When in Roam

Roaming is the ability to use your wireless phone outside your usual coverage area. Where subscribers are when they place or receive calls determines the rates they pay. Gaining a better understanding of where "home area" boundaries start and stop will help keep customers from accruing unexpected charges on monthly wireless phone bills.

Dobson Communications
Total Hold Time: 1 minute

Transfers/IVR Layers: 1
CSR: Customer service. This is (name). How may I help you?
WR: I was wondering what roaming is?
CSR: Roaming is when you sign up for service with a company and they have what's called a home area, and they probably will have a brochure to give you with a map in it that outlines the home area. But outside of the home area is considered roaming. So say your home area is an 8-county area or something like that. If you go outside of that area, then you're roaming, and you incur roaming plus long-distance charges.
WR: Are there roaming taxes in addition to that?
CSR: Yes, there is roaming tax.
WR: How is that determined?
CSR: That I don't know. I just know when I look at a roaming charge that there's a tax on that. If I give someone a credit for roaming, it takes tax off.
WR: Does it have to do with the service plan?
CSR: It may deal with the area of the country you're in, and it may deal with the company, too, that you signed on with. Roaming is usually outside the home area, and usually your phone will light up roaming.
WR: It will? OK.
CSR: Yeah, if you're roaming, your phone usually says "roam" or "roaming" on it.

GTE Wireless
Total Hold Time: 0 minutes
Transfers/IVR Layers: 1
CSR: Thank you for calling GTE Wireless. This is (name). How may I provide you with excellent service?
WR: What is roaming?
CSR: Roaming is when you go outside your home coverage area and make phone calls and receive phone calls.
WR: OK. So are there roaming taxes on top of that?
CSR: It depends on what plan you're on. We do have Home-Choice plans, which are only for your home coverage area. We also have EasternChoice plans, which is everything east of the Mississippi and WesternChoice, which is everything west of the Mississippi. And then we have AmericaChoice, which covers the whole United States — roaming and long distance.
WR: Does that come out of my free minutes?
CSR: Yes, it would — your package minutes.
WR: Is that like AT&T's Digital One Rate plan? Or do you have a program like that?
CSR: Digital One Rate?
WR: Yes, they have one rate for all calls nationwide no matter what time of day.
CSR: We have that when you go over your minutes, like say you're on the AmericaChoice and you roam — you're only going to pay 25 cents anyway.
WR: For each minute over?
CSR: Right. We do have a flat rate after your package minutes, like when you go over your minutes.
WR: Does it matter where I call from?
CSR: Not with the AmericaChoice.

U.S. Cellular
Total Hold Time: 0 minutes
Transfers/IVR Layers: 0
CSR: Customer service. This is (name). Can I get your mobile number please?
WR: I just had a question. What is roaming?
CSR: What roaming is is if you're outside the coverage area that you're assigned to with the plan that you go on. If you make any calls from outside in that area, you'll get roaming charges.
WR: Are there roaming taxes on top of that?
CSR: Yes, you're taxed on everything, unfortunately.
WR: How are those figured?
CSR: It depends on what plan you go with. I believe it's ... don't quote me on this because I'm not exactly sure, but I think federal is 3% and state is 5% and then city if it relates to where you call to or from is a 1% tax.
WR: So the tax rates are determined by where you are when you call?
CSR: Right.

Mystery Caller is Wireless Review's ongoing series of random calls to service providers to determine how a customer might be treated and the accuracy of distributed information.