Roaming Violation

by border do you mean to another U.S State or Canada/Mexico border?

Yes. I am in Utah at the Arizona boarder. I have data roaming off and Wi-Fi calling on

turn off domestic roaming??

I have an I-phone.  This is something new with T-mobile.  I come to this area of the country every year and this is the first time I’ve gotten had this issue

If that is the case, T-Mobile shouldn’t pass that problem on to me and threaten to cancel my service

Roaming options are a nice backup because you can stay connected even if T-Mobile doesn’t directly cover the area you are in. Roaming is supposed to be a temporary connection and not something that you are using most of the time. If you have a T-Mobile account, then you should be connecting to T-Mobile towers more than 50% of the time or usage. Using the roaming service while you are on the road makes sense, but if you live or spend most of your time in a town that does not have T-Mobile coverage, then you are likely going to get a better experience with the provider that you are normally connected to. 

When you are going through Arizona and Utah, what carriers are you connecting to? If you share the names of the carriers, I can double check that we still have an agreement with them. 

Can you tell us the cities you are going between? I can take a look at the area and see what coverage and roaming options are available. 

Hey Pam.

I do show some T-Mobile coverage in these cities. The terrain looks interesting, so to help make sure that our customers have service in all the hills and valleys, we do partner with AT&T as a domestic roaming partner. Kanab and Fredonia look like they are served by the same T-Mobile tower, so travelling between them should not result in any roaming unless there are some abnormal environmental factors (inclement weather, heavy foliage growth, etc.). The roads from those cities over to Colorado City are covered by our roaming partnership and then you get back into T-Mobile coverage all the way to St George. Does your husband normally take that drive with you? Do you use navigation apps or music/media streaming apps while you are on that drive?

The messages sent out about roaming violations are based on the specific usage of the line getting that message. Here is an example of what could be happening (to know what is going on exactly on your account, you would want to look at your usage details on My.T-Mobile.com or have an account expert review the details when you call in). When you are home (Kanab or Fredonia area) you don’t really use your phone much. If you need internet you use your home computer, and your phone calls are short. Your husband could be using more data in these areas playing games on his phone or researching really cool fun facts to keep friends and family entertained. When you go to St George, you drive and decide to navigate because even though you know the way, you like to see how long it will take or possible traffic impacts. Driver chooses the music on road trips (no matter how short), so you are also streaming your music library. This means that most of your usage is done on the road in the areas that are covered by the roaming partner and most of your husband’s usage is on the T-Mobile towers at home. 

Again, this is a totally hypothetical situation, but I hope it helps shed a light on how the usage on your two lines could be tallying in on the network side. Since you do frequently spend time within the towns that have T-Mobile towers, the best thing to do would be to double check that your phone is connected to T-Mobile in the network settings on your phone and then using your phone more on the T-Mobile network. Do a couple extra internet searches, tell an extra joke on your phone calls to make them a bit longer, jam out to some tunes while you go about your day. Anything that tips the scale to show more usage on the T-Mobile network. 

This turned out a little long winded, but I hope it is overall helpful. 😄