AnthonyL wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:15:42 -0600, Dennis Ferguson
> <dcferguson@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
>
>> None of this was my point, however. My point was that I don't believe
>> national roaming reduces competition between operators at all. It certainly
>> doesn't in the USA. You don't make money where you don't have towers
>> with or without national roaming, so the incentive to expand coverage
>> exists independent of that. It's just that with national roaming, in
>> areas you haven't got around to yet or which have too few people to
>> support more than the carriers already present, your customers still
>> get service. Without it, your customers are out of luck.
>>
>
> And I imagine there would be a relatively good take up in the UK
> especially for those in remote or poor coverage areas (either living
> or travelling) with the first operator that offered a UK roaming
> scheme.

Here in Germany, O2 has been using on the T-Mobile network where O2
doesn't yet reach. O2, at the time they started (1999?), had very little
network infrastructure outside larger towns so O2 customers often had
the choice between 2 networks in built-up areas. This was the "feature"
that persuaded me to get my PAYG SIM from O2. 8 years later I'm still
using the same SIM.

Alan