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Where At&t would show it said 'movistar'....

danedane5

danedane5

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 5, 2008
76
0
Here is a screenshot of my phone when I was in San Diego hanging out walking around, and then my signal fell dove off, and it said movistar. And I dont see what it could be seeing as how I haven't unlocked or done anything with it.. Hasnt dont it since...Any clues? Really curious as to how this happened..

P.S sorry for the bad word haha
 

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Doesn't ATT and other cell phone companies sometimes "buy" some signals from other companies where they don't have towers? So that if you're with ATT and you go to a place where ATT isn't will to put up towers, they "buy" the signals from other cell companies that have put up the towers there and you just use their towers?

I could be COMPLETELY wrong, so someone correct me if I am wrong.

But, this happening in San Diego? Sounds kind of weird, that's a city where there should be an abundance of ATT towers.
 
How close were you to the border? Movistar provides cell service in Mexico, so it seems like you might have been connected to one of their towers. Which means international data rates.
 
hmm

A mexican company, eh? Well San Diego strays close to the border, but im too tired to research this haha, but really this was weird haha.
 
While driving on I-10 in south Texas last week My AT&T changed to MOVIL. I instantly got a text message from AttFreeMsg that said international voice and data rates apply.

So, like others have said, your phone can hop networks that have roaming contracts.
 
.

I was at Seaport Village by my hotel at the Hyatt? hmmmm better not have charged me international for anything i did there...
 
adster said:
While driving on I-10 in south Texas last week My AT&T changed to MOVIL. I instantly got a text message from AttFreeMsg that said international voice and data rates apply.

So, like others have said, your phone can hop networks that have roaming contracts.
Click to expand...
I-10 isn't in south texas my friend south texas is like brownsville, harlengen. I haven't noticed this issue on I-10, weird!
 
danedane5 said:
I was at Seaport Village by my hotel at the Hyatt? hmmmm better not have charged me international for anything i did there...
Click to expand...
I've picked up signals from Mexico in San Diego as well (although, with Verizon, or formally, AirTouch). If I recall correctly, I was in Point Loma, which isn't far Seaport Village.

Although, that was quite some time ago.
 
bassproguy07 said:
I-10 isn't in south texas my friend south texas is like brownsville, harlengen. I haven't noticed this issue on I-10, weird!
Click to expand...

Yeah, my bad. Not south Texas, but moreso extreme east Texas, near El Paso. Sorry, I just finished a drive from Florida to LA in I-10 and Texas was a huge blur, but you're right!
 
I live REALLY close to the border and one time i was driving when all of the sudden "at&t" changed to "mexico" it was really briefly then it went to "no service" and then back to "at&t" with only one bar...

I found that really strange as I would have expected to change to something like a mexican cell phone carrier or something, but it just said that "mexico"

Just to confirm "telcel" and "movistar" are indeed some of the major cellphone carriers in that country...
 
danedane5 said:
Any clues? Really curious as to how this happened.
Click to expand...

Had this happen while on 94 in San Diego. I was making a call that HAD to be made, but I couldn't get AT&T, only Movistar on the iPhone. I made the call anyway.

Turns out I paid a couple bucks extra to make that call as I was "roaming from Mexico."
 
fdjkosal

That pisses me off. I live in AZ and they charge roaming like its someplace really far and hard to service..its like just a few miles from US. I know its a different company but I love to complain about everything. And im complaining about MExico not AZ ha
 
danedane5 said:
That pisses me off. I live in AZ and they charge roaming like its someplace really far and hard to service..its like just a few miles from US. I know its a different company but I love to complain about everything. And im complaining about MExico not AZ ha
Click to expand...

Go into your settings and make sure that international data roaming is turned off. This won't stop you from roaming for voice and SMS, but data is where they really get you, so at least you'll be shielded from the really big expenses. Especially since the iPhone is a data hog compared to other phones.

I wonder if the Mexican carriers are back to their old tricks. I remember in the mid 90s when cellular was still analog, I lived in a border region and it was common for cell phone users to get slammed HARD with roaming charges from Mexico even though they were well within the US. Turned out the cell companies in Mexico had built a line of towers along the border and basically BLASTED their signal across the border into the US. Supposedly this was to "better serve Mexican customers visiting the US," but it was clearly a way to try and grab roaming revenue that wasn't really legit.

What was then GTE (later became Verizon), and Cellular One (later became Alltel in that area) started doing the same to the Mexican side, but the Mexican companies complained mightily to the FCC about it. Eventually there was some agreement hashed out that limited the amount of signal spillage from both sides, and most of the problems went away.
 
You were picking up the Mexican network. Happens in certain places around town, Pt. Loma being one of them. Campo is another.
 
You were roaming on the Movistar's Mexican network. There are towers from both Telefonica's Movistar and America Movil's Telcel literally next to the US-Mexico border.

Although Downtown San Diego is relatively far away from Mexico via the freeway, it it not that far geographically from Tijuana.

If you go further south (West Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, San Ysidro, Otay) and ask your iPhone to look for any available networks, you can find Telcel, Movistar, AT&T, and T-Mobile.

You can alo use your iPhone without roaming in certain parts of Tijuana.
 
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