UM troubleshooting, "No Network Coverage"

[Effendi]

I think at the UM customer service they told you the right thing: UM (i.e. FL1) has roamimg agreements with T-Mobile and AT&T only in the US. So that means that they have no roaming agreements with Unicel. It seems Vermont is still quite an isolated state for GSM users since most simcards in the World have agreements with with Tmo and AT&T only.

Your +423 won't work in Vermont until FL1 decides to have an agreement with Unicel, but I fear it will never happen. But it will work with no hassle everywhere there's a network with roaming agreements.

[VT_Professor]

Originally Posted by Effendi

Your +423 won't work in Vermont until FL1 decides to have an agreement with Unicel, but I fear it will never happen. But it will work with no hassle everywhere there's a network with roaming agreements.

Thanks. This is what I thought was happening, but Unicel was so adamant about it that I thought I would check it out further. I guess I should never have accepted the word of a (seemingly) teenage sales rep! For what it's worth, though, she also said that they expect to be part of AT&T within the next few months, so there may be hope yet.

In the end, it's not that I need to use the SIM card here in the U.S. It would be expensive to do it, but I thought it was the best way to keep the card active. According to UM's policy, the card has to be "used" every nine months or it will expire. I generally only travel abroad in the summer, so that presents a problem.

Instead of making an occasional short call, I can add money to my account online to keep it active, but $30 is the minimum amount and since I mainly use it for free incoming calls, it doesn't make sense to accumulate $30 credits to it every nine months.

If I can get it to work somewhere else in the U.S. that'll be good enough. I'll give it a try this weekend in New Hampshire, and I'll be in PA in a few weeks time...

One last thing. I was interested in one poster's comment about Nokia phones being problematic with callback services. I can still return the Nokia phone I bought and exchange it for another. How are the Motorola's for call quality and battery life?

[snaimon]

Dear Prof:

There are or were issues with US T-MO and +423 #s. See previous posts here. T-MO has basically BLACKLISTED calls/SMS to/from +423. At least this was my experience and confirmed by calls and emails with T-MO and UM customer support last year. Maybe that has changed; I don't know.

You may indeed be billed by UM, but your SMS will not be delivered and, I believe, not received, if you register on T-Mobile. My experience. One reason I switched to the UM+ card.

Stan