roaming. how I wish it were nicer and more plentiful.

 

. . .

 

I'm pretty sure 100MB easy sucks up with just background services, or even just a few page loads of my website homepage (my website homepage is 30MB per webpagetest by itself; just in JPEGs, PNGs, and HTML. in theory, one could reload the home page of my website only about 3 times before the 100MB cap was reached).

 

. . .

 

Sprint if you're hearing this please .. please consider adding more roaming data to the plans. For the rate I was paying, $95 for unlimited service, unlimited data, on one line, customers really deserve more.

 

Roaming in America unfortatunely sucks. The appeal of it is high because as a customer we will have data and voice in more areas, whereever a partner has service.

 

2-5GB of roaming data would be nice just to get us by when roaming IF roaming occurs at all.

 

. . .

 

​a question has to be asked; why is data so expensive in the United States? in the UK they sell a goodybag with 6GB LTE and unlimited 256Kbps LTE for $25 USD!!! pre-paid SIM. https://www.giffgaff.com/goodybags/20pound-goodybag

 

tell me why roaming in America isn't always-on and at least a couple of gigs of full speed LTE?

The simple answer is that data roaming in the US is expensive.  Though costs vary, operators oft charge each other on the order of $0.15/MB.  That means roughly $150/GB.  At that price, you are not getting your wish of 2-5 GB of roaming data.  Not gonna happen.  Your $95/mo rate plan that you think deserves more probably would not even cover the costs of 1 GB of roaming data.

Up next, the comparison to the UK is spurious.  I will not get into the UK geographic size and population density differences -- except to say that if Sprint had to serve only Southern California with twice the population, it would have a killer network.

But the greater issue is that you are illogically comparing roaming data allotments/prices in the US to native network data allotments/prices in the UK.  To expand upon your example, you are not going to buy a prepaid SIM from Vodafone for $25 for 6 GB of LTE, then go use that as roaming data on EE.

And here in the US, if you want about 6 GB of LTE on a prepaid SIM, you can get that for around $25.  Plenty of operators or MVNOs offer prepaid plans in that range.  Likely, though, they will be limited to native network data.

So, that brings me to my next point.  If you need more roaming data, port out to the operator on which you are roaming.  Or you can stick with your present provider -- and just buy a prepaid SIM from the other operator for your periodic data needs when/where you otherwise would be roaming.

I do have one or two final questions.  I would not load a 30 MB web page on a handset even on native network data, let alone roaming data.  It would be a waste of data and battery, not to mention, probably would take 30 seconds.  So, why is your web site homepage a whopping 30 MB?  And why do you need to load it while mobile?  That seems like a problem of your own creation.

AJ

It's interesting that Us Cellular treats Sprints network as native for roaming but not the other way around for Sprint customers on USCC. If I could get native USCC roaming I could do Sprint.

It's interesting that Us Cellular treats Sprints network as native for roaming but not the other way around for Sprint customers on USCC. If I could get native USCC roaming I could do Sprint.

No, that is not correct.  All reports are that USCC has a roaming data quota -- and Sprint is not exempt.

AJ

It's interesting that Us Cellular treats Sprints network as native for roaming but not the other way around for Sprint customers on USCC. If I could get native USCC roaming I could do Sprint.

USCC allots its subscribers 400 MB of data for all roaming purposes be it on partner networks 1x / EVDO or now on LTE.

They do not have ''like native'' roaming treatment like Sprint has on specific partner networks. 

Not any

USCC allots its subscribers 400 MB of data for all roaming purposes be it on partner networks 1x / EVDO or now on LTE.

 

They do not have ''like native'' roaming treatment like Sprint has on specific partner networks. 

Not anymore 

Not any

 

Not anymore 

Stand corrected.

They throttle after 400 MBs. Still off network roaming and counts against high speed data caps. 

The simple answer is that data roaming in the US is expensive.  Though costs vary, operators oft charge each other on the order of $0.15/MB.  That means roughly $150/GB.  At that price, you are not getting your wish of 2-5 GB of roaming data.  Not gonna happen.  Your $95/mo rate plan that you think deserves more probably would not even cover the costs of 1 GB of roaming data.

 

Up next, the comparison to the UK is spurious.  I will not get into the UK geographic size and population density differences -- except to say that if Sprint had to serve only Southern California with twice the population, it would have a killer network.

 

But the greater issue is that you are illogically comparing roaming data allotments/prices in the US to native network data allotments/prices in the UK.  To expand upon your example, you are not going to buy a prepaid SIM from Vodafone for $25 for 6 GB of LTE, then go use that as roaming data on EE.

 

And here in the US, if you want about 6 GB of LTE on a prepaid SIM, you can get that for around $25.  Plenty of operators or MVNOs offer prepaid plans in that range.  Likely, though, they will be limited to native network data.

 

So, that brings me to my next point.  If you need more roaming data, port out to the operator on which you are roaming.  Or you can stick with your present provider -- and just buy a prepaid SIM from the other operator for your periodic data needs when/where you otherwise would be roaming.

 

I do have one or two final questions.  I would not load a 30 MB web page on a handset even on native network data, let alone roaming data.  It would be a waste of data and battery, not to mention, probably would take 30 seconds.  So, why is your web site homepage a whopping 30 MB?  And why do you need to load it while mobile?  That seems like a problem of your own creation.

 

AJ

Obviously data is a ripoff in America then. Why are they charging $150 per gig? There is logically no explanation for why they wouldn't charge the same amount or lower than they charge on their regular plans, or something on the order they charge their MVNOs. Technically roaming should be treated as if each respective company was an MVNO of the other company, so we could roam onto whatever network and be charged the same as if we were a customer of said network. Ultimately the reason roaming data is probably priced high if it is (citation needed) .. Its because of anticompetitive practices and piss poor FCC regulation.

You sound like an industry inside shill honestly with nothing but excuses for why the industry in America sucks and is overpriced.

People use their phones like laptops these days and many webpages are huge .. That's why you come across huge multiple hundred megabyte webpages. I browse using Android and I use only desktop browser rendering and website versions.

Obviously data is a ripoff in America then. Why are they charging $150 per gig? There is logically no explanation for why they wouldn't charge the same amount or lower than they charge on their regular plans, or something on the order they charge their MVNOs. Technically roaming should be treated as if each respective company was an MVNO of the other company, so we could roam onto whatever network and be charged the same as if we were a customer of said network. Ultimately the reason roaming data is probably priced high if it is (citation needed) .. Its because of anticompetitive practices and piss poor FCC regulation.

You sound like an industry inside shill honestly with nothing but excuses for why the industry in America sucks and is overpriced.

People use their phones like laptops these days and many webpages are huge .. That's why you come across huge multiple hundred megabyte webpages. I browse using Android and I use only desktop browser rendering and website versions.

First of all, watch your mouth.  If you think that I am an "industry inside shill," you are way off base.

I am not going to provide you with a citation on data roaming costs.  But the info is out there.  I have seen it published online and/or in the public record.  For example, T-Mobile openly has complained about its data roaming costs.  You, too, can find that info.

Network operators are required to provide data roaming on FRAND terms.  That said, the FCC does not set the data roaming rates.  It is a balance between competition and anti competition.  To use T-Mobile as an example again, if it could data roam on competitor AT&T at much lower costs, then T-Mobile effectively could be on par with AT&T.  Standing on the shoulders of a giant, T-Mobile would have little incentive to build out its own network.

In the end, if you are complaining about data roaming quotas because you are loading 30 MB web pages while mobile, that comes across as ridiculous.  I have little sympathy for that.  Some web pages may be of bloated size, but most people while mobile are not loading web pages that large.  You are an edge case.

AJ

Has anyone verified if sprint any mvnos can utilize lte roaming + as native coverage?

Is LTE roaming still rolling out for the west like Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Montana etc.?