Sprint & Alltel Announce Roaming Deal

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 2004

http://forums.wirelessadvisor.com/sprint-pcs-users/55813-data-roaming-works.html

Someone above is claiming they have roamed data in Arizona. Sprint Blackberry on Alltel network.

Anyone else in AZ?

Andrew Revering · Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 2:19 pm Post subject:

For what it's worth, I was travelling through South Dakota yesterday via Watertown to Aberdeen to Summit and I was unable to roam. So it seems the latest is... 'not yet'.

Andrew Revering · Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 5:52 pm Post subject:

One of the locations I've been monitoring for Alltel roaming has been Monticello, MN where an Alltel tower exists.

After several attempts as posted here, I have been unable to connect. However as of today, August 18, I am connected to an AllTel tower, and am writing this connected on their 1xRTT connection!!! I forced into roam, it authenticated and connected without problems.

Maybe its not live everywhere, but from my small sample I'm able to declare that roaming is now working, at least around me.

Andrew Revering · Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 1:25 pm Post subject:

Was storm chasing across southeastern South Dakota southwest, west, north and northeast of Sioux Falls, and was roaming on AllTel the whole time. Had quite good coverage. Also for some strange reason I was roaming from about Jackson, MN to Sioux Falls where I normally have Sprint, but the coverage was good there as well while roaming.

Michael · Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 2:29 pm Post subject:

Was that 1xRTT or EVDO data roaming?
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xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 2004

Was it data or voice roaming? Sprint has always roamed on Alltel for voice. Data roaming is new though. I was in Dakotas a month ago and data roaming didn't work but it did attempt to connect, stating the password was wrong. So it seemed to be close to being enabled.

Andrew Revering · Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 2:11 pm Post subject:

1xRTT Data Roaming using the Sierra Wireless 580 PCMCIA card.

I was downloading radar, pulling up data on web pages, etc.
see what data roaming helps a storm chaser do in nowhere, south dakota:
http://www.aprweather.com/chase/canistota.htm

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 2004

^Very cool to be surfin the net in the middle of nowhere with a tornado in sight! Laughing

So I guess the question now is... is there any Alltel area left that isn't yet roamable by Sprint users. And has any Alltel user tried roaming data on Sprint yet?

Andrew Revering · Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:01 pm Post subject:

I personally have not had any issues getting on an AllTel tower since in my mind it became fully working last month.

It's really a nicely integrated process. Auto connects, no errors, very seamless.

dimar4hire

Heh. Roaming in a town of 437....Ummmm yea well at least it's only 1xrtt I'd scream and be confused if there was EVDO here. I also found EVDO in Old Fort ohio, Population 1,200. Just checking in. Looking like they are slowly getting the roaming up and going.

C-ya Later,

Dimar

vauser · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 16 Nov 2006 Posts: 17

Im an Alltel customer roaming on Verizon.

BillL · Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 8:01 pm Post subject:

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 2004

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061120005584&newsLang=en

"Alltel plans to launch Axcess Broadband in additional markets across the country in 2006, giving it one of the largest EVDO footprints of any U.S. carrier."

It would appear that Alltel roaming EVDO will be broad on Sprint's network by end of this year with that statement. If they sign a DO roaming agreement with Verizon, they WILL have the largest DO footprint of all carriers.

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 2004

Did a road trip down to Tampa. Alltel 1xRTT roaming works in KY and FL but did not work through GA or TN, at least on Interstate (Sprint did have coverage anyway, but I forced roaming and did see Alltel towers). Haven't tried in an Alltel EVDO area yet, which is just south of where I'm staying in Tampa area.

What's interesting is that I did a speed test on dslreports while roaming on Alltel and it stored it to Sprint in area2.spcsdns.net, which means roaming still connects the Alltel tower into Sprint's backbone and home agent. Curious.

There were same number of hops in traceroute when roaming Alltel vs. native Sprint.

Andrew Revering · Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:24 am Post subject:

Within the past couple days the static EVDO maps now have 1xRTT roaming showing up on the map, and whats most interesting is that the area is much larger than what AllTel shows for coverage, for example parts of northern Wisconsin and Eastern Iowa. It seems that now we have roaming coverage maps (for data) and that Sprint has more partners for data roaming than just AllTel.

Anyone know who these other partners may be?