Cingular prepaid service at Disney World?

I'm heading to Disney World in a couple of months and am trying
to determine whether my Ericsson A2218Z (1900 MHz) phone (which
is on a Cingular prepaid account) will work there. Cingular's
prepaid coverage map shows Florida well covered, *but* it doesn't
identify which areas are only covered with 850 MHz and which with
1900 MHz. I've read conflicting accounts about which frequencies
are available around WDW. When I called Cingular customer service,
the customer service rep said my phone should work, based on the map.
But I'm not sure that she really understood the potential problem
with a single-band phone, even though I told her that my phone was
three years old.

Does anyone here know for sure which frequencies are available
to Cingular customers in the WDW area?


Thanks!
Patty

p.s. Apologies to those of you who already saw this question in
some other groups. I didn't find the Cingular-specific group in
my initial hunt for relevant groups; someone just mentioned it
to me.

---

› See More: Cingular prepaid service at Disney World?

On Tue, 07 Sep 2004 16:56:45 GMT, [email protected] (Patty Winter)
wrote:

>I'm heading to Disney World in a couple of months and am trying
>to determine whether my Ericsson A2218Z (1900 MHz) phone (which
>is on a Cingular prepaid account) will work there. Cingular's
>prepaid coverage map shows Florida well covered, *but* it doesn't
>identify which areas are only covered with 850 MHz and which with
>1900 MHz. I've read conflicting accounts about which frequencies
>are available around WDW. When I called Cingular customer service,
>the customer service rep said my phone should work, based on the map.
>But I'm not sure that she really understood the potential problem
>with a single-band phone, even though I told her that my phone was
>three years old.
>
>Does anyone here know for sure which frequencies are available
>to Cingular customers in the WDW area?

According to wirelessadvisor.com plugging in the ZIP code 32830
cingular is 800/850 only there. So if you have a 1900 only unit I'd
say it wouldn't work. T-Mobile has 1900 but I doubt that you could
roam on their network since you're using prepaid. Once again you've
found some clueless rep at cingular who probably has no idea that
phones use different frequencies.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In article <[email protected]>,
Joseph <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>According to wirelessadvisor.com plugging in the ZIP code 32830
>cingular is 800/850 only there. So if you have a 1900 only unit I'd
>say it wouldn't work. T-Mobile has 1900 but I doubt that you could
>roam on their network since you're using prepaid.

Yeah, probably not. But I do notice that AT&T Wireless has both 800
and 1900 systems in that area. If the merger goes through before I
leave for WDW, wouldn't that mean that I'd have access to their
networks, too?


Patty

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Tue, 07 Sep 2004 23:58:53 GMT,
[email protected] (Patty Winter) wrote:

>In article <[email protected]>,
>Joseph <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>According to wirelessadvisor.com plugging in the ZIP code 32830
>>cingular is 800/850 only there. So if you have a 1900 only unit I'd
>>say it wouldn't work. T-Mobile has 1900 but I doubt that you could
>>roam on their network since you're using prepaid.
>
>Yeah, probably not. But I do notice that AT&T Wireless has both 800
>and 1900 systems in that area. If the merger goes through before I
>leave for WDW, wouldn't that mean that I'd have access to their
>networks, too?

Not necessarily.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

On Tue, 07 Sep 2004 23:58:53 GMT, [email protected] (Patty Winter)
wrote:

>In article <[email protected]>,
>Joseph <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>According to wirelessadvisor.com plugging in the ZIP code 32830
>>cingular is 800/850 only there. So if you have a 1900 only unit I'd
>>say it wouldn't work. T-Mobile has 1900 but I doubt that you could
>>roam on their network since you're using prepaid.
>
>Yeah, probably not. But I do notice that AT&T Wireless has both 800
>and 1900 systems in that area. If the merger goes through before I
>leave for WDW, wouldn't that mean that I'd have access to their
>networks, too?

The choice is yours. Who's to say that the merger will be complete
any time soon. Even if the merger happened tomorrow it's unlikely all
the switching or addition of the other's facilities would not happen
immediately. We're probably talking several months here not days or
weeks.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Patty,

Prepaid service does NOT roam and does not work outside of your home
service area. If Disney world is not in your home serivce area, even if
you had the correct phone, it would not work. the only way for you to
get service, perhaps to change to month to month contract national plan.

This would allow you to roam on T-mobils 1900 cellular network.

Good luck

Chip


Patty Winter wrote:
> I'm heading to Disney World in a couple of months and am trying
> to determine whether my Ericsson A2218Z (1900 MHz) phone (which
> is on a Cingular prepaid account) will work there. Cingular's
> prepaid coverage map shows Florida well covered, *but* it doesn't
> identify which areas are only covered with 850 MHz and which with
> 1900 MHz. I've read conflicting accounts about which frequencies
> are available around WDW. When I called Cingular customer service,
> the customer service rep said my phone should work, based on the map.
> But I'm not sure that she really understood the potential problem
> with a single-band phone, even though I told her that my phone was
> three years old.
>
> Does anyone here know for sure which frequencies are available
> to Cingular customers in the WDW area?
>
>
> Thanks!
> Patty
>
> p.s. Apologies to those of you who already saw this question in
> some other groups. I didn't find the Cingular-specific group in
> my initial hunt for relevant groups; someone just mentioned it
> to me.
>

I think I've finally gotten a definitive answer to my question.
I called Cingular customer service again and got the rep to
transfer me to tech support. The guy there said that Cingular's
network in Florida is both 850 and 1900 MHz GSM, so my phone will
be fine.

Here is the apparent source of the confusion: Until June, Cingular
only had an 850 MHz analog TDMA network. Then it was switched to
850/1900 GSM digital. So anyone who hadn't heard about the very
recent change would naturally think that Cingular was still only
850 in that area.

Because I have Cingular prepaid, my current account only works in
California and parts of Nevada and Washington. So I will have to
purchase a new SIM when I arrive in Orlando, but that won't cost
too much.

Thanks to everyone for your help in sorting this out. I'll post
a report in a few months after I return from Florida!


Patty

Ralph Blach <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Patty,
>
> Prepaid service does NOT roam and does not work outside of your home
> service area. If Disney world is not in your home serivce area, even if
> you had the correct phone, it would not work. the only way for you to
> get service, perhaps to change to month to month contract national plan.

As I mentioned in a follow-up to her post in alt.cellular, Cingular
apparently has a 1900MHz license in Tampa and Orlando now thanks to
their $1.4 billion acquisition of 34 Nextwave PCS licenses.


> This would allow you to roam on T-mobils 1900 cellular network.

No longer necessary, apparently...