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Bell creates “Accidental Roaming in Canada” as some HSPA clients getting charged while in Canada
Bell launched their HSPA network on Tuesday and 3 days after we’ve been informed that an new issue has popped up. It’s regarding select Canadian customers on their HSPA network who are getting billed for roaming while in Canada.
Apparently, as experienced with EVDO devices, the HSPA devices may be picked up by a U.S. cell tower and those customers are being billed US roaming rates. I’m sure this is not how Bell wants to start off so they have created the “Accidental Roaming in Canada” which ensures voice calls are billed based on their Canadian rate plan.
Accidental roaming does not apply to SMS or data and eligibility applies to the following:
- All Postpaid clients.
- All account types.
- Clients must be located near the U.S. border, in one of these regions:
– Ontario: Kingston to Cornwall; Windsor to Sarnia; Niagara on the Lake to Fort Erie
– British Columbia: Victoria area; White Rock.
- HSPA call placed or received and picked by an U.S. cell tower
The internal doc we received gave a couple examples:
“If a Montreal client places or receives a call while in Victoria and is picked up by a U.S. cell tower, the client will be billed based on their rate plan.”
“If the HSPA client has been picked up by a U.S. tower, the name of the carrier (e.g. AT&T, T-Mobile) will appear on the device. Clients can avoid such accidental roaming by placing the device in manual network selection mode and / or manually selecting the Bell network. The client can refer to their user guide for details on how to manually select the Bell network.”
(Thanks Informer!)
Discussion
7 comments for “Bell creates “Accidental Roaming in Canada” as some HSPA clients getting charged while in Canada”
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I would love to have this problem! I can’t even use my new iPhone as they can’t get it activated on the network! FAIL Bell!!!!!
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Why do you think I don’t have Bell anymore? So getting the HTC Hero in white. Yeah! High school ready!
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Dear Mobilesyrup owner/writer:
This is completely not true. and here is why:
1- It has been 3 days only since launching the new network and there is no way to send the bill details to a customer after 3 days….HELLOOOOO
2- The customer will only see the balance through selfserve link but it doesn’t include the details of the the bill.
3- Bell SIM is programmed not to camp on any USA carriers even it the customer in the boarders.
4- The is only ONE way to register on AT&T or T-Mobile, it is when the device doesn’t see Bell network at all in the boarder (which is impossible). even if Bell network is weak, the phone will never register on AT&T and it will always look for Bell. (Bell special PHONE/SIM function).
5- Rogers customers have this issue since day 1 and I don’t know why you didn’t mention it in your site!! I wonder why???
I would like to ask you kindly to remove/update this article till you get more proven info/evidence.
I have always got the feeling that this site is neutral in terms of providing fair information and not leaning towards specific carrier more than others.
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Funny how Bell phones can’t just choose bell as the network anywhere the phone is.
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I recently got a sim card to use with my iPAQ 614. My phone is picking up and is connected to Bell network. However, the phone is still showing the roaming symbol even though I am in downtown Toronto…I am a bit confused why is this happening. I really hope I am not being charged for roaming in downtown Toronto!!!!
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I had this problem with my Robbers phone when I was in Niagara. When I got my bill I put in a quick call to customer support and it was resolved in 5-min! I guess this is an issue all the carriers have in border regions.
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This is an issue for all cell phone carriers, and many use the same solution. Even if it wasn’t in place a call to customer service would resolve it…not really much of a story, and not a new solution to the problem either
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