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AT&T Wireless and Cingular Merger |
kierankyllo
Joined: Nov 09, 2004
Posts: 1
PM |
Currently at&t wireless customers are being bought out by cingular. As of nov 15 2004 current at&t customers will not be able to make rate plan changes or perform phone upgrades on both the digital and gsm at&t networks. This is because cingular hgas decided to not offer these plans and phones anymore. Instead former at&t customers "legacy" customers will be "force migrated" to cingular plans on the cingular national and regional networks. All fina and good if you are happy with gsm coverage in your area, shit deal if digital currently has better coverage in your home town. (in most cases).
The REALLY bad news is that current gsm at&t customers will not be also to use their current gsm phones with cingular's network and will be forced to buy a cingular phone that uses 64K sim technology, incompatible with the old at&t phones, (or so i have heard from cingular)
Does anyone know if their is any truth to the incompatibility of the phones across networks? I am familiar with phone unlocking but is it true that the sim could make the phones for cingular proprietary equipment?
please continue this thread as it will no doubt become heated.
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Rune
Joined: Oct 15, 2004
Posts: 9
PM |
Currently using a K700i here the Sacramento, CA area with no problems as an AT&T customer. It "roams" to both networks depending on which tower is stronger. As you know the K700 is a 900 not 850 GSM phone and had no problems. Haven't received any of this news from AT&T so far.
'Luck |
knight4led
Joined: May 27, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Califonia, USA
PM |
The only possible situation I could see Cingular requiring a change of phone is if there is a locked AT&T phone that Cingular has never supported. From experience though, AT&T and Cingular have offered many similar phones, and since the announcement of the buyout months ago, they now offer nearly identical phones.
AT&T has only been offering GSM for about 2 years, so the phones they have couldn't be that old and incompatible. I don't think you should be too worried about replacing hardware. Cingular may replace your SIM, but thats a minor issue. |
RichLok
Joined: Jun 06, 2002
Posts: 331
From: Los Angeles, CA
PM |
AT&T customers are able to roam on Cingular's network without unlocking their phones. The only way AT&T customers are 'forced' to buy cingular phones and have cingular rate plans are if they wish to have a cingular rate plan or phone. Otherwise, they can stick to AT&T until they plan to upgrade.
Here's a quote from one of my co-workers @ cingular regarding SIM lock and subsidy lock:
Think of it as roaming. The subsidy lock only controls which SIMs the phone can accept, not where the phone will pick up service. That is a function of the network. Jamie briefly mentioned the LACs. The reason ATT subs couldn’t roam on our network before was because there were LAC restrictions set up on our network to prevent it. Being able to roam locally is referred to as home-on-home roaming, which we have never really had to do here with the exception of the Washington (Seattle, Spokane) areas. However, it is much more common back east.
Also, we don’t need to give the ATT customers a new SIM, we just need to open up our network locally. We can put their SIM numbers into our inventory if we need to, but depends on how we will treat the conversion, i.e. bring them to Telegence or if they stay on whatever platform they use now.
Anyhow, hope this clears things up. Let me know if you have any questions.
[ This Message was edited by: RichLok on 2004-11-09 20:10 ] |
Residentevil
Joined: Feb 29, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Raccoon City, USA
PM, WWW
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Cingular is gonna have RAZR V3 and S710a exclusive.
http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/5513.html
Tough times don't last, tough people do!
Free Tibet |
RichLok
Joined: Jun 06, 2002
Posts: 331
From: Los Angeles, CA
PM |
The s710a would be news to me because it's not official yet. The v3 is already out and it is exclusive. Pricing is incorrect though.
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SsTiTcH
Joined: Nov 08, 2004
Posts: 173
From: Kyoto.Singapore,Malaysia
PM |
Glad im not on either cingular or at&t .. Their both bolloxed.. Would take vodafraud over either of them. Luckily i dont ave to worry bout it an can use my phone anywhere as its unlocked and unbranded...
This message was posted from a K700i |
MJdub
Joined: May 07, 2004
Posts: 63
From: Who's going with me?
PM |
I agree that there shouldn't be any compatibility problems. I have AT&T and in the area I live in currently I am on the AT&T network but when I'm at work my phone says Cingular because the antennas up here are Cingular. If AT&T's current phones will be incompatible then Cingular's current phones will be too. Maybe Cingular is planning on giving everybody new SIM cards but it would be their expense and I doubt it. That price in the article is definitely wrong! Lol $249 for a Razr? Sign me up! Not for a while in this country. I can't wait to get an S710 for a decent price though! @Stitch, since you think that Cingular and AT&T are "bolloxed" I'm curious what network you are on, since besides T-Mobile they are pretty much the only major GSM networks in the US. Are you even in the US? I don't think they even have Cingular or AT&T anywhere besines North America. If I'm not mistaken, Vodafone in the US is Verizon, which is CDMA (f**k that)! So why are AT&T/Cingular so bad, and what's better?
[ This Message was edited by: MJdub on 2004-11-09 21:12 ] |
SsTiTcH
Joined: Nov 08, 2004
Posts: 173
From: Kyoto.Singapore,Malaysia
PM |
Travel between uk..america and japan .. Use t-mob in america..
This message was posted from a K700i |
knight4led
Joined: May 27, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Califonia, USA
PM |
Rich's document clearly puts the price with contract for the RAZR at much higher than $249. I would trust Rich cause he works for Cingular.
It also seems to me that Rich has cleared up the rumor that Cingular will strong arm AT&T subscribers into buying new phones.
If this whole merger goes well and the network improves I will be happier than ever to be on Cingular. |
RichLok
Joined: Jun 06, 2002
Posts: 331
From: Los Angeles, CA
PM |
AT&T customers won't see much difference except for a different brand and improved coverage. Most of the chaos will happen internally (as I can already see). Best bet is, whether you have an AT&T or Cingular phone, make sure that you have a US Dual band or tri-band phone (850-1900mhz) to get the best coverage. Quick FYI: AT&T customers calling Cingular customers will get billed @ m2m rate (if you have that option) not anytime minutes. |
MJdub
Joined: May 07, 2004
Posts: 63
From: Who's going with me?
PM |
Ahh I see. I was wondering how someone could compare AT&T to Vodafone  I am also curious to see what will happen after the 15th, because I've been waiting to see what phones the different companies are going to offer (once the new phones show up on the crappy US phone market). Since I have no contract now I was considering moving to T-Mobile or Cingular but nobody has any good phones yet.... |
RichLok
Joined: Jun 06, 2002
Posts: 331
From: Los Angeles, CA
PM |
Well, we will have exclusive rights to the v3 for a few months. We have the mpX220 and the v551. The a630 may become available (through cingular.com only) and we should see the z500a and s710a soon. We've just launched the Nokia 6230 and possibly, might see the 7610 soon. We'll be launching a flurry of phones in the coming quarter too ensure we minimize the loss of customers and attract new ones this holiday season. |
MJdub
Joined: May 07, 2004
Posts: 63
From: Who's going with me?
PM |
True, Cingular does have a few high-end phones and certainly has a better selection than most US vendors. I guess I'm just bitter that so many great phones have come out all over the world in the last year and I haven't seen them in the US. That definitely is a nice batch coming soon and I look forward to phone-shopping in the new future. Thanks for all the great information! |
RichLok
Joined: Jun 06, 2002
Posts: 331
From: Los Angeles, CA
PM |
Anytime. I understand where you're coming from about our phone selection but it's been discussed here (Esato) many times. I'm using an s700c (Chinese) because I couldn't wait until December for the s710a. Cingular is also very strict in product testing (compared to AT&T and T-mobile). One of the reasons why they're last in bringing out the high end phones. |
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Posted: 2004-11-09 20:16
