"SMS" <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in message
news:KS8Qj.3237$26.2380@newssvr23.news.prodigy.net ...

> Cool. Interesting that Alltel has some GSM networks.

I believe they inherited them when they bought Western Wireless. I don't
know if leaving some GSM capacity up was part of an ingenious plan to milk
roaming revenue or just a contractual obligation they inherited with WW's
system.

> My V195 on SpeakOut shows "SpeakOut" at 310-410 (AT&T) and "Other" at
> 310-260 (T-Mobile). Is the network number to name translation in the SIM
> card?
>
> My other V195 on T-Mobile shows "T-Mobile" at 310-260, and "Cingular" at
> 310-410.

This is probably a question for John Navas or Dennis Ferguson, but the way I
understand it is that name translation tables are in the SIM, but can also
be in the phone which can override the SIM if the phone chooses to.

My first T-Mobile phone (back when they were Voicestream) said "Voicestream"
with it's original VS SIM in it, but "T-Mobile" with a newer SIM. Either
SIM reports "T-Mobile" in any of my newer T-Mo phones. I assume the old one
(a Nokia 8290) had no table of it's own, and relied on the SIM to "tell" it
what network it was on, where the newer phones have a table designed to
override any legacy T-Mo name with "T-Mobile."

My favorite confusing naming was last year in California, where my T-Mo
phones reported both GSM networks (AT&T's current "Blue" and Cingular's old
"Orange" they sold to T-Mo) as "Cingular."

My WinMo phone allows me to override any network name with any text string I
want via a registry edit, so I renamed the California nets back then to AT&T
and T-Mobile West.

> What's strange is that the T-Mobile phone works at my house, whereas it
> never did with other 850/1900 handsets. Either it's roaming onto AT&T, or
> this handset is able to get a T-Mobile signal where other handsets cannot.
> The T-Mobile coverage map shows almost no coverage at my house, though
> they recently got approval for a new site that would give me good 1900 MHz
> coverage.

Congratulations- maybe we can lure you back from the dark side one of these
days... ;-) When T-Mo launches "Talk Forever" (currently in beta)
nationwide, you can add an unlimited domestic VoIP line (a UMA VoIP router
that takes a T-Mo SIM) to your T-Mobile cellular account for just $10 extra
per month.