Rate Plan Question. Is this true?

On another forum, a member was asking about Cingular nation plans. I had
written and said to be sure he understood the difference in GSM and GAIT
plans as with the GSM you could end up with roaming charges. He wrote back
and this is what he said.

"I got the GSM plan, and the Cingular people assured me that there would
never be roaming charges ever. They said if there was, bring in the bill,
and they would fix it. What I like is the fact the phone can be used
"nationwide". No long distance on my plan either. How the salesman explained
it to me was, that if there wasn't a Cingular tower available, you just
wouldn't have any service at all. Thus avoiding the possibility of roaming.
I could see this being an issue in an emergency, let's hope that never
happens."

So my question is: Is this true? I thought with the GSM you would end up
with 'cingular extend' and pick up other towers and have roaming charges.
Please enlighten me.
Thanks
Carp

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› See More: Rate Plan Question. Is this true?

In article <%[email protected]>,
"Carp" <[email protected]> wrote:

> On another forum, a member was asking about Cingular nation plans. I had
> written and said to be sure he understood the difference in GSM and GAIT
> plans as with the GSM you could end up with roaming charges. He wrote back
> and this is what he said.
>
> "I got the GSM plan, and the Cingular people assured me that there would
> never be roaming charges ever.

Never a roaming charge while on the Cingular Network.




>They said if there was, bring in the bill,
> and they would fix it. What I like is the fact the phone can be used
> "nationwide". No long distance on my plan either. How the salesman explained
> it to me was, that if there wasn't a Cingular tower available, you just
> wouldn't have any service at all. Thus avoiding the possibility of roaming.
> I could see this being an issue in an emergency, let's hope that never
> happens."
>
> So my question is: Is this true? I thought with the GSM you would end up
> with 'cingular extend' and pick up other towers and have roaming charges.
> Please enlighten me.
> Thanks
> Carp
>
>

"Robert M." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <%[email protected]>,
> "Carp" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > On another forum, a member was asking about Cingular nation plans. I
had
> > written and said to be sure he understood the difference in GSM and GAIT
> > plans as with the GSM you could end up with roaming charges. He wrote
back
> > and this is what he said.
> >
> > "I got the GSM plan, and the Cingular people assured me that there would
> > never be roaming charges ever.
>
> Never a roaming charge while on the Cingular Network.
>
>
>
>
> >They said if there was, bring in the bill,
> > and they would fix it. What I like is the fact the phone can be used
> > "nationwide". No long distance on my plan either. How the salesman
explained
> > it to me was, that if there wasn't a Cingular tower available, you just
> > wouldn't have any service at all. Thus avoiding the possibility of
roaming.
> > I could see this being an issue in an emergency, let's hope that never
> > happens."
> >
> > So my question is: Is this true? I thought with the GSM you would end
up
> > with 'cingular extend' and pick up other towers and have roaming
charges.
> > Please enlighten me.
> > Thanks
> > Carp
> >
> >
With Gait you can pick up tdma or analog if there is no gsm in the area.
With a gsm only phone you are S.O.L. if there is not a gsm tower to service
you. And that is the condition in many areas and will be for a long time to
come. You will not have service at all.

Carp,

On the Cingular Nation GSM plans, there is NO roaming charge, anywhere. The
same applies to the GAIT Nation plans. The difference is as described in
this thread. With a GSM phone, you can only use GSM networks, therefor you
have no service where there is no GSM. The GAIT phones work just about
everywhere, so there may be places where Cingular pays roaming charges, but
you DO NOT if you have the Nation Plan...(there may be places where the
local network may intercept your call and ask you to use a credit card, if
their accounting department can't figure out how to bill Cingular).

Cingular once had Preferred Nation Plans, which had no roaming charges "on
network" (that is, on Cingular AND their roaming partners). You then paid
roaming charges "off network". Those rate plans are gone (for good, I hope).

BTW, Cingular's new nationwide M2M is truly that, too, within the already
mentioned limits of GSM.

Mark


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