TZones $6 - Why am I picking up Edge in Canada??

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10-01-2007, 02:25 PM
timriley

TZones $6 - Why am I picking up Edge in Canada??

I'm hoping someone here might be able to clarify this for me. I'm successfully using the proxy method for internet access via the $6 Tzones on the Tmobile plan on my iPhone in the U.S. I have my APN set to wap.voicestream.com with no username/password. I'm currently travelling/roaming in Canada (connects under Rogers Mobility) and I 'thought' I would be safe from any EDGE connections with these settings. I'm in Nova Scotia (Halifax) right now and when I was showing my iphone to my friends here, I suddenly noticed that my weather updated! I looked under the Fieldtest and sure enough, under the PDP information, I was getting an assigned IP address! There were no connectable Wifi signals at all and I was definitely on Edge, and not Wifi. Scared the heck out of me (I'm frightened by any possible roaming data charges) and immediately went in and erased the APN voicestream address. I don't seem to be getting EDGE anymore now. Tmobile's website doesn't have my last 48hrs of unbilled usage info yet so I can't find out if I'm being dinged for roaming data charges yet. Is this normally what can happen with Edge? I thought that leaving my original wap.voicestream.com settings via the Tmobile proxy method on the iphone wouldn't have allowed me Edge access while in Canada and thought I was safe until now....

Any insight would be greatly appreciated...
10-01-2007, 04:29 PM
jefdiesel

you are indeed roaming. you know all those horror stories of people on vacation and their phones ringing up thousand dollar data bills? well now that you.

as soon as you left the tmobile coverage area, you started getting service from rogers, including EDGE. that proxy hack only serves to get you AROUND the tzones firewall, not locking you to only tzones..

good thing you caught it quick, but you really should take advantage of your unlocked phone, and just buy a cheapo rogers pay as you go card while you're on the road.
10-01-2007, 05:48 PM
timriley

Wow, thanks for the tip. So, is the reason I was getting EDGE because Rogers recognizes Tmobile's voicestream APN? My understanding (or lack of) was that I'd have to have a valid APN in the box for EDGE to work. The two iPhones I sent to my brother who lives up in Ottawa are also on Rogers (with a Rogers simcard), but it has the default Cingular APN in the Edge settings that came with the US-bought iphone, and I was under the impression that he shouldn't get Edge since Rogers wouldn't recognize the Cingular APN... so far it doesn't appear that he has ever gotten Edge to work up there (knock on wood).

So, other than keeping a close eye on the Edge, is there anything else I should do to protect myself? Am I safe now that I have taken the APN out of the Edge APN box? Or should I put something else in the Edge box (like the Cingular apn?). I have gmail setup in the phone but I've made sure that it isn't constantly updating/checking. Sadly until 1.1.1 is unlocked I'm stuck without the ability to solidly disable Edge...

Thanks re: the suggestion to get a Rogers Sim. I do travel up to Canada frequently enough that I've been looking at getting the Speakout 7-11 prepaid phone plans and transferring the SIM from that to the iPhone (seems like the best deal out there for infrequently use)?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jefdiesel

you are indeed roaming. you know all those horror stories of people on vacation and their phones ringing up thousand dollar data bills? well now that you.

as soon as you left the tmobile coverage area, you started getting service from rogers, including EDGE. that proxy hack only serves to get you AROUND the tzones firewall, not locking you to only tzones..

good thing you caught it quick, but you really should take advantage of your unlocked phone, and just buy a cheapo rogers pay as you go card while you're on the road.
10-01-2007, 10:18 PM
timriley

Moved thread to the General forum...
10-02-2007, 01:25 AM
jefdiesel

i dunno why you felt you had to move this post?

when you say you had your edge settings for tmob, and wonder why it works with rogers, its because you are roaming! thats how roaming works, you roam, and the other networks keep you connected, charge you through the nose. doesn't matter if its voice, or sms, or data. if the network is there, you will connect to it.

your brothers phone, with rogers SIM does not connect to wap.cingular because he does not have an EDGE account with ATT!

and if he set his rogers SIM to wap.rogers.com and came to the US, he would then be roaming here, and paying for it on his rogers bill. you can only be billed by your own telco?

i guess the bigger question about getting a pay as you go card in canada, is do any include data? probably not, but calls will be cheaper than roaming, and if you are indeed in ottawa lots, your gonna see the hit just from phone calls alone.
10-02-2007, 02:24 AM
timriley

Hey Jefdiesel - thanks for taking the time to answer and explaining it. Sorry, I had moved the post because I didn't realize I had posted in the 'unlocking' forum and thought the questions fit the General thread better...

So, I just want to make sure i get this right... is the reason I'm able to roam on Edge settings in Canada because I've signed up with Tzones with Tmobile? Tzones is 'sortof' a limited data plan, but is only supposed to work with Tmobile websites and isn't supposed to give full Edge access. Since I don't have a 'real' data plan with Tmobile, I had made the (incorrect) assumption that Rodgers/etc. would not allow me full Edge access in Canada either while I roamed...

So given that I can't 'turn off' Edge with the 1.0.2 firmware, is my best bet just to make sure I leave my APN, username and password fields blank under the Edge settings? Or maybe even put in cingular's APN since I don't subscribe to Cingular's EDGE data plan?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jefdiesel

i dunno why you felt you had to move this post?

when you say you had your edge settings for tmob, and wonder why it works with rogers, its because you are roaming! thats how roaming works, you roam, and the other networks keep you connected, charge you through the nose. doesn't matter if its voice, or sms, or data. if the network is there, you will connect to it.

your brothers phone, with rogers SIM does not connect to wap.cingular because he does not have an EDGE account with ATT!

and if he set his rogers SIM to wap.rogers.com and came to the US, he would then be roaming here, and paying for it on his rogers bill. you can only be billed by your own telco?

i guess the bigger question about getting a pay as you go card in canada, is do any include data? probably not, but calls will be cheaper than roaming, and if you are indeed in ottawa lots, your gonna see the hit just from phone calls alone.