Thread: Hijacked along the border Mexico cell signals knock off US c

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Hijacked along the border
Mexico cell signals knock off US carriers
By Timothy Roberts

EL PASO-It can happen while you’re in the car. It can happen when you’re at lunch. It can happen at any moment and most often when you least expect it.

And it’s a frequent occurrence along the border: a cell phone signal from México knocks the signal from AT&T or Sprint or some other U.S. carrier off your mobile phone and takes over.

The result can be expensive, as your cell plan is pushed aside, and when your monthly bill arrives you can find hundreds of dollars in extra charges for roaming and data use.

When electronics salesman Trent Hatch crosses the border into México, his AT&T signal switches to Telcel. This is as it should be. The two companies have this coordinated so customers can cross the border and maintain communications.

And when the 37-year-old Mexican native who has lived in the U.S. for 19 years returns to El Paso, he often has to shut down and restart his phone to get back on AT&T.

But what really gets his goat are those times when his Blackberry picks up a Telcel signal when he’s north of the border. It seems random and can happen several miles from the Rio Grande.

“My gripe is that when I’m on the U.S. side, I still get their signal,â€

I think the Hatch family is Mormon and from the same colony as was Mitt Romney's father. The family has been living in Mexico since around the Civil War.

I can attest to the problems with cell phones in or near El Paso. There is a point when crossing back over the international bridge from Juarez into El Paso that you can re-acquire the U.S. signal but it can be very frustrating.

Last time I was in Las Cruces doing some data downloading on my iphone, I got back and got a big bill. That's some 50 miles from the border...so why was I connected to the mexihole network? AT&T refunded it after checking my location. I don't do data when down there anymore. The signal on AT&T is crappy in Las Cruces anyway...lol