AT&T Slapped with $2M Fine Over Dobson Debacle

It's a bit technical, but there are two frequencies that phones work on in the US. Both the regular voice service and the 3G service use the same frequencies. One frequency is better than the other. In some areas of the country legacy GSM phones use one frequency and 3G phones use the other frequency (guess which)

As for the roaming bit, your usage basically got to the point that over a 3 month average over 40% of your usage was while roaming, it's in the contract if you ever bothered to read it. AT&T is in the business of making a profit, and permitting roaming is expensive for the company to provide. This is nothing new or exclusive to AT&T, I've worked for two cell companies and have coworkers who have been with all the major companies. Would you prefer the old style roaming where you had unlimited roaming for $0.79/min?