What is Cingulars' Problem with Petrocom in the Gulf?

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Scott Thompson - 15 Jan 2004 08:31 GMT

Why do the new Cingular contracts exclude Petrocom (Gulf of Mexico) in their
nationwide "no roaming" plans? The old contracts did not charge roaming
when using a Petrocom tower, now the new contracts exclude Petrocom and
Cingular charges a $0.79 per minute roaming charge even though your phone
does not indicate you are roaming. All that is displayed is "Cingular
Extended".

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bones boy - 15 Jan 2004 13:19 GMT

>Why do the new Cingular contracts exclude Petrocom (Gulf of Mexico) in their
>nationwide "no roaming" plans? The old contracts did not charge roaming
>when using a Petrocom tower, now the new contracts exclude Petrocom and
>Cingular charges a $0.79 per minute roaming charge even though your phone
>does not indicate you are roaming. All that is displayed is "Cingular
>Extended".

The problem is Petrocom. They are an exclusive carrier offshore and
charge the service providers up to $7./min. for roaming. If Cingular,
in this case, cannot charge that roaming back to you (because you have
a nation contract), they could stand to lose a lot of money. Not an
efficient way to run a business, I'm sure you'll agree...

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Evan in Orlando - 16 Jan 2004 01:43 GMT

I ran into this same issue when travelling to New Orleans recently and
wanted to check my coverage. The rep advised me to call Petrocom with
an 800 number (sorry, don't have anymore) and have them either take me
off or block me from accessing their towers. Didn't want to run into
the problem of roaming since the phones can't tell the difference
between Extend providers.

Evan

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bones boy - 16 Jan 2004 05:48 GMT

>I ran into this same issue when travelling to New Orleans recently and
>wanted to check my coverage. The rep advised me to call Petrocom with
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
>Evan

When in that area (south of New Orleans), I usually call 611 first, or
dial some stupid number (like 969 <send>) to see whose company comes
up in the recording. I want to know who I'm dealing with before I
place a call... :)

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XFF - 16 Jan 2004 16:37 GMT

> >I ran into this same issue when travelling to New Orleans recently and
> >wanted to check my coverage. The rep advised me to call Petrocom with
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> up in the recording. I want to know who I'm dealing with before I
> place a call... :)

Why not just look at the SID?

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bones boy - 17 Jan 2004 01:16 GMT

>Why not just look at the SID?

Too much trouble. Most TDMA phones don't show you an SID easily. T62u
does not.

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