trade for his 'minutes'.

Sure he is. If you need anything in a pinch, you pay more for it. The
reason nationwide customers pay more is because TM (and everyone else)
will end up paying a greater portion of the overall revenues you
generate to roaming partners. Those minutes come to them at a higher
cost, so you pay more on a per-minute basis for them as well.

Steve Sobol

2005-07-25, 5:48 pm

Cyrus Afzali wrote:

>
> Sure there are. Western Wireless is a prime example.

No, actually, WW isn't a good example. They're not speculators or investors,
they're a carrier, and are the owner of the CellularONE brand, having bought
it from SBC when SBC merged its cellular operations with BellSOUTH to create
Cingular.

There are some other companies that run C1 franchises, but WW owns the brand.

> If you ask anyone
> on the street who they are, nobody would know. But chances are, many
> of the GSM customers -- especially T-Mobile -- have roamed on their
> system at some point or another. IIRC, WW is now adding other spectrum
> and/or including antennas for other types of systems (e.g. CDMA) on
> their systems.

Correction:

Western Wireless went CDMA a while ago for their own customers. Activate
service through them, and you'll get a CDMA phone. As I understand it, they
do still offer TDMA/GSM for roamers.

Incidentally, Alltel recently bought Western Wireless.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Cyrus Afzali

2005-07-25, 11:48 pm

On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:35:51 -0700, Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
wrote:

>Cyrus Afzali wrote:
>
>
>No, actually, WW isn't a good example. They're not speculators or investors,
>they're a carrier, and are the owner of the CellularONE brand, having bought
>it from SBC when SBC merged its cellular operations with BellSOUTH to create
>Cingular.
>
>There are some other companies that run C1 franchises, but WW owns the brand.

While they're not the kind of speculators the other poster was talking
about, they still make a large chunk of their money through roaming
revenue. They're the only carrier I can think of where that is the
case.

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