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Cellular Phone Forum / Providers / Verizon / May 2004Roaming question.
I am going to be in Alabama for a few days and I am on a local rather then a national plan. I am trying to figure out how much calls are from outside my home calling area. Does anyone know this? Thanks >I am going to be in Alabama for a few days and I am on a local rather then a >national plan. I am trying to figure out how much calls are from outside my >home calling area. Does anyone know this? > >Thanks It depends on your plan, but a good estimate is $.89/minute plus taxes ($.69/per minute for domestic roaming plus $.20 per minute for long distance). Altogether, it will probably cost you about a dollar a minute if you make long distance calls while outside your home area. (While in Alabama, "local" calls to the area you are visiting will be long distance. LD is determined by your area code and not by where you are at any given moment.) > It depends on your plan, but a good estimate is $.89/minute plus taxes > ($.69/per minute for domestic roaming plus $.20 per minute for long > distance). Altogether, it will probably cost you about a dollar a > minute if you make long distance calls while outside your home area. Are 800 numbers considered long distance when outside of your home area? If they are considered local then using a calling card would be a very good deal (MCI ones at Costco are 3c per minute). Roger >> It depends on your plan, but a good estimate is $.89/minute plus taxes >> ($.69/per minute for domestic roaming plus $.20 per minute for long [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >area? If they are considered local then using a calling card would >be a very good deal (MCI ones at Costco are 3c per minute). 800 numbers never incur long distance charges. But if you are outside your home area, they you may be subject to airtime charges. And I believe that the $.69/min roaming charge includes any long distance charges. You only incur the $.20/min long distance charge if you make long distance calls from within your home area, and your plan does not include free long distance. >>>It depends on your plan, but a good estimate is $.89/minute plus taxes >>>($.69/per minute for domestic roaming plus $.20 per minute for long [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > And I believe that the $.69/min roaming charge includes any long distance > charges. <...> So compare a 5-minute call at $3.45 to the same call at $0.43 (including the $.25 charge for using the card on a public phone), and go buy a phone card. Cell phones are great, and to some people they're a necessity. But that's no reason to fall madly in love with the thing and start buying expensive, unnecessary presents for the cellular service provider. > > It depends on your plan, but a good estimate is $.89/minute plus taxes > > ($.69/per minute for domestic roaming plus $.20 per minute for long [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Roger The problem with using a calling card to save on high cellular LD charges while roaming...it takes about 20 or 30 seconds to dial, which incurs the rounded up price of .69. Spending $.69 to to dial the calling card, starts to save money on longer calls, over 4 minutes or so. Onesuite and Bigzoo have a no PIN dial feature or the cell could have a credit card dialing setting. It's easier than entering all those number strings, but even with saving 20 seconds, the calls get rounded up to a minute. Just using a payphone (yuck) and calling card is going to be the cheapest solution. The payphone is going to have a ~.50 fee call any calling card or 800 number. Another solution... it's a little more hassle and another phone/number to deal with...a Callplus (ATT network) prepaid phone, as back up and for roaming off Verizon. It does have the associated set up costs, but all calls are a flat $.15 a minute, (with a $40 card). $30 used ATT phone + $15 activation. The activation comes with 100 minutes. Something like 65 minutes of roaming @.69 would pay for the INITIAL set (100 included minutes). A $40 card then gets the best rate of .15, and at 90 days add the $10 Callplus cards, from Pharosint, to keep it going for another 90 days. Other prepaids have $20 cards, so they are a bit more expensive to keep active, for minimal usage. I use a prepaid for backup anyway, so roaming use is an extra benefit. Another, more expensive option, ATT free2go $100 cards also have a .15 rate and 1 year expiration! Apparently, with Verizon, a customer can switch to another "no roam" plan and then back within 30 (?) days. Lots of CS time and potential proration problems, but it can be done. - David : Just using a payphone (yuck) and calling card is going to be the : cheapest solution. The payphone is going to have a ~.50 fee call any : calling card or 800 number. Since when do you have to put coins in a payphone to dial an 800 number? -Charles  SignatureCharles Robinson Minneapolis, MN charlesr@visi.com http://www.visi.com/~charlesr >: Just using a payphone (yuck) and calling card is going to be the >: cheapest solution. The payphone is going to have a ~.50 fee call any >: calling card or 800 number. > >Since when do you have to put coins in a payphone to dial an 800 number? I guess the first time I ran into that waw in about 1990 ... I think it is common. The 800 number won't pay their fee, so they collect from the user. Calling cards (prepaid) ... on the other hand typically charge 5-15 minutes "fixed" for pay phone calls to cover that. :>Since when do you have to put coins in a payphone to dial an 800 number? : : I guess the first time I ran into that waw in about 1990 ... I think : it is common. Heh. I guess that is about the last time I ever used a payphone! -Charles SignatureCharles Robinson Minneapolis, MN charlesr@visi.com http://www.visi.com/~charlesr > : Just using a payphone (yuck) and calling card is going to be the > : cheapest solution. The payphone is going to have a ~.50 fee call any > : calling card or 800 number. > > Since when do you have to put coins in a payphone to dial an 800 number? Since companies other than the Regional Bell Operating Companies (the Baby Bells, the children of the AT&T breakup) started providing payphone service. Many of them do require you to put in the coins. Some refund your money after the call to the 800 number. Some don't. I wonder if the ones that don't turn around and bill the 800 number owner the 28-cent surcharge... normally if you call an 800 number from a payphone, the owner of the number gets charged 28 cents to make up for the money the payphone owner isn't getting from the caller. It wouldn't surprise me if they took people's money and charged the surcharge anyhow. Telephone companies are very, very slimy. SignatureJustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 On Fri, 28 May 2004 19:33:06 -0500, Steven J Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> chose to add this to the great equation of life, the universe, and everything: >> : Just using a payphone (yuck) and calling card is going to be the >> : cheapest solution. The payphone is going to have a ~.50 fee call any [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] >It wouldn't surprise me if they took people's money and charged the surcharge >anyhow. Telephone companies are very, very slimy. By that same logic, calls from a cell phone to an 800 should be airtime-free, or at least at a reduced rate. They aren't. SignatureDavid Streeter, "an internet god" -- Dave Barry http://home.att.net/~dwstreeter Remove the naughty bit from my address to reply Expect a train on ANY track at ANY time. "Sir! I protest! I am NOT a merry man!" - Lt. Worf, transformed by Q into Will Scarlet >>It wouldn't surprise me if they took people's money and charged the surcharge >>anyhow. Telephone companies are very, very slimy. > > By that same logic, calls from a cell phone to an 800 should be > airtime-free, or at least at a reduced rate. They aren't. No. The specific reason that the payphone charge was levied on people paying for incoming toll-free service is because the payphone operators lost $x (x usually being between $0.25 and $0.50) per call because no one was putting in money to dial the phone. Now, the 800 owners pay the payphone operators. If those same payphone operators are requiring coin anyhow and not giving it back (and some are), they're double-dipping. Not the same thing with airtime. 800 service only affects long-distance charges, which are paid by the 800 owner, not the caller. You still use airtime on a call to a toll-free number and the carriers still have every right to ding you for airtime used on such a call. SignatureJustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 >> It depends on your plan, but a good estimate is $.89/minute plus taxes >> ($.69/per minute for domestic roaming plus $.20 per minute for long [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > area? If they are considered local then using a calling card would > be a very good deal (MCI ones at Costco are 3c per minute). 800 numbers are not. But as far as I know, you don't get charged separately for long-distance anyhow. SignatureJustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 > It depends on your plan, but a good estimate is $.89/minute plus taxes > ($.69/per minute for domestic roaming plus $.20 per minute for long [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > long distance. LD is determined by your area code and not by where > you are at any given moment.) To clarify this post. That is long distance from the location you are standing when you make the call. So, if you are in Huntsville Alabama and you make a call to a Huntsville number, it will not have long distance charges associated with it. - -- Thomas T. Veldhouse Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1 When I had a local plan ( 15 months ago ) I was charged both Roaming & Long Distance When I made calls to numbers in the town I was in Which was not in my local calling area. > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > =tpLA > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Are you sure? The call, despite the caller standing in Huntsville, technically originates from his home cell number location. Consequently, it is a long distance call. > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > =tpLA > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > Are you sure? The call, despite the caller standing in Huntsville, > technically originates from his home cell number location. Consequently, it > is a long distance call. No the call orginates from where he is standing going to the nearest tower from him. The call is then routed through local switches in Huntsville never have been on a long distance line. I understand where you can be confused on this, but the only thing that needs to commincated to his home market is that he made a roaming call in Huntsville. JW > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > > Hash: SHA1 [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > > =tpLA > > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Must depend on where you have your local plan and how it is set up. I have been charged both roaming and long distance when not in my coverage area - calling what was a local number. > > Are you sure? The call, despite the caller standing in Huntsville, > > technically originates from his home cell number location. Consequently, [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > JW >>I am going to be in Alabama for a few days and I am on a local rather then a >>national plan. I am trying to figure out how much calls are from outside my [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > distance). Altogether, it will probably cost you about a dollar a > minute if you make long distance calls while outside your home area. I believe the 69 cents includes long-distance. SignatureJustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 > On Thu, 27 May 2004 21:09:21 GMT, "Matt" <m-michaelsNOSPAM@usa.net> > wrote: [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Thanks Here's a thought, go into a verizon store, change your plan to a national plan for the few days you will be out of town, and then when you get home, change it back. Then you don't have to worry about getting charged for out of town roaming. Get a cheap phoncard..About 2.1 cents/minute and dont worry abaout it > >>I am going to be in Alabama for a few days and I am on a local rather then a > >>national plan. I am trying to figure out how much calls are from outside my [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > I believe the 69 cents includes long-distance. > I am going to be in Alabama for a few days and I am on a local rather then a > national plan. I am trying to figure out how much calls are from outside my > home calling area. Does anyone know this? Buy a phone card at the supermarket checkout, use public phones, and leave your cell phone at home. > Buy a phone card at the supermarket checkout, use public phones, > and leave your cell phone at home. Not much point in having a mobile phone if you can't use it when you travel. The question really is, is it worth it to alter your plan for the occassion that you might roam. If you travel once per year for two weeks and you incur 150 minutes of roaming charges for that time, that would equal at least $100 for the majority of plans. So, break that down over 12 months, that is about $8 / month. If the difference between local and AC is less than $8 for the same minutes, then it is worth being on AC all year ... or if you can't afford one time charges of an additional $100. SignatureThomas T. Veldhouse Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1 > Not much point in having a mobile phone if you can't use it when you > travel. The question really is, is it worth it to alter your plan for [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > worth being on AC all year ... or if you can't afford one time charges > of an additional $100. Or get the phone card, pay $6.00 for all those minutes, and keep the other $94 in your pocket. It's only for two weeks, and you end up being not-a-sucker. > > Not much point in having a mobile phone if you can't use it when you > > travel. The question really is, is it worth it to alter your plan for [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > the other $94 in your pocket. It's only for two weeks, and you > end up being not-a-sucker. Pay phones look better on paper. A couple of negative payphone experiences, finally compelled my purchase of a cell phone. After attempting to locate a payphone 3 times, including hunting for 3 parking spots in crowded San Francisco, only to find 3 broken payphones, was the first:( After making a call on a payphone, I watched an extremely dirty, homeless man with oily, matted hair use the same phone. (yuck!) That was it! Lice, TB, hepatitis and goodness knows what came to mind. The occaisional spattering of blood on the keys and the all too frequent pool of stinking urine in payphone booths, are at the least a stomach turners, at the worst a health hazard. Even the nicer phones often are laced with a combination of hair gels, perfumes and clinging cigarette smoke. Discretion in the selection of payphones, if there is time to hunt, or wait for a clean, unoccupied candidate, can reduce the unpleasantness. Not having to hold a piece of very public, bacteria laden plastic against my ear/hair, in order to make a call, is one experience not missed. There's more to communicating with a cell phone, than price alone. - Happy Dialing:-) David I have a regional plan. To upgrade to a 'National' plan (AC), I would pay $5/month more, or $60 per year. I travel outside my regional area about 2 or 3 times per year. I pay .69/minute while roaming which includes any LD. For the year, I spend less than $60 in roaming charges, so I am dollars ahead by keeping my cheaper plan, and just paying the roaming charges. My wife's old Local plan did not include LD, but while roaming was NOT charged LD as long as the call was made from the Verizon network, but was charged .20 if she was off. Now she has a newer Local plan (2 years), and roaming is .69 and includes any LD charges. So the math at the end of the year could work out for you. Bill Radio Click for Western U.S. Wireless Reviews at: http://www.mountainwireless.com > Not much point in having a mobile phone if you can't use it when you > travel. The question really is, is it worth it to alter your plan for > the occassion that you might roam. If you travel once per year for two > weeks and you incur 150 minutes of roaming charges for that time, that > would equal at least $100 for the majority of plans. So, break that > down over 12 months, that is about $8 / month. > I am going to be in Alabama for a few days and I am on a local rather then a > national plan. I am trying to figure out how much calls are from outside my > home calling area. Does anyone know this? > > Thanks Why not just change to an america choice plan for 30 days or less---you are guaranteed the option to change back to the original plan within 30 days--I do this on one of my vzm local plans when I travel, even though I also have a f&ca america plan---I liie the security of the phone, and I don't want to be worried about costs---those roaming charges are always higher than you think they will be, and the discussion of pay phones makes my head hurt. |
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