A free roaming service is to be offered by the Leap and Metropcs Cell Carriers. With the move, the two are laying claim to having a “nationwide” network, though it doesnt yet cover some large cities, like New York, Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Richardson, Texas-based MetroPCS will start offering roaming on Leaps network Monday for subscribers with $45 and $50 monthly plans. This will let it access major markets like San Diego, Portland, Ore., Nashville, St. Louis and Houston. Outside the combined networks, roaming still costs 49 to 79 cents per minute for MetroPCS customers.

San Diego-based Leap, which does business under the Cricket brand, will start offering MetroPCS roaming Wednesday for subscribers on $50 and $60 plans. Major markets it is gaining include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas and Miami.

MetroPCS had 4.8 million subscribers at the end of September. Leap had 3.5 million.

The roaming agreement will be particularly useful to subscribers because unlike other regional carriers like Alltel, MetroPCS and Leaps coverage areas mostly are not contiguous, with long distances between covered cities.

For instance, MetroPCS customers in Dallas will now be able to roam for free in Austin, Houston and San Antonio, said MetroPCSs chief operating officer, Thomas Keys.

The expansion of the service areas “really cuts into the lead that bigger carriers have,” wrote Macquarie Research analyst Philip Cusik.

The two carriers have had a contentious relationship. In 2006, Leap sued MetroPCS, saying it had stolen the idea for flat-rate mobile service. Last year, MetroPCS offered to buy Leap Wireless, but was rejected.

On Sept. 29 this year, the carriers announced that they had buried the hatchet, settled litigation and would offer mutual roaming.

Source: wvec