service.

[jgriner]

I have service in a town i have never had service before, so I tried to make a call, and it says
im not authorized to make a call to this person. If you would like additional features please call cust service.

Does that mean virgin moblie is going to start offering roaming for additional charge? or is my phone just showing a different carrier by mistake and they are stopping me from making the call?

 

[mogelijk]

You're likely picking up a Verizon tower that, if you had Sprint, you could use for roaming. I seem to recall getting a similar message once, when I was in an area that VM doesn't have service.

You might turn roaming off on your phone; it will keep you from showing you have service in areas on where you actually don't. OTOH, keeping it on may help save you battery life, since your phone will lock on to a tower rather than searching for a signal.

 

[MacFett]

You might turn roaming off on your phone

I've yet to see a VMU device with any option to turn on/off roaming.

 

[mogelijk]

I've yet to see a VMU device with any option to turn on/off roaming.

Fair enough. I thought I remembered seeing it as on option but I could easily be mistaken. Regardless, there are times on VM phones where you show a signal but can't use the phone. As I look closer at it, it appears that VM users are using the Nextel Coverage Map rather than the Sprint Map. Even Sprint plans without roaming have more coverage than Virgin Mobile.

 

[tcomotcom]

I have service in a town i have never had service before, so I tried to make a call, and it says
im not authorized to make a call to this person. If you would like additional features please call cust service.

Does that mean virgin moblie is going to start offering roaming for additional charge? or is my phone just showing a different carrier by mistake and they are stopping me from making the call?

Since VM doesn't have automatic roaming agreements with anyone, a competitor's network is stopping you from making a call. Your phone is connecting to a competitor's network and the message you are hearing is originating from the competitor. Try dialing 611 to connect to customer service and see who you get. (It could be Verizon but there are many regional CDMA networks, too.)

In olden times there was a thing called manual roaming and messages like this were pretty common. You had to call customer service (611) for the network you were roaming onto and give them a credit card number. They would bill you by the minute and charge your credit card.

Since VM doesn't have automatic roaming agreements with anyone, you'll sometimes get messages like this. It's not a hint about any future VM service offering. It's just your phone making a radio connection with a compatible network.

 

[tcomotcom]

As I look closer at it, it appears that VM users are using the Nextel Coverage Map rather than the Sprint Map. Even Sprint plans without roaming have more coverage than Virgin Mobile.

Virgin Mobile USA users should be using the Virgin Mobile USA coverage map. Go here: Cell Phone Coverage - Check Cell Phone Coverage | Virgin Mobile

VM USA customers do not use the Nextel coverage map. The coverage areas of the iDen and CDMA networks may look similar, but they are not the same.

Can you give some examples of areas in the continental United States where Sprint brand customers without roaming have more coverage than VM USA customers? (Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico don't count because VM USA doesn't advertise offering coverage in those areas.)

 

[mogelijk]

Virgin Mobile USA users should be using the Virgin Mobile USA coverage map. Go here: Cell Phone Coverage - Check Cell Phone Coverage | Virgin Mobile

VM USA customers do not use the Nextel coverage map. The coverage areas of the iDen and CDMA networks may look similar, but they are not the same.

Can you give some examples of areas in the continental United States where Sprint brand customers without roaming have more coverage than VM USA customers? (Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico don't count because VM USA doesn't advertise offering coverage in those areas.)

If you notice, I linked the Virgin Mobile coverage map in my last post (click on "VM users").

For differences between Sprint's coverage map and Virgin's you can see a lot of difference in the state of Kansas. But the West, in general, has very little coverage compared to Sprint's maps, and many states show much greater coverage in rural areas on Sprint then Virgin Mobile. And I wasn't trying to claim that Virgin users are using iDen, just that when looking at the Sprint maps I found it interesting how similar the Nextel map looks to the VM map. For example, Nextel users have greater coverage in Northern Michigan (not to be confused with the UP) and Virgin users have greater coverage along the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Now, some of the difference between Sprint and Virgin coverage is roaming but, again, look at the differences between Sprint's No Roaming Coverage map and Virgin Mobile's. On the No Roaming Map, Sprint shows lots of coverage in Western Kansas and nothing on Virgin Mobile.

 

[Petrah]

Keep in mind that those maps are only good when they bother to update them. They look the same now as they did several years ago when I first signed up with VM USA.