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From: DREUBEN@eagle.wesleyan.edu) (DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: "Follow Me" Roaming Question
Message-ID: <10549@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 8 Aug 90 05:59:36 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 547, Message 8 of 15


Hi,

Had a question about "Follow Me" Roaming (*18/*19) on the "B" cellular
carriers:

I have service through GTE Mobilnet in San Francisco. When I go back
East, and try to activate Follow Me Roaming, it works until about
12AM, Eastern. If I activate Follow Me before 12AM, everything is
fine, and Follow Me Roaming will continue to work until 3 hours later,
ie, 12AM Pacific time.

However, let's say I get into my car at 1AM, Eastern, and try to
activate Follow Me Roaming - that usually won't work, or if it does,
it takes about 1/2 an hour to register with GTE in San Francisco.

If I try after 3AM Eastern, that usually works fine.

Why does there seem to be this "dead time" between 12 and 3 AM
Eastern? I have lots of ideas as to why this may happen, but don't
really know enough about Follow Me Roaming to test them out. Anyone
have any suggestions?

Also, why doesn't New York City, probably one of the largest Cellular
markets in the nation, have Follow Me Roaming?? What are you supposed
to do if you live in Connecticut and work in NYC?? I guess this gives
a LOT of business to the "A" carrier, which is DMXed from Rhode
Island, Connecticut, NYC, and Northern New Jersey! (Err...that is,
WHEN the DMX is working...! :-( )

Thanks in advance,

Doug

dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu
dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet


[Moderator's Note: "Follow Me", a/k/a/ "Fast Track" by Ameritech and
others, has four ways by which it is cancelled, once it has been
turned on via *18:  (1) Within the same service area where it was turned
on, *19 will cancel it. (2) When you move to another service area, *18
will turn it off in the area you vacated and install it in the new
area. (3) If you return to your home area having forgotten to turn it
off when exiting the area where you were roaming, then *73 will cancel
it also. (4) Finally, at midnight each night *in the place where you
are registered for home service* there is a general cancellation of
all "Follow Me" setups from the day ending. If your home area is in
the Pacific time zone, then the general cancellation will occur at 3
AM Eastern time. It is the home area that cancels all outstanding
"Follow Me" requests, not the area you are roaming in. This general
cancellation is intended to protect the roamer against unwanted guest
charges of more than one day. You need to re-establish "Follow Me" on
a day-to-day basis. In reverse, someone homing from New York City
traveling on the west coast would be cancelled out at 9 PM Pacific. PT]