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What is Roaming?

You may have heard of roaming before, you’ve probably even been charged for it, but what does “roaming” mean, and how do you know if you are, in fact, roaming? Simply put, roaming is what happens when you travel outside of your local area while using your cell phone.

Roaming technology makes it possible for you to travel to any destination without being disconnected from your network. While convenient, roaming also means that you may be borrowing another carrier’s cell phone tower. Cell phone carriers allow users to take advantage of other carrier towers in order to bridge coverage gaps.

The only problem is that any text, call, or other cell phone action made outside of your local area is considered roaming, and this can be a complete nightmare if you happen to have a Smartphone. For example, if your Blackberry is receiving messages while you are driving to a long distance location, then you may be stuck with a mass of roaming charges – even if you didn’t check those messages or make any calls. If you are unsure about your carrier’s roaming fee policy, make sure to turn your Smartphone of while traveling.

Then again, your current cell phone carrier may not charge you any roaming fees. While roaming fees were fairly standard a few years ago, this is not necessarily the case today. Competitive carriers do not charge roaming fees, while some carriers sneak those fees into your monthly payment. If you travel outside of your local area frequently, make sure that you know all about your carrier’s roaming fee policy. Otherwise, you could be slapped with a hefty monthly bill filled with roaming charges.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 9:18 am by Harriette Halepis and is filed under Blackberry, Cell phone plans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.