From: DREUBEN@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU (Douglas Scott Reuben)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: New Cell One/Boston Service in NH
Date: 2 Sep 92 04:37:03 GMT
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 677, Message 4 of 11

I was just up in Laconia, NH, and noticed that there is now service in
the area, ie, from Concord to Albany (New Hampshire) to south of
Laconia to Franklin.

Suprisingly, the service is provided by Cell One/Boston, owned by
SWBell, who provides cell service for the Boston Metro area. It is
surprising because there is an intermediate system in Nashua, NH, so
the Boton and Concord/Laconia systems of Cell One/Boston are not
adjacent.

The system is in effect a separate system, and is not (presently)
linked to the Boston system, at least in a way that the casual user
will notice.  The NH system is run off of a Motorola EMX swtich (as is
the Boston); indeed, it may even be that Cell One/Boston "partitioned"
one of their Boston swtiches to run service in Franklin/Laconia NH.
Metro Mobile does this with their Springfield switch -- e.g., although
it can not pass calls between its Springfield (south central Mass)
switch and its Pittsfield/Franklin County (north central and western
Mass) system since they are now owned by a Bell outfit (Bell
Atlantic), both systems are run off of the same physical switch.  Cell
One/Boston, up against similar regulatory constraints, may be doing
the same thing. Anyone know about this?

The SID code for the new system is 01485 (yes, it is different from
Boston which is 00007), and the roam port number is (603) 229-7626.

Since it is an EMX-based system, it will respond like the rest of the
Motorola linked systems in the northeast -- your features like
Call-Forwarding and Three-Way calling will work, if your phone is busy
(and you have no Call Waiting) callers will hear a busy, you can place
seven digit calls while roaming, etc. Moreover, the (603) 229-7626
port will respond to call-forwarding set in ANY other system. Thus if
you are a Wilmington, DE customer who sets CF in Wilmington (or
anywhere else in the "system"), someone dialing the NH port will get
transfered as if they had dialed your number directly in Wilmington.
(Some exceptions for CF via *71 to voicemail, though ...)

Cell One/Boston, as well as all "New England Network" customers, pay
the highly attractive roam rates of $.44 peak/$.29 off peak, and no
daily charge.  Cell One/Boston customers will NOT, however, get their
Boston rates, as this is a "separate" system.

Calls are not delivered between systems (due to regulatory problems,
although this is easily cured via a "*28/*29" system using IXCs to
pass calls between the two). However, when Nationlink/Roam America
starts up in a few weeks, callers will be able to reach Cell
One/Boston customers in NH. Since all features will work as well, the
system will thus become "somewhat" transparent to Boston customers who
use the Nationlink service.

Finally, Cell One/Vermont just got Nationlink/Roam America, and thus a
Cell One/Boston customer can get calls practically all the way from
eastern New Hampshire all the way up I-89, through Vermont, and to the
Canadian border.  (They will pay a $3.00 per day/$.99 per minute roam
rate in VT, though ...)

As to when Boston will connect with its neighboring system in CT and
Western Mass (Metro Mobile) who knows ... Metro Mobile is so busy
trying to put Cell One/Litchfield (CT) out of business (and themselves
in the process, it seems) that they don't seem very interested in
doing anything else of use to their customers. After all, ever since
the ENTIRE technical staff in one of their switches (Norwalk?) quit in
protest a few months ago, handoffs from CT -> Cell One/NY haven't been
working. For some reason, they can't figure out how to fix it after
all this time! :( :(

Anyhow, enough digression; I'd be interested to hear from anyone who
uses the NH system about coverage, technical problems, etc. I don't
get around that area too often so any input/info would be appreciated!


Doug	dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu // dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet