Driving between the Mississippi towns of Starkville and Flowood on MS 25, I was surprised that my cell phone’s pokey 1X data service went to high speed EVDO.
It turns out that this is a roam area, possibly using Verizon. The gray blob between Columbus and Jackson in the coverage map at right is classified as “mobile broadband roaming” on Sprint’s Coverage Tool. (Verizon’s own coverage map doesn’t have a special broadband area that corresponds to the gray blob, so it may not be Verizon after all?)
Once I got into Flowood, MS, I reentered Sprint’s pokey 1X network. Argh.
On a whim, I forced my phone into roam mode, and I get EVDO even in Sprint’s 1X area! So it appears that if you only have 1X access, you may still be able to get high speed EVDO by forcing roaming.
UPDATE: I got EVDO on I-20 all the way to Van, TX by forcing the phone to roam mode. Otherwise, it would have been 1X the entire way.
How much extra does the roaming mode cost you??? I should think they might double the connection charge.
Theoretically Sprint allows roaming anywhere in the US where there’s CDMA signal? When we got my wife a Sprint phone back in 1999 or so, the only place where there was a roaming charge was some place in Minnesota?
I don’t think roaming is the big deal it may have once been, assuming you have a reasonable calling plan?