I am a confussed AT&T / Cingular customer. Explain this to me. (unlocking illegal?)

I am an AT&T customer who has been dealing with Cingular since they have merged. I am still on an AT&T plan as Cingular could not match that plan without me having to pay much more $$$. As a matter of fact, they were able to IMPROVE my minutes from 600 to 1000 a month AT NO EXTRA CHARGE as long as I extended my current contract 2 years. I said, "let me get this straight.. I can't switch to Cingular for the same $$, but I can get a BETTER deal if I just extend my AT&T contract?? Sign me up!"

But that is not my confusion. I was talking to a Cingular rep today and he was telling me that the AT&T phones are on an older form of GSM and eventually I will need to switch over to a Cingular account because there just won't be any available phones. I asked him, "What about a newer GSM phone that is unlocked? Could I buy one of those and use it with my contract?" He kind of stumbled about it and said, "I really can't advise you about that. We don't know anything about those, I mean.. we know about those but we can't talk about it.".

I said, "OH, I get it.. it's not beneficial for you to discuss those with me."
He said, "There are a couple problems, #1 if the phone was not originally in AT&T's arsenal, one of us would not be able to troubleshoot them. And they are illegal".


I didn't think unlocking your phone was illegal. and I don't understand why if I have a Motorola V180 that was set up on AT&T.. what is so different about that V180 compared to a Motorola V180 that is being sold with NEW Cingular contracts?! What is the big technological difference??

So then if what the Cingular guy was telling me is true, and the AT&T phones are on a "first generation GSM" and the Cingular phones are on a newer GSM technology, why couldn't I purchase an unlocked "newer GSM phone" and be able to use that with my contract if it ever got to the point where my AT&T phone was having trouble?

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› See More: I am a confussed AT&T / Cingular customer. Explain this to me. (unlocking illegal?)

Illegal? No. Against Terms of Service? Maybe.

Be sure that they will provide NO Support if you have a problem using any of their services with an unlocked phone. That said, I had an unlocked phone on Cingular for a while without a problem. This only applies if you have a GSM phone and plan (anything within the last 2 or 3 years), if you have a CDMA phone, you're screwed because the phone sends out it's ID and that's how it links tot he account. You'd have to switch to a GSM Plan.

In terms of future... the rep was kind of correct. There are two cell frequencies in the US, 850 Mhz (Sometimes listed as GSM 800) and 1900 Mhz. AT&T used all 850, cingular uses all 1900. They are int he process of upgrading all the towers to 1900. If you are buying a phone that you plan on keeping a while, make sure it does both 850 and 1900 frequencies. This should ensure that you receive both towers, and you're new phone works.

See Phone scoop (phonescoop.com) to determine which frequencies a given phone uses.

Well the phones I have are Motorola V180's. Looking at specifications from CNet and other sites, it is a tri-band phone that works with GSM 900/1800/1900. Will that phone pick up any of those bands regardless of the SIM card or if the phone is "locked"?

In the US you would only pick up the 1900mhz band, so you're coverage area would be severely smaller than a phone that does both. Also, the 1900 band is worse inside buildings (the 850 Mhz range has a lot more power to go through walls and such). The phone will pick up this band regardless of the type of SIM card. Be advised however, if you had an "A" company SIM that only used 850, you would NEVER get reception (except for roaming on other carrier's towers).

Ideally, A tri-band phone in the US would be 850/*/1900, where * doesn't matter unless you travel outside the country.

I would avoid any phone without 850 and 1900 in the US, unless you don't need a lot of coverage inside buildings and never really leave the heavily populated city area.

We can unlock any cell phone or PDA locked to AT&T or Cingular at flat rate of 50 dollars per code.

We offer BULK quotes for reseller or cellphone store owners. So please contact us at 706-247-4464

to discuss further details.

For individual clients:

you can fill out the details of the phone and IMEI numbers at the following website:

http://www.globalgsmphones.com/UnlockProcessing.htm

we are professional and once we receive the request, then within 24-36 business hours you will

receive the unlock code with instructions.

We do not work on weekends. So keep that into consideration when ordering from us.

NOTE: Unlock code for latest models of phones or PDA will cost slight extra.

regards,

Vikas
Global GSM Phones, Inc.

you can do whatever you want with your phone, if you wanna melt it into a motorola puddle, you can, if you want to unlock it, you can, if you want to delete it and put it in your top drawer and never touch it again, you can. its your phone, just unlock it and dont tell them.