Why is it possible to place calls on an unactivated phone?
A cellular carrier cannot always identify where to bill the airtime for an activated or unactivated cellular phone. This generally happens when a cellular phone is roaming or in other words, placing calls outside the customers home market area. If the cellular carrier cannot identify the phone and where to bill the airtime, then manual roaming is offered. Manual roaming options to the caller are, charge the call to a credit card, charge the call to the callers home phone or call collect. The FCC Docket number 94-54 makes it a requirement to allow unactivated phones to manual roam. This rulemaking was released August 13, 1996, a summary of the ruling is as follows: Roaming Obligations. On August 15, 1996, the FCC issued a Second Report and Order and Third Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in CC Docket No. 94-54 concerning the obligations of a commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) provider to make roaming available to other providers of CMRS services. The FCC concluded that “cellular, broad
