[weedahoe]

Never heard of this issue myself but it sounds to me like where you live and the placement of the towers and the hand-shaking of the PPC to those towers. That is why you can reboot the device and go back to a non-roaming mode. That also may explain why I (and maybe its just me) havent ever heard of this and why it has happened to you on two different phones with the first having a long term effect.