[MeatLoafT]

Here's the deal, it's complicated. Where I work I'm on Verizon. Where I live, I'm on the Extended Network, which is US Cellular. I make a #646 (check minutes) call on Extended Network and it says "welcome to US Cellular, we're sorry, your call cannot be completed as dialed." I understand that. Once my phone memory drops to approximately 20 MB free, it switches to ROAMING, yet I make the same call and get the same message. I looked at my account online, it's saying everything is domestic, calls, msgs, and data.
My question: Is the phone just getting confused? Is the lack of memory doing this? Anyone else having issues?
I'm not really concerned as nothing is showing up as roaming in my account, I'm just very curious about what is going on and if my phone is actually defective. I have had it about a week and it's done this since about the second day (once I actually got some stuff on it.)

[EricaJ1073]

It could be getting confused not by the memory but the switching between networks. I'm not on a CDMA carrier so I don't know how to resolve that. On GSM I would normally reboot the signal and reseat the SIM card which is a PAIN.

[MeatLoafT]

Forgot to say anything about rebooting the phone. Once I do a battery pull, it goes back to extended network. Your answer makes sense though. I just hope you're right. I just know ATT cancelled my account because I "roamed" too much. Didn't matter that I had 4000 rollover minutes. LOL. I don't want to get cancelled by Verizon. I live in a rural area and none of the providers cover it well. Thanks for the answer!

[dougxd]

Ok....I hope this makes sense.....it still kinda confuses me if I think about too hard sometimes.

"Extended Network" means you're on a foreign network in which VZ has a type of contract with them where ALL of your phone traffic (voice/data) is considered native to VZ.

"ROAMING" means just that. You're on a foreign network in which VZ has no enhanced contract with. Your mins/data usage *might* be charged as pure roaming. I say "might" because anymore these days, it just doesn't matter anymore.

If you hit a network where you're ROAMING and you still have good data speeds, consider yourself lucky. More often than not, you're stuck at 1xRTT speeds. Don't worry about the voice charges since pretty much every plan under the sun includes it for free.

In other words, your usage should remain rather transparent to you. Just keep an eye on things for say three billing cycles and if nothing is funky, have a nice life :-)

**EDIT**
I should add -- the flip-flopping between extended and roaming just indicates you're in an area where the RF signal strengths from the separate networks keep leap-frogging each other. In the world of FM and in particular, our cellular modulation methods, that's called the "Capture Effect." Nothing to be concerned about. It's natural radio receiver behavior.

R,
Doug (KG0MX)

[MeatLoafT]

Thanks for the response Doug, although I'm thinking it's still the phone getting confused somehow. Whether I'm seeing Extended Network OR Roaming, I'm still on the *US Cellular* network, which does have a contract with Verizon.