Domestic roaming for Pay As You Go prepaid?

I don't usually worry about roaming since I don't travel much, but I'm
headed to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in a few weeks and checked the
coverage map at my.t-mobile.com for ZIP 27949.

Right down the middle of that part of the OBX barrier island is a gray
section, which seems to be neither as dark as the example for "Partner,"
nor as white as the example for "None."

Could someone else who might have better color perception than I have take
a look at the pre-paid coverage map for that ZIP code and tell me what's
up?

Do T-Mobile Pay As You Go pre-paid customers get to roam on AT&T anywhere
anymore? A few years ago on the northern end of OBX (ZIP 27927), I found
coverage to be spotty at best, and was never offered roaming coverage.

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN bert@iphouse.com

On 9/3/2010 10:50 AM, Bert Hyman wrote:
> I don't usually worry about roaming since I don't travel much, but I'm
> headed to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in a few weeks and checked the
> coverage map at my.t-mobile.com for ZIP 27949.
>

I'm a TMO prepaid customer. What I did recently, and will do again as
needed, was buy a Verizon InPulse prepaid phone from Target for a trip
to a remote area where TMO was guaranteed to be dead. It costs $20 and
you get $10 of air usage. It activates right over the phone network
without any personal info. When done, I took the battery out and put the
leftover phone in a recycling bin at Target.

With Google Voice, which has been my "cell phone number" for about 4
years (going back to Grand Central), you just redirect that number to
the temporary phone so you can be reached if desired.

That zip shows full coverage on the Prepaid selection of the Verizon maps.

In news:i5rj74$7pq$1@news.eternal-september.org Travis James
<travis.james@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 9/3/2010 10:50 AM, Bert Hyman wrote:
>> I don't usually worry about roaming since I don't travel much, but
>> I'm headed to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in a few weeks and
>> checked the coverage map at my.t-mobile.com for ZIP 27949.
>>
>
> I'm a TMO prepaid customer. What I did recently, and will do again as
> needed, was buy a Verizon InPulse prepaid phone from Target for a trip
> to a remote area where TMO was guaranteed to be dead. It costs $20 and
> you get $10 of air usage. It activates right over the phone network
> without any personal info. When done, I took the battery out and put
> the leftover phone in a recycling bin at Target.

Target's Web site appears to be useless for finding this info. Best Buy
shows a few Verizon pre-paid phones, but the cheapest they show is $40.

But, abandoning T-Mobile for the week for a carrier with coverage is
worth investigating.

Still, I'd like to know if that slightly gray area in the middle of the
coverage map is really roaming-gray, or just no-coverage-white.

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN bert@iphouse.com

On 9/3/2010 1:15 PM, Bert Hyman wrote:
>
> Target's Web site appears to be useless for finding this info. Best Buy
> shows a few Verizon pre-paid phones, but the cheapest they show is $40.
>
Ignore their website. Go inside the store and look at their prepaid
phones. Usually there is a Samsung for 19.99 and an LG for 22.99.

At 03 Sep 2010 17:50:50 +0000 Bert Hyman wrote:
> I don't usually worry about roaming since I don't travel much, but I'm
> headed to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in a few weeks and checked
the
> coverage map at my.t-mobile.com for ZIP 27949.
>
> Right down the middle of that part of the OBX barrier island is a gray
> section, which seems to be neither as dark as the example for
"Partner,"
> nor as white as the example for "None."

T-Mo's maps are messed up, or the legend is. That light grey is "no
coverage." When you zoom in, there's no white on the map. (The zoomed
out whole-country view seems to use white for no coverage.)


> Could someone else who might have better color perception than I have
take
> a look at the pre-paid coverage map for that ZIP code and tell me
what's
> up?

Your color perception is fine. The guy who made the map, I'm not so sure.


> Do T-Mobile Pay As You Go pre-paid customers get to roam on AT&T
anywhere
> anymore? A few years ago on the northern end of OBX (ZIP 27927), I
found
> coverage to be spotty at best, and was never offered roaming coverage.


T-Mo has never had "universal" roaming with AT&T. They've had roaming a
few select areas, but it's not a black and white question. In my almost
nine years with T-Mo, I only remember roaming on AT&T once, outside of
Omaha, NE. (Discounting the days back when Cingular and T-Mo shared
their New York and West Coast networks. My phone always said "Cingular"
in CA and NV back then, but technically that wasn't really roaming I
suppose.)

My guess is that you'll have no coverage in the area you mention, just as
the map says.

[Cue Steven or Larry to make a pitch for Page Plus, a prepaid reseller of
Verizon Wireless service...]