Within the New York and New Jersey area, Hurricane Sandy has cause some serious havoc and in efforts to aid those affected, AT&T and T-Mobile have agreed to enable their roaming capabilities on all towers within those areas:
Many on the East Coast right now are without power and services are not expected to be restored for several days, this initiative between the two carriers who both suffered infrastructure damage, will at least help everyone stay in touch a little better.AT&T and T-Mobile customers will be able to place calls just as they normally would, but their calls will be carried by whichever network is most operational in their area. This will be seamless for AT&T and T-Mobile customers with no change to their current rate plans or service agreements even if the phone indicates the device is attached to the other carrier’s network.
AT&T and T-Mobile have struck up an agreement to share their networks roaming to mutual customers to share network capacity
AT&T and T-Mobile Open Networks to Customers of Both Carriers in New York and New Jersey
Dallas and Bellevue, Wash. — October 31, 2012 — In the wake of destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy, AT&T and T-Mobile are taking extraordinary measures to make sure our customers can stay in touch.
AT&T and T-Mobile have entered into an agreement to enable roaming on their networks to customers of both companies in the heavily impacted areas and where capacity is available and for subscribers with a compatible device.
AT&T and T-Mobile customers will be able to place calls just as they normally would, but their calls will be carried by whichever network is most operational in their area. This will be seamless for AT&T and T-Mobile customers with no change to their current rate plans or service agreements even if the phone indicates the device is attached to the other carrier’s network.
T-Mobile and AT&T both utilize network technology based on GSM and UMTS standards, which allows for this sharing of voice and data traffic.
Reader comments
AT&T and T-Mobile to share networks in efforts to aid those affected by hurricane Sandy
Now if only VZW and Sprint would do the same for CDMA.
Agreed! Having so much difficulty right now getting calls to go through... so frustrating consider I need service being that I was in zone a...
wonder how many gubment regulations they are breaking with that "sensical" solution. Go get 'em FCC, Commerce . . .
Good to see that kind of fast response from providers. Took me 5 days to get service(ATT) back in my area (VERY populated area near Baton Rouge) after our recent hurricane. Other folks got theirs back much quicker in the region, just that mine must have some very local tower damage or something. GF's Verizon 9930 only lost about a day of service.
Wish they would help sprint. My data has been horrible here in Maryland since Sandy. Good news is powers back on. :)
At the Jersey Shore, Sprint is not working at all, so please don't complain about data....
T-Mobile is also dead, so hopefully this helps with that.
We received plea from carrier to please use text messaging and SHORT phone calls. Request to not use data or long calls yet as do not want to overload or hog system resources.
So ya, I'll try to consider others who need to make calls for various (some very serious) reasons and not use data on my cell phone.... for a few days.
Wish it would stay this way. I remeber when I got my first cell in 2001 with t-mobile. I never had signal and stayed on att's towers for years at no extra charge. was nice.