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Cellular Phone Forum / Providers / T-Mobile / July 2005Roaming pricing on family plan
I noticed T-mo's website that on the individual and regional plans, nationwide roaming is included. (but not for free m2m and NW). They make no mention of this on the family plans. Is this also the case, or do family plans charge for all roaming? -MVL >I noticed T-mo's website that on the individual and regional plans, >nationwide roaming is included. (but not for free m2m and NW). > >They make no mention of this on the family plans. Is this also the >case, or do family plans charge for all roaming? All national plans (there are no regional family plans) have long distance and roaming included.) Night and weekend minutes are included when roaming. Mobile-to-mobile is not (if you are on a non-T-Mobile network.) - - >>I noticed T-mo's website that on the individual and regional plans, >>nationwide roaming is included. (but not for free m2m and NW). [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > - - Mobile to Mobile is being included in more and more roaming areas. Search http://t-mobile.howardforums.com for more info. > Mobile to Mobile is being included in more and more roaming areas. > > Search http://t-mobile.howardforums.com for more info. Wow. Given that Carrier A must pay Carrier B for the privilege of allowing A's customers to roam, I'm shocked to see *any* carrier allowing off-peak and mobile-to-mobile billing on roaming calls. TM must have some pretty sweet contract with their roaming partners, otherwise they'd lose money on that deal.  SignatureSteve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 >> Mobile to Mobile is being included in more and more roaming areas. >> [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >TM must have some pretty sweet contract with their roaming partners, >otherwise they'd lose money on that deal. Something tells me the carriers involved in non-paying-customer roaming have some way of SWAPPING those minutes around. Sort of like Enron and electrical energy. Some 'minutes' just cancel out, some pile up as 'credits' to one side or the other. Maybe they can swap for the minutes-used they need, so they can essentially balance out the books? One local company actually told me he's making a 'profit' from his roaming agreements with national carriers. Sounded like he gets more than 1:1 in trade for his 'minutes'. Bill >One local company actually told me he's making a 'profit' >from his roaming agreements with national carriers. Sounded >like he gets more than 1:1 in trade for his 'minutes'. Which reminds me ... there's folks heavily into buying cell towers, just like oil and gas leases in the good old days. One day I sorta stumbled onto a website where they listed properties available and wanted ...... while searching for something about coverage maps and tower locations. Bill >>One local company actually told me he's making a 'profit' >>from his roaming agreements with national carriers. Sounded >>like he gets more than 1:1 in trade for his 'minutes'. > >Which reminds me ... there's folks heavily into buying cell >towers, just like oil and gas leases in the good old days. Sure there are. Western Wireless is a prime example. If you ask anyone on the street who they are, nobody would know. But chances are, many of the GSM customers -- especially T-Mobile -- have roamed on their system at some point or another. IIRC, WW is now adding other spectrum and/or including antennas for other types of systems (e.g. CDMA) on their systems. >>Which reminds me ... there's folks heavily into buying cell >>towers, just like oil and gas leases in the good old days. > > Sure there are. Western Wireless is a prime example. No, actually, WW isn't a good example. They're not speculators or investors, they're a carrier, and are the owner of the CellularONE brand, having bought it from SBC when SBC merged its cellular operations with BellSOUTH to create Cingular. There are some other companies that run C1 franchises, but WW owns the brand. > If you ask anyone > on the street who they are, nobody would know. But chances are, many > of the GSM customers -- especially T-Mobile -- have roamed on their > system at some point or another. IIRC, WW is now adding other spectrum > and/or including antennas for other types of systems (e.g. CDMA) on > their systems. Correction: Western Wireless went CDMA a while ago for their own customers. Activate service through them, and you'll get a CDMA phone. As I understand it, they do still offer TDMA/GSM for roamers. Incidentally, Alltel recently bought Western Wireless. SignatureSteve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 >>>Which reminds me ... there's folks heavily into buying cell >>>towers, just like oil and gas leases in the good old days. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > >There are some other companies that run C1 franchises, but WW owns the brand. While they're not the kind of speculators the other poster was talking about, they still make a large chunk of their money through roaming revenue. They're the only carrier I can think of where that is the case. > One local company actually told me he's making a 'profit' > from his roaming agreements with national carriers. Sounded > like he gets more than 1:1 in trade for his 'minutes'. Of course he's making a proft. Roaming agreements *can* be very profitable. Small carriers still (as I understand it) charge pretty high per-minute fees to the roaming carriers. How do you figure there's a trade? If A roams on B, A pays B. If B roams on A, B pays A. Maybe T-Mobile pays him more per minute than he pays T-Mobile (or another big carrier). SignatureSteve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 >>> Mobile to Mobile is being included in more and more roaming areas. >>> [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] >Something tells me the carriers involved in non-paying-customer >roaming have some way of SWAPPING those minutes around. Roaming agreements specify the fees that the roaming partners will get paid for allowing another carrier's customers on to their network. Obviously, these financial arrangements aren't made public except in the aggregate for competitive reasons. >Sort of like Enron and electrical energy. Some 'minutes' just >cancel out, some pile up as 'credits' to one side or the other. Enron basically operated an "exchange" for electricity that operators needing extra capacity could tap into. Their customers bought contracts, sort of like airlines buy futures contracts for jet fuel. That way, they pay less. The reason you see Delta struggling, for example, is because all the fuel they consume comes to them at spot market prices. Those are roughly double what carriers with good futures contracts paid. >Maybe they can swap for the minutes-used they need, so they >can essentially balance out the books? > >One local company actually told me he's making a 'profit' >from his roaming agreements with national carriers. Sounded >like he gets more than 1:1 in trade for his 'minutes'. Sure he is. If you need anything in a pinch, you pay more for it. The reason nationwide customers pay more is because TM (and everyone else) will end up paying a greater portion of the overall revenues you generate to roaming partners. Those minutes come to them at a higher cost, so you pay more on a per-minute basis for them as well. > I noticed T-mo's website that on the individual and regional plans, > nationwide roaming is included. (but not for free m2m and NW). > > They make no mention of this on the family plans. Is this also the > case, or do family plans charge for all roaming? I *just* signed up for the family plan with 1000 minutes... T-Mobile's website says nationwide roaming is included in the plan price. IIRC it says that on the other share plans too. SignatureSteve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 >> I noticed T-mo's website that on the individual and regional plans, >> nationwide roaming is included. (but not for free m2m and NW). [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >website says nationwide roaming is included in the plan price. IIRC it says >that on the other share plans too. It is indeed included, so you won't get any surprises you don't expect. The only TM plans that never included roaming were the old regional plans that they don't sell anymore. >It is indeed included (roaming), so you won't get any surprises you don't >expect. The only TM plans that never included roaming were the old >regional plans that they don't sell anymore. T-Mobile still sells a 3,000 minute regional plan for $60. No extra night or weekend minutes and roaming minutes outside of your area are 20 cents/minute plus long distance. - - >>It is indeed included (roaming), so you won't get any surprises you don't >>expect. The only TM plans that never included roaming were the old >>regional plans that they don't sell anymore. > > T-Mobile still sells a 3,000 minute regional plan for $60. Would that be "Get More 3000"? SignatureSteve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 >>>It is indeed included (roaming), so you won't get any surprises you don't >>>expect. The only TM plans that never included roaming were the old [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > >Would that be "Get More 3000"? As a matter of fact yes. - - >>Would that be "Get More 3000"? > > As a matter of fact yes. OK. I was just asking because I saw somewhere (maybe here) a disclaimer that the free roaming didn't apply to that plan. **SJ "not that I care, I have a nationwide plan" S SignatureSteve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 >>>Would that be "Get More 3000"? >> >> As a matter of fact yes. > >OK. I was just asking because I saw somewhere (maybe here) a disclaimer that >the free roaming didn't apply to that plan. There is *no* free roaming and *no* long distance on regional plans. Generally the regional plans encompass two states and within those states there is no roaming or long distance charges. If you call out of those states or roam in any states outside those two states you will be charged roaming *and* long distance charges. That's why they're called *regional* plans rather than national plans. National plans include long distance and roaming. - - >>>It is indeed included (roaming), so you won't get any surprises you don't >>>expect. The only TM plans that never included roaming were the old [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > >Would that be "Get More 3000"? Yes, that's what it's called. I just found it on the Web site. The pricing depends on where you are. In the NY metro market, it's actually $50. |
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