ROM?

[lindam]

In reviewing my current bill, I noticed ROM next to some of my son's calls...there was also IRM.  He goes to college in Hamilton and lives there during the week, but is home on the weekend.  The calls were made while he was in Hamilton.  Why is he roaming?  Will he be penalized if this happens too much?  He goes to Mohawk College...this isn't within Fido's network?

I'm confused 😕

[Cawtau]

Hello Lindam,

  I understand your confusion. I think it has to do with the term roaming having slightly different meanings.

  In the most general of terms, roaming simply refers to accessing the network for services while outside of the geographical coverage area of your home area.

  Outside of your home area can either refer to outside of your local calling area (LCA) or outside of your home network (Fido/Rogers).

  In your son's case, it refers to outside his LCA. The significance of this type of roaming is whether calls will be deemed local or long-distance (LD). It's helpful to differentiate between incoming and outgoing calls.

  His incoming LCA is based on the geographical location that is associated with his number. It has nothing to do with his own physical location at the time he receives a call. On the other hand, his outgoing LCA is determined entirely by his physical location at the time of a call, and has no ties to any specific geographical location, other than the one in which he's standing.

  Receiving calls while outside of his incoming LCA is considered LD (IRM). Making calls while roaming (ROM) can either be local or LD, depending on whether the call destinations are within or outside of his outgoing LCA.

  There is no penalty for excessive use of this type of roaming per se. The only consideration are the potential LD charges. If your son has Canada-wide or province-wide (assuming he is still in the same province) calling, then it should not be an issue. If his plan does not include either type of minutes, you might consider the Canada LD add-on.

  The other type of roaming (outside of your home network) -- Fido-EXT or outside of Canada -- does have limits on usage or additional roaming charges.

Hope this helps

Cheers

[lindam]

Thank you 😊

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi lindam,

ROM stands for Roming, when a call is placed in an area that resides OUTSIDE of your local calling area. IRM stands for INCOMING ROMAING CALL. A call that is Received when you are OUTSIDE of your local calling area.

You are within the fido network yes, but you never specified your home area in your post, which is important because it helps explain how this works, but I will assume its Toronto for the sake of this explanation.

If you Live in Toronto, and have a Toronto number, then Toronto is your local area, when you go to Hamilton, regardless if its for School or Work, you are now outside of your local calling area, you are still within the fido network though but you do not need to worry about that.  So your within hamilton, and you place a call to a local hamilton number, in most cases you do not have to put a 1 infront of the number, your call will connect as a local call, because you are local to the hamilton switch. however if you call back to Toronto, your call will be billed as long distance, because you are physically in hamilton, and the call needs to route from the hamilton cell site handling your phone to the toronto switch, thus, long distance charges, which are billed as ROM on your invoice.

now my last example, someone calls your toronto number, but you are not in toronto, you are in hamilton, the person calling you will be billed as a local call, because there is no way for them to know your outside your LCA nor should it matter, and the caller should not be punished for this, so the cost is passed on to you, the call now has to travel from the toronto switch, to the hamilton switch that your cell site is connected to, thus because of that, the call is considered an IRM call, billed the same as long distance, but shows up as incoming roaming call on your bill.  to avoid these charges, dont use your phone when you are outside your LCA or if you need to, get a plan that has canada wide minutes. or get a long distance add on.

The only exception to the rule I stated above is special plans that are zone based, such as the grandfathered City Fido plan, those ones have a Zone too and even if you make a call to a hamilton number and are located within hamilton, you will be billed or OOZ or out of zone, because those special plans such as city fido and urban fido were advertized as zone based plans. and a special rate applies when you are out of your zone I know because I used to have such plan and it was not worth it in the end.

[lindam]

Thanks for the explanation.  We live in Brampton, but he goes to Mohawk in Hamilton.