Post-merger breakup AT&T Roaming Agreement - When / Where?

[ericjwill]

News about this merger-breakup condition has been rather quiet. Anyone have any details?

http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/20/t...eement-gets-d/ in case anyone forgets

A part of me thinks this will go live once the 1900MHz PCS kicks in, however I could be wrong.

[jarrodpd]

There has been a few people on here saying that they were roaming on At&T 3G in states like West Virginia, Ohio, And North Carolina. Im not really sure when they are going to make it wide spread though.

[ericjwill]

There has been a few people on here saying that they were roaming on At&T 3G in states like West Virginia, Ohio, And North Carolina. Im not really sure when they are going to make it wide spread though.

That's good news, but I have to wonder if that is pre-existing roaming coverage. There's a few spots of such roaming in PA too. What is also not clear is if the roaming is going to be network wide, or just cover missing bits and pieces to add the additional users.

[danska]

I get at&t HSPA+ in ohio too. From what i saw in the maps. It's just existing 2g at&t roaming, with added HSPA on top. (and it's both 850mhz and 1900mhz HSPA)
It's always throttled at around 64kbps so i don't really care anymore.

[jim9000]

There has been a few people on here saying that they were roaming on At&T 3G in states like West Virginia, Ohio, And North Carolina. Im not really sure when they are going to make it wide spread though.

Well, if so, that's a good thing. T-Mobile desperately needs AT&T roaming in Eastern NC. There's a huge dead zone along highway 64, and entire numerous entire towns with no coverage. Most of these areas don't have a huge population but it makes using T-Mobile a difficult choice for anyone who travels in the state. I'm not saying T-Mobile should build native coverage since there I doubt they could ever get a return on the investment, due to low population, but they should at least be able to roam for people who travel through these areas a few times per year.

NC is a CDMA heavy state because Verizon holds both sides of the cellular band in the more populated areas, and it is split between Verizon and US Cellular in most other areas (except some places in the mountains where it is USCC and Carolina West). Despite this, AT&T has even the rural areas covered with PCS.

I have considered switching to T-Mobile a few times, but the lack of coverage in areas that VZW and AT&T cover has always concerned me. Sprint also lacks coverage in many of T-Mobile's dead spots, but at least they can roam on VZW (or maybe USCC... not sure who they are roaming on at the moment).

[danska]

I recently traveled from Wilmington to Fairfax and I didn't get any at&t 3g until just past NC into VA and WV.
Eastern NC sucked outside Wilmington. Inside Wilmington I had 20+ download speeds. But as you know, literally cross the city limits and your 2g in the entire east part of the state. Tons of no service.

[jim9000]

I recently traveled from Wilmington to Fairfax and I didn't get any at&t 3g until just past NC into VA and WV.
Eastern NC sucked outside Wilmington. Inside Wilmington I had 20+ download speeds. But as you know, literally cross the city limits and your 2g in the entire east part of the state. Tons of no service.

That's disappointing. I was hoping there was some new roaming that wasn't on the map yet.

Just out of curiosity, was it GPRS or EDGE outside of Wilmington? I know there's no HSPA+ outside a few cities, but I'm not actually sure if the "2G" is GPRS or EDGE. All I know is that the map shows dead zones and very little HSPA+ outside the larger cities.

I wouldn't mind giving up a faster data network outside the bigger cities if I could save enough money, but the lack of even basic voice service means I would need to keep a cheap prepaid phone on the AT&T or VZW network (even if it is through a MVNO) which eats away at the savings

[danska]

That's disappointing. I was hoping there was some new roaming that wasn't on the map yet.

Just out of curiosity, was it GPRS or EDGE outside of Wilmington? I know there's no HSPA+ outside a few cities, but I'm not actually sure if the "2G" is GPRS or EDGE. All I know is that the map shows dead zones and very little HSPA+ outside the larger cities.

I wouldn't mind giving up a faster data network outside the bigger cities if I could save enough money, but the lack of even basic voice service means I would need to keep a cheap prepaid phone on the AT&T or VZW network (even if it is through a MVNO) which eats away at the savings

With the lone excpetion of leland, NC (literally just outside Wilmington) it's all edge. And to be honest, t-mobile edge was just as fast if not faster than a sprint 3g data card i was using. As long as your on a major road, you have service, But.. wander a mile off the highway or freeway and your in no service land. Quite amazing. Not even carolina beach had 3g! (I'm told it's due to the military in the area, well for all of eastern NC. But, i don't think they can use that excuse anymore since they intend on using pcs now for HSPA. NOTHING stopping them there)