Att vs. Cingular

i believe they did have an expiration date, and i think its jan 06, form what i hear, but either way there will be a time when ALL ATT customers must go to cingular unless they're off contract of course in which they can go wherever they please!

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Looks like in the fall Alltel customers that stay GSM and don't want to go CDMA in AT&T divestment markets will become Cingular Customers and Alltel will be taking down the GSM equipment and putting it in places where GSM roamers will need it.

If someone really likes their at&t phone and they want to migrate to Cingular, all they have to to is switch and get one of the free phones that are available, then, they can get their old at&t phone unlocked and put new Cingular SIM card in the old phone. This way, you have an extra phone if your current one breaks. Also if you have all of your contacts in your sim, you can switch phones and you don't have to call them to activate it or anything. I have my AT&T SIM in a nokia 6230 which is a Cingular phone that I got off of eBay. All I did was take the SIM out of my old phone, popped it in the new one, powered it up, and all my contacts were there and I instantly had service. That's the truely great thing about SIM cards, the portability.

I talked to a Cingular guy and he said that the Cingular SIM cards are 64kilobites and they were able to send the SIMs an upgrade that let them know about all of the new towers that are part of the company after the merger.

Essentially, without the upgrade, someone with an old at&t SIM in their phone will search for an AT&T tower before using a Cingular tower, even if the cingular tower is closer, so switching kinda does make sense if you live in an area that had both Cingular and AT&T BEFORE the merger, like Philadelphia or atlanta.

I have AT&T...but i'm gonna switch to Verizon. I thought it was just the v600. But maybe it's the service.

or both, the v600 has had its own share of problems

But i'm torn between staying with Sim cards, or without. I mean Asia and parts of Europe use the CDMA frequency thingy. But it seems like America has only Sim Card uses. I wish someone could explain to me the differences between both. I mean, The CDMA frequencied company's seem to have more of a variety of phone choices than SIMs. I think i'm headed over to Verizon, and then buy a SKY phone. I mean even if you get an Unlocked phone, you can't send picture messages, which partially eliminates the use of the camera. Someone Educate Me.

Someday I think the CDMA guys in North America with have to do R-UIM (CDMA SIM card) Most Nokia CDMA phones they make have spot of R-UIM.

All GSM phones use a SIM card holds your phone book and what networks you can roam off of. So when you change phones you can keep your SIM card and have your phone book and some settings ready to go. Right now most people are changing both the SIM card and phone.

CDMA GSM are different types of Digital technologies

Cellular 850 MHz PCS 1900 MHz DCS 1800 MHz are the bands they are use CDMA or GSM on.

In the US for commerical wireless we use Celluar 850 and PCS 1900

Europe uses 900 MHz and DCS 1800 MHz and some areas 450 MHz and 2100 MHz.

The provider chooses what they want to do on the airwaves they have
right now you have to do analog on cellular, but you can also send out GSM or CDMA as well.

Nextel uses the SMR band it is in the 700,800,900 MHz range

So how is Verizon in UT? At&T in So cal isn't doing it for me. Every campus has different receptions and services. But What are the benefits to having Sim and the benefits of having CDMA? I want to start my own service, just get one international service, with a huge satilite, and excellent customer care service. The phones would be sim cards with the use of other frequency's when entering different areas, uninhabitied by sim. Wouldn't that be great. 80-100 bucks a month, for Unlimited minutes weekday, weekend, and international. Free call to call service within this company. .....ahh...i'm dreaming already.

well the difference in technologies means difference in service and features, i mean SIM cards are good if you like to change phones whenever you want and is more of a world wide format, whereas CDMA wouldnt let you change phones as frequently and isnt as big as GSM (SIM cards) but also has the same capabilities as far as high speed internet and data features of that sort. There are many similarities between the two, more than there are differences

I have noticed a considerable amount more of dropped calls since Cingular has taken over. This is my biggest complaint I have, along with if I wanted to switch over to Cingular, I would migrate to a better service, and cost me $18 for each phone, plus I would have to buy new ones cause they won't unlock my current 2 Motorola's, then my price plan would go up. So I am sticking it out with the AT&T plan for now, better deal but my phone options are now full price and they have to be unlocked.


keith

the hardships that all ATT customers still on contracts must endure, its a sad sad sight, and more and more people are switching away from the whole ATT/Cingular mess.

Originally Posted by scott14661

How riduculous of Cingular! I can't believe they won't give you a special rate plan. They shouldn't hold you to the same rate plans as they are holding other Cingular and AT&T customers to. You should receive special treatment.

I could sit here and pick apart you post and respond, but to me it's just not worth it. You AT&T customers want everything for free. AT&T might have given you whatever you wanted but Cingular is going to hold you to the same standards as every other customer. There is a reason AT&T sold out to Cingular, they were BANKRUPT.

I'll leave you with this. Make a choice. Migrate to Cingular and pay the $18 upgrade fee (not migration fee). You would get a free phone, so don't give me this BS about having to purchase a new phone. If you want a higher end model, you're going to pay for it like EVERYONE else. If you don't like what we offer, I'll just tell you what I tell my customers. "Cancel your service and find another carrier". Then you can pay a $35 activation charge with a new company, and you still have to pay for a new phone.

The balls in your court.

Well, if all of Cingular's sales and customer service people show that attitude then in a short time Cingular will also be bankrupt.

Originally Posted by Trojans PA

I have noticed a considerable amount more of dropped calls since Cingular has taken over. This is my biggest complaint I have, along with if I wanted to switch over to Cingular, I would migrate to a better service, and cost me $18 for each phone, plus I would have to buy new ones cause they won't unlock my current 2 Motorola's, then my price plan would go up. So I am sticking it out with the AT&T plan for now, better deal but my phone options are now full price and they have to be unlocked.


keith

I suspect that a lot of this is intentional, so that Cingular can suck more of the AT&T'ers into their more expensive plans.

In the Dallas area, a lot of ATT phones are suddenly without mMode, myself included. Cingular said the problem was a software glitch in my phone and I had the manufacturer check it out. They could find nothing wrong. Cingular then told me they could replace the phone, but that would require a new number and activation fee. My response will not be repeated here.

I'm absolutely certain i'm going to switch.

well if you think about it, if cingular gave existing att customers special rates, then all the new cingular customers would have something to complain about, so either way its a sticky situation that no one is really liking at this particular moment