AT&T and T-Mobile announced an agreement today to help customers of both carriers who are located in Hurricane Sandy’s heavily impacted areas. The agreement enables customers of either network to roam on the other network in a seamless fashion as if they were on their primary network. Roaming in the impacted areas will not result in any additional fees. Both networks use GSM and UMTS, making the agreement feasible. The carriers hope this will help customers who are having trouble getting a signal. Hit the break for the full press release.
AT&T and T-Mobile Open Networks to Customers of Both Carriers in New York and New Jersey
Dallas and Bellevue, Wash. — October 31, 2012 — In the wake of destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy, AT&T and T-Mobile are taking extraordinary measures to make sure our customers can stay in touch.
AT&T and T-Mobile have entered into an agreement to enable roaming on their networks to customers of both companies in the heavily impacted areas and where capacity is available and for subscribers with a compatible device.
AT&T and T-Mobile customers will be able to place calls just as they normally would, but their calls will be carried by whichever network is most operational in their area. This will be seamless for AT&T and T-Mobile customers with no change to their current rate plans or service agreements even if the phone indicates the device is attached to the other carrier’s network.
T-Mobile and AT&T both utilize network technology based on GSM and UMTS standards, which allows for this sharing of voice and data traffic.
source: TalkAndroid