Cingular Area

I have been with Cingular before they were I was with AT&T until it changed. I had never had a problem when it was AT&T. I go to school in 2 hours away from my home where we have a cingular plan, I have had some problems making calls and a lot of dropped calls recently. I then got a letter saying that they are forcing me to terminate my contract because it is costing them a lot of money for me to use my phone there. So basically because I am at school more than 50% of my calling time I am now going to soon be out a cell phone and a plan...and right now I can afford what I have, but if I have to change I don't know if I will be able to. I think it is absolutely ridiculous. Now I need to figure out what cell phone company to go with...

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Well find out what cell phone carriers there are where you go to school.

If the other carrier is GSM, your options are:

Ask Cingular to unlock the phone before you leave them.

Get Post paid or prepaid plan with a new carrier that services where you go to school.

If there are no GSM carriers where you go to school, check into the options there and go with a new carrier.

No matter what carrier you go with, if you sign up as a new customer, you will get a new phone. Just don't get a plan that costs more than you are paying now, and you won't be paying any more.

I have the same problem in Texas. My whole rural area will be *terminated*. Once you get the letter you will have 35 days to get new service.
Now....if Cingular is so powerful...why don't they just put in their own towers and pick up more people?
I think it stinks that I've paid for phone and equipment and can't get anything back. They will graciously wave the termination fee!
I can't terminate them but they have no problem pulling the plug on me!
I'm having a hard time getting anything comparable in my small part of Texas.

I understand where you guys are coming from completely, I'd be upset if my plan was cancelled like that too.

The most ironic part of being rep for cingular is that people call in alllllll day long wanting to get out of their contracts so bad, and the EON (extended off network) people don't want to leave cingular. It's such an ironic situation.

On a positive note, there isn't an early termination fee, and you can definently get the unlock code from cingular before you are terminated.

What does it mean to have a unlock code for my cingular phone?

Originally Posted by househuntress

What does it mean to have a unlock code for my cingular phone?

GSM phones (Cingular and T-mobile are the major carriers in the U.S.) are locked to the carrier you bought it from. The sim card inside contains the info needed for you to use the service. You can take the sim card out and use it in any other phone from that carrier. In other words, you can buy a new phone and just move the card.
But the phone is still locked to the carrier. An unlock code will remove the carrier lock so that you can use the phone on any GSM carrier. Then all you have to do is to sign up with another GSM carrier and choose a free phone, then move your sim card to the old phone.
Note, you can not do this on the CDMA carriers such as Sprint and Verizon.
So, when you start looking for new service, check to see if they are GSM or CDMA.