roming

roaming happens when there is no coverage for your network in a specific area and your network borrows the signal from another service provider so you can still use your number. Example mostly would be if you go to another country. Thus the term roaming.

Roaming is when you're using, or connected to, a cell phone tower which is owned by other than the company you have service through... In this regard, cell phone world hasn't really changed... Like old days, most of the cell phone companies have "roaming agreements" with each other, especially ones that uses similiar or same technology... AT&T & T-Mobile both use GSM network... Sprint & Verizon use CDMA network... AT&T & T-Mobile, although not exclusively, have roaming agreements with each other, which means if you have t-mobile as service providers, in some locations, you can hop on AT&T's cell tower to use your cell phone... They do this for economic reason... Instead of putting up new towers & maintaining them, it might be cheaper for companies in some situations to "borrow" someone elses for coverage in some areas...

roaming is when you go out of the service area for your specific plan. Some plans have unlimited nation wide, so as long as you are in the country you won't get charged more. However, if you don't have unlimited roaming you have to be careful. Many companies limit their area to the city or town your phone was activated in, so as soon as you go out of the city you get hit with extra charges. See if you can get on the unlimited plan. Ours really isn't that much more a month and you don't have to think about there you are or be worried about using your phone while traveling.