T-Mobile UMA international coverage question.
 

Currently in Whistler British Columbia (originally from Los Angeles).

Will T-Mobile charge me data usage even if im using UMA?

UMA handles Voice calls only and has nothing to do with data charges. T-Mobile will charge you for data depending on your data plan.

If you are using UMA exclusively, you will not incur any additional charges, whether it be data or voice, beyond anything that would be seen as normal plan usage.

Even emails...
 

I thought you can receive emails via UMA. For international roaming, using the UMA should not incur any additional charges, provided that you are using it exclusively by turning off the mobile connection option under manage connections. Am I correct?

International Calls UMA
 

I previously had wonderful luck using a more primitive phone capable of UMA calling. Recently bought a used Blackberry 8900 in advance of a trip to Mexico. UMA worked great, but i just received a big bill for ROAMING CHARGES.

Please pay attention to warnings to make sure the phone is not "attached" to the foreign carrier while in UMA mode. It can be costly.

How to turn off mobile connections
 

I am now struggling to figure out how to turn off mobile connections so the next I attempt to use UMA offshore I won't have massive roaming charges. Any suggestions?:x

I am by no means an expert, but when I want to be sure I am exclusively using UMA, I go to "Manage Connections".

Go to main menu and look for the antenna looking icon, open it and uncheck all connections except wifi.

That being said, I recently received a message from T-Mobile saying that they charge international roaming rates for wifi calls. I have previously made calls while traveling internationally over UMA with no charges except the minutes coming out of my monthly allowance. No fees, I do not have the @home svc. on my acct. I will have to experiment on my next trip.

I also found it interesting that I received the message on my personal BB, but not my work one which is also on T-Mo??

I too am wondering about a recent Tmo text I received stating that same thing. I can't tell if they are saying that I will be charged if calling an international number even if over UMA or if I will incur international roaming fees if I make a UMA call over seas.

Wirelessly posted

It depends where you are calling to and what you are using to pay (local card or your own carrier from home). Use a prepaid local sim is best.

What specifically were you charged for? If you are on UMA, you are not attached to the foreign carrier. UMA connects to the Tmobile equipment via the internet.

However, since it is possible to set the connection preference to mobile network, it may be running data through the cell network rather than wifi. Or it could be charges when the phone if off wifi and goes onto the local cell network. Any non-UMA calls you recieve that go to voicemail are charged since the call finds the phone on the other network, then forwards the call back to the US voicemail. Also any data services running in the background will incur charges without you realizing it.

It is technically possible for Tmobile to figure out that that someone is in another country while on UMA. However they have not historically charged roaming charges. If they've now doing this, that would be good to know.

I just used UMA overseas and it overlapped January's bill. That bill has no roaming and neither does the current billing. Although something could show by the end of the month. I have not received any notification that wifi calls would be charged as roaming though. Also, I have international services deactivated on my account, so I can't use my phone overseas on the cell network. So it will never show as connecting to a foreign network, which is one thing that may trigger such notification.

BB Messenger
 

How does UMA rules apply when using BB Messenger? In Germany now and connected to the hotel wifi, UMA is displayed, but the hotel network / TMobile is also displayed. Wifi is the setting selected, will I incur any charges using BB Messenger here in Germany?

You should not get any charges related to BBM whether you are in the states or not. My understanding is BBM goes through Blackberry's server from Blackberry to Blackberry and not thru T-Mo.

When I first got my BB I would get a few data charges for BBM and would call customer svc and they didn't know why I got charged, but would remove the charges. This happened for about the first 2 months, then no more charges for BBM.

You're slightly wrong. BB data does go through RIM, but there's no Blackberry cell network. All data first goes through the cell provider your phone is connected to, then through RIM.

So if you land in another country, fire up the phone and send BBM, you'll get roaming data charges.

I guess I over simplified the process? But, besides the first couple of months, I have not been charged for any roaming data in the last 3 yrs. And I travel all over the world.

I do have unlimited data and int'l email, which may be a factor?

At least that has been my experience, whatever the reason. I guess my advice to FR8DAWG would be to send a few test msgs. and see if you get any charges on your next bill.

Thanks for the replies, I'll find out if I'm billed roaming charges when the arrives next month.

Update: My February bill has no roaming charges. So I had 2 months of minimal overseas usage while on UMA and neither bill has roaming.

However, I do have international roaming disabled, so the phone doesn't register with the local cell network, and there's no way for Tmobile to know I'm overseas except for check the ip address of whatever internet service I connected to.

If they are trying to charge roaming, my guess is they're relying upon the phone to connect to the overseas cell network as indication of being overseas.

How do you disable international roaming? I would like to know. I plan to visit my parents in Zimbabwe (and also in South Africa).

UMA Appears to be shut down in Mexico City...
 

Have tried over the last several days to get UMA here in Mexico City from a diversity of open WIFI networks all over the city, including the one at my hotel. I can make and receive calls on roaming through Movistar, but have yet to see anything but GSM or EDGE.

After having fiddled around with my BB, I have concluded that TMo has shut down UMA access here, most probably so that we are forced to use the roaming network and pay for our long distance calls. I've included a WIFI diagnostic report, if any of the techies on the board would like to look it over.

Know this when you come to Mexico City - UMA is dead so get ready to pay the piper...

Diagnostic report...

Wi-FiCurrent Profile: FIESTA INN
SSID: FIESTA INN
AP MAC Address: 00:03:52:8E:06:00
Security Type: Open
Association: Successful
Authentication: Successful
Local IP Address: 10.10.2.45
Signal Level: -45 dBm
Connection Data Rate: 54 Mbps
Status: Network acquired
Authentication Failure Reason:
Network Type: 802.11b/g
Network Channel: 6
Pairwise Cipher: None
Group Cipher: None
Gateway Address: 10.10.1.1
DHCP: Successful
Primary DNS: 10.10.1.1
Secondary DNS: 0.0.0.0
DNS suffix:
Subnet Mask: 255.255.248.0
Server Domain Suffix:
Certificate: Not Applicable
Software Token: Not Applicable
L3 Auth:
VPN
Current Profile: Concentrator Address: Contact: N/AAuthentication: N/A
Secure Device IP:
Status: VPN disabled.
Resolving Concentrator: N/A
Concentrator IP: Primary DNS: Secondary DNS: DNS Suffix: Secure Subnet Mask: Retry at: Session Lifetime: Re-login at: Failed Login Attempts: Certificate: Software Token:
UMA
Connection Pref.: Wi-Fi Preferred
UMA Wi-Fi Available: Successful
Connection: Error
Error Code: W004
Status: ISP error. DNS server cannot be reached.
Reg. UNC Address:
Registration: Error
Authentication: Error
Serving UNC Address: punc.t-mobileuncs.com:14001
Security Gateway Address: psgw.t-mobilesgws.com
Cell Info.: Cell. handover to UMA failures: 0
Cell. rove-in failures: 0 BlackBerry Infrastructure
Address Used: //216.9.242.88:443
IP Used: 216.9.242.88:443;49976
Connecting: Successful
Authenticating router: Successful
Authenticating server: Successful
Last Contact At: Mar 6, 2010 10:06

It's one of the free add-on services - Worldclass International Services. You can call customer service or turn in off on the Tmobile website.

I've been based overseas for the past 2 years and have the full international roam package. When I'm in my hotel room or home, where I have wifi, I turn off the mobile network connection and use UMA for all phone calls to the USA and for all my data usage. I have incurred no roam charges for either. I travel to about 7 or 8 countries per month, and can report the same there. The only time I have ever been hit with a roaming charge is when I forget to turn off my mobile network connection, decide to call the states, and lose my wifi. I haven't done that in quite sometime. I have found that once in a while, I need to do a battery pull to get UMA but that doesn't happen too often. I use the 9700 on T-mobile.