Cingular prepaid at Walt Disney World--followup

Apologies for the four-group crossposting, but I got responses from
helpful people in all four groups before my December trip to WDW
from California, so I wanted to give a quick report to everyone.

The report is: my Ericsson A2218Z (1900 MHz) phone running on a
Cingular prepaid account from California worked great. I had
allotted time for a trip to the nearest Cingular store the morning
after I arrived, but I didn't need it. I turned the phone on at the
Orlando airport, and it immediately found a signal. I used it a few
times around WDW, and I often didn't get a very strong signal, but
it was usable.

BTW, the login screen said:

AT&T/Cingular
310 380

Anyone know what the "310" and "380" mean?

Thanks to all who helped me with this. I hope my information is
of use to others who may be travelling to Orlando with older
(single-band) Cingular prepaid phones.


Patty
(followups set to alt.cellular.cingular)

---

› See More: Cingular prepaid at Walt Disney World--followup

Patty Winter wrote:
> Apologies for the four-group crossposting, but I got responses from
> helpful people in all four groups before my December trip to WDW
> from California, so I wanted to give a quick report to everyone.
>
> The report is: my Ericsson A2218Z (1900 MHz) phone running on a
> Cingular prepaid account from California worked great. I had
> allotted time for a trip to the nearest Cingular store the morning
> after I arrived, but I didn't need it. I turned the phone on at the
> Orlando airport, and it immediately found a signal. I used it a few
> times around WDW, and I often didn't get a very strong signal, but
> it was usable.
>
> BTW, the login screen said:
>
> AT&T/Cingular
> 310 380
>
> Anyone know what the "310" and "380" mean?

310 380 refers to the operating country and the individual operator
within that country. 310 is the United States, and 380 is AT&T Wireless
Services. 310 410 is Cingular Wireless. 310 260 is T-Mobile USA.

I'm not fully sure how the "AT&T/Cingular" or "AT&T Wireless" banner is
determined. My phone displays "AT&T Wireless" (Motorola V505 and LG
L1150 both display that), however there are others around with different
experiences. I know a couple, with the same phones (I don't remember
which model) on the same plan, but one displays "AT&T/Cingular" and the
other displays "AT&T Wireless". However, the most important thing is
whether or not the phone is functional -- in the real 'scope' of things,
it doesn't matter what the display says.


> Thanks to all who helped me with this. I hope my information is
> of use to others who may be travelling to Orlando with older
> (single-band) Cingular prepaid phones.

I'm not sure about single band GSM phones, but I find that dual-band GSM
phones have great coverage here. In fact, my overall experience with
Cingular GSM (and previsously TDMA) is that Cingular coverage and voice
quality is superior to that of Verizon Wireless IN THIS AREA. I hear a
lot of complaints from T-Mobile customers, however most of them elect to
renew their contracts, so the service must not be that bad here. People
from just west of Disney who have Alltel usually seem to dump that idea,
even paying any applicable ETFs. Nextel is widely used, especially with
all the additional towers that were recently put on Disney property.

TH

In article <[email protected]>,
Tropical Haven <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>Patty Winter wrote:
> >
> > Anyone know what the "310" and "380" mean?
>
>310 380 refers to the operating country and the individual operator
>within that country. 310 is the United States, and 380 is AT&T Wireless
>Services.

Oh, okay. Guess it's just something they decided to display for
some mysterious reason. The splash screen back here in the SF
Bay Area (the South Bay, anyway) now says "AT&T/Cingu," but no
numbers.

>I'm not sure about single band GSM phones, but I find that dual-band GSM
>phones have great coverage here.

Right, that's what I had heard from people in that area. The question
was whether a 1900-only phone would work. Or whether my subscription
would be valid in that area. That's why I was prepared to get a new
SIM (or even a new phone!) when I arrived. But I didn't need to.


Patty

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 04:57:49 GMT, [email protected] (Patty Winter)
wrote:

>Apologies for the four-group crossposting, but I got responses from
>helpful people in all four groups before my December trip to WDW
>from California, so I wanted to give a quick report to everyone.
>
>The report is: my Ericsson A2218Z (1900 MHz) phone running on a
>Cingular prepaid account from California worked great. I had
>allotted time for a trip to the nearest Cingular store the morning
>after I arrived, but I didn't need it. I turned the phone on at the
>Orlando airport, and it immediately found a signal. I used it a few
>times around WDW, and I often didn't get a very strong signal, but
>it was usable.
>
>BTW, the login screen said:
>
> AT&T/Cingular
> 310 380
>
>Anyone know what the "310" and "380" mean?
310 I believe means USA (country id), and 380 is AT&T Wireless
(operator ID).
>
>Thanks to all who helped me with this. I hope my information is
>of use to others who may be travelling to Orlando with older
>(single-band) Cingular prepaid phones.
>
>
>Patty
>(followups set to alt.cellular.cingular)