Roaming Violation

To my knowledge, it's either always T-mobile or it's no service at all.  That's why I'm confused by the texts I get from T-mobile about excessive roaming.  As I said, we come to this area every year in the fall.  My husband also has T-Mobile and has not gotten any roaming violation texts.

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. 

I am in Kanab, UT. I have recently been going to St George, UT.  I go to Fredonia, AZ.

My husband has the same plan as I do, he hasn’t gotten any texts about roaming violation.

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. 😄