Florida - Both West & East Coast - My Experience

[Guest 214]

The problem is that GSM can't use a PRL to force the phone onto the native signal if available or to select the cheapest roaming partner, like CDMA can. If roaming is available the customer can force the phone to roam and, if left to its own devices, the phone will normally select the strongest usable signal. This is why the GSM carriers have to resort to the LAC to control roaming costs.

The newer CDMA phones give you no standard control over roaming anymore except home only or automatic and typically work well switching back to native quickly.

But I was always under the impression GSM devices would automatically go back and forth very quickly if the carrier decided to.

Is that why there is usually a buffer zone of no signal until your phone enters roaming on T-Mobile?

Even with LAC controlled roaming though couldn't they still have nationwide roaming everywhere they have no signal and do like AT&T does and control network selection by a flag in the SIM card?

I notice my ATT phone enters roaming immediate when AT&T signal is lost, T-Mobile you usually have to go to the furthest tower away from native signal to roam.


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[brad15]

yes, but to be honest i prefer how T-Mobile does it compared to AT&T because most of the time when i roam, i usually have two options (and here in AZ there are a lot of times i'll be on the edge of T-Mobile/Commnet service and the manual selection allows me to force it to the stronger of the two.

[danska]

If you know where you roam, you can still do a network scan and manually log onto the roaming network. You don't necessarily have to wait until you have zero signal sometimes. Worst that can happen is the no access error.

[Bank Heist]

My impression is if you live anywhere from mid to the south tip of Florida on the east coast you're not going to be satisfied with T-Mobile service. Whatever you do, if you do go with T-Mobile, make sure your account will not allow data roaming service, unless your a millionaire and don't care if you have an extra $1,000 a month to blow on data roaming service.

I live in Miami. The south tip is well covered. I get "4g" everyday, everywhere in the bottom three counties (Dade, Broward, Palm)

[DRNewcomb]

Is that why there is usually a buffer zone of no signal until your phone enters roaming on T-Mobile?

Yes. T-Mobile does not want to pay for roaming in any place where there is any significant overlap between their native service and a roamed LAC. It really all depends on what they feel will help vs hurt their business. Do they loose customers because they don't have service or pay ATT for roaming in places where they might have their own signal.

Even with LAC controlled roaming though couldn't they still have nationwide roaming everywhere they have no signal and do like AT&T does and control network selection by a flag in the SIM card?

Standard GSM SIMs allow for a PRL in the SIM but the customer can still override it, particularly with a BYO phone. Think about how many customers have old SIMs. I'm still using a Powertel SIM. It might be possible with a multi-IMSI SIM.

I notice my ATT phone enters roaming immediate when AT&T signal is lost, T-Mobile you usually have to go to the furthest tower away from native signal to roam.

Are you roaming the same carriers? Have you tried forcing the ATT phone to roam even when there is an ATT signal?

[Guest 214]

Are you roaming the same carriers? Have you tried forcing the ATT phone to roam even when there is an ATT signal?

Yes, both are roaming on the same GSM carrier in the same area. Its an area going into a county where a regional carrier has the 850 block and AT&T and T-Mobile both stop at the same tower, except when my signal gets unusable on AT&T it will automatically connect to CORR wireless, my T-Mobile phone I have to drive about 5-6 miles past 4 CORR towers before it will connect, I have tried manually on T-Mobile but it refuses to connect to the other one's, and just have no signal whatsoever.

I have tried force roaming AT&T, but my LTE SIM card has pretty much completely blocked manual network selection even in unbranded devices but it acts just like a CDMA phone when going in and out of roaming area's. It will immediately switch back to AT&T at the first hint of decent signal, and roam when there isn't any.