Why am I getting roaming messages if I m still in Canada?
❗AI Summary:
A Virgin Plus Member in Canada near the U.S. border could connect to a U.S. carrier's tower, triggering a Roam Sweet Roam notification and/or roaming charges. This is simply because the phone has connected to a U.S. cellular tower - regardless if never physically leaving Canada.
Why?
Mobile networks are not like people; as in they don’t stop at or stop functioning at borders. They're signal frequencies that broadcast and flow outwards like a wave. Your phone follows signal strength and will always choose to connect to the strongest signal—a stronger or closer U.S. tower can override nearby Canadian ones.
This especially and most often happens:
- Near lakes, oceans, bays, coastlines or open terrain - where water helps bounce or carry frequencies, allowing them to travel farther.
- At higher elevations - where line‑of‑sight to a U.S. tower is improved.
- If our tower or network signal is weak or obstructed
- If your phone is set to 'automatic network selection' - where the setting allows the phone to connect to the most stable or strongest network signal it can.
Keeping in mind that all of these things can and do happen in reverse (i.e. Canada to U.S.) as well.
How to prevent unwanted connections to a U.S. network?
To avoid any unwanted roaming charges, Members should take the initiative and ensure to:
1. Manually select Virgin Plus as the phone's network - turning off 'automatic network selection'.
2. Ensure you have or upgrade to a mobile plan that includes U.S. voice, text and data usage.
3. Add a roaming block at the account level or disable roaming all together. Preventing the phone from connecting to any other network.
