[irunat2am]

I was thinking about possibly switching to Cingular, since my Verizon contract is over and I don't have to stay. BUT, did they recently raise the prices of their plans? I remember AT&T used to be one of the more expensive carriers, and now they own cingular (again).

I was looking through the pricing, and you have to pay an extra 1.99/month just to personalize your voicemail ("Hi, you've reached blah"). Is it not 2007? Extra money to just say your name on your voicemail message?

Just to show how plans in general have gone up, cause it blew my mind: My buddy got his cingular plan 2 years ago. 3,000 minutes for $39.99. That plan right now is around $150/month. Nutty

Anyway..if anybody has cingular, how do you like it?

[Captain Obvious]

AT&T has sucked since Cingular took them over a couple years ago.
The iPhone isn't worth having to put up with that service.


Tmobile has the best GSM service in the US and Verizon the best CDMA

[ghporter]

I have been with the same carrier since 1993 in two different areas. First it was "Cellular One," which was bought by AT&T Wireless. Cingular bought them out, and with the former SBC's purchase of the AT&T name, as well as majority ownership in Cingular with the purchase of Bell South, they chose to rename the whole shebang "AT&T." I have ALWAYS had great service with this carrier. I don't know precisely where Captain Obvious is located, but everywhere in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida and the Caribbean that I've been (I've been all over Texas and the Caribbean, and in some pretty remote areas elsewhere, like Enid, OK), I've had great service. Tmobile, on the other hand, doesn't bother to cover a lot of places I go. Sprint is worse at that-they barely cover major cities where I happen to be.

[MacosNerd]

I'm not surprised by them raising their prices especially in light of the excitement building over the iPhone.

If you go with Verizon you're going to be surprised that the similar plan (4,000 minutes) cost $150 or $170 depending on the package you choose, so don't jump shop purely on the fact that the package now costs 150 per month because other carriers are charging the same thing.

[Cold Warrior]

I have been using Sprint since 2003 across a number of states and metro areas. They are horrible. Reception, voice quality, dropped calls, everything. This is backed up by Consumer Reports latest cellular ratings placing Sprint routinely last in a number of areas, both technically and geographically.

[Captain Obvious]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I have ALWAYS had great service with this carrier. I don't know precisely where Captain Obvious is located, but everywhere in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida and the Caribbean that I've been (I've been all over Texas and the Caribbean, and in some pretty remote areas elsewhere, like Enid, OK), I've had great service.

Downtown chicago, right in the middle of the hotel and shopping district. So no, there's no possible way that it was lack of towers.

Once Cingular started to mess with the AT&T towers my service went to hell. Prior to that I had no complaints. Dropped calls became a frequent occurrence with Cingular and customer service went from apt to incompetent. And it wasn't just in my area. The same thing happened all over the city.

And they started adding charges for all sorts of random things on top of that once my contract expired and I kept using my AT&T phone. The plans now aren't so great compared to the other carriers.

[butterfly0fdoom]

We have both T-Mobile and AT&T in my family (because my mom doesn't think we should all be on the same network in case one network blacks out), and AT&T is better by far here in the SF Bay Area. There's at least 3 bars everywhere I go (whereas my mom's T-Mobile signal conks out a lot, so I really don't see how they're the best unless you're talking prices). I've been with AT&T since they were PacBell and I really don't intend to switch out since they're GSM and my experiences with them have been nothing short of splendid.

I've changed my voicemail message plenty of times, but I never was charged, so I'm wondering where you found that from. We never got any weird charges, either. The first AT&T/Cingular merger actually improved our signal and service, too.

And 2 years ago, there wasn't even that kind of 3000 minutes for $39.99 plan. T-Mobile had it, but AT&T didn't. Even then, there were no unlimited night and weekend minutes and no unlimited mobile to mobile; once you're out of the 3000 minutes, you're paying overage regardless of when you place your calls and who you call. That $150 plan would involve unlimited night and weekend minutes and unlimited mobile to mobile (and 4000 minutes, not 3000).

[irunat2am]

Originally Posted by butterfly0fdoom 

I've changed my voicemail message plenty of times, but I never was charged, so I'm wondering where you found that from.

That would be directly off of their website. Things have probably changed since you got your plan.

Originally Posted by butterfly0fdoom 

And 2 years ago, there wasn't even that kind of 3000 minutes for $39.99 plan. T-Mobile had it, but AT&T didn't.

I'm assuming that 2 years ago there was that type of plan, since that's what my friend has. He has one month left on that contract. He was just telling me about it 3 days ago. Granted, I don't have a copy of his bill to scan for you, but I'm sure he has much better things to do than lie to me about a cell phone plan. Maybe he got some sort of special promo. No biggie.

[alligator]

Look at it this way, is anyone really happy with their cell service? Nobody says "Wow, company XYZ just dropped their rates for the 5th time in a row! I'm only paying $5 a month!"

If it isn't reception, people will complain about dropped calls. If not that, they'll complain about text message fees. If not that, they will complain about poor phone choices. It never ends.

I look at it this way - what do you want to carry around with you? If you like a specific phone, like the iPhone, buy it. Personally, I like Apple. I will buy the iPhone because I want the latest and greatest. So I'll put up with Cingular like any other carrier just to have the phone.

[greenG4]

Cingular is the 4th cellular compny I have dealt with. They are the first one I actually renewed my contract with. Savy? Sorry...just saw Pirates 3....

[irunat2am]

Originally Posted by greenG4 

Cingular is the 4th cellular compny I have dealt with. They are the first one I actually renewed my contract with. Savy? Sorry...just saw Pirates 3....

Good flick? Haven't headed out to see it yet.

[greenG4]

Originally Posted by irunat2am 

Good flick? Haven't headed out to see it yet.

I thought so. I don't care what the critics say. Critics are idiots. It was the best of all 3.

[ink]

I have Cingular now, but am thinking about moving to T-Mobile when my contract is up in the fall. The reason I want to switch is the liberal data plans that T-Mobile offers. I used to use Verizon until they told me I couldn't use many bluetooth features on my phone without paying more money.

[IceEnclosure]

To the OP.. you're spreading FUD man..

Voicemail | AT&T wireless services

[IceEnclosure]

Originally Posted by ink 

I have Cingular now, but am thinking about moving to T-Mobile when my contract is up in the fall. The reason I want to switch is the liberal data plans that T-Mobile offers. I used to use Verizon until they told me I couldn't use many bluetooth features on my phone without paying more money.

Verizon ****s all their phones up, especially interface and bluetooth. Bad moves.

T-Mobile's only draw is their cheap data plans.

AT&T's great if you're down to pay. I have 900 anytime minutes(and about 3000 rollover minutes!!), UNLIMITED AT&T to AT&T calls, UNLIMITED Nights and Weekends, UNLIMITED 3G Internet from my Blackjack Smartphone, Unlimited SMS and MMS. I pay just a lil over $100 a month and I'll never ever go over.

[Angus_D]

If I was in the US, I'd be tempted to go with Helio.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Captain Obvious 

Tmobile has the best GSM service in the US and Verizon the best CDMA

Statements like that are only really valid within areas.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Captain Obvious 

Downtown chicago, right in the middle of the hotel and shopping district. So no, there's no possible way that it was lack of towers.

I think Downtown Chicago has the highest tower density of any U.S. city. Cellular STARTED in Chicago, in fact. But... Having all those tall buildings, a bazillion towers (many of them (let's be nice) showing their age), and a mix of FOUR different, incompatible (both hardware and signal) radio systems in a relatively small physical area guarantees radio coverage problems, interference, dropped calls, etc. It's NOT "the" system, it's "all the systems poured into a big pot and stirred." Cingular is not the only poor performer in Chigao, and Tmobile's "superiority" there is most likely its specific channel allocation, not its system overall.

[typoon]

I've also never had any issues with Cingular. Also I LOVE the rollover minutes. Their customer service is also great from my experiences with them.

[irunat2am]

Originally Posted by IceEnclosure 

To the OP.. you're spreading FUD man..

Voicemail | AT&T wireless services

Included Services: Basic Voicemail

Enhanced Voicemail - $1.99/month: Whether you're in a meeting or on the other line, you can't always answer your calls. Let voicemail take a message. Get the most from your voicemail by knowing its features and benefits, and how it works.

* Never miss a call
* Receive fast voicemail alerts
* Personalize your greeting

That's what I'm going off of. I'm assuming that is exactly what I think it is, because what other greeting would you ever need to setup in your voicemail?

[CharlesS]

Well, I'm with Cingular/AT&T/whatever we're supposed to call it now, on the basic 450 minute plan since about two years ago, and I was able to set a personalized greeting without having to add anything to my plan, so unless something's changed in the last two years, I think you shouldn't have to worry about that.

edit: I just clicked the link, and I don't even see the text you're quoting there. Where are you getting that from?

[irunat2am]

Charles:

Get Started | AT&T, formerly Cingular Wireless

Click on the services tab, then scroll to the bottom. If you click the "enhanced voicemail" link it'll show you the text I quoted.

I actually hope I'm wrong, but if it walks like a duck

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

Well, I'm with Cingular/AT&T/whatever we're supposed to call it now, on the basic 450 minute plan since about two years ago

Have you been satisfied with their service/quality?

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by irunat2am 

Charles:

Get Started | AT&T, formerly Cingular Wireless

Click on the services tab, then scroll to the bottom. If you click the "enhanced voicemail" link it'll show you the text I quoted.

I actually hope I'm wrong, but if it walks like a duck

Okay, found it. Here's how I interpret it. This section is just talking about voicemail in general:

Whether you're in a meeting or on the other line, you can't always answer your calls. Let voicemail take a message. Get the most from your voicemail by knowing its features and benefits, and how it works.
Never miss a call
Receive fast voicemail alerts
Personalize your greeting

and now we get to the "enhanced" voice mail:

Enhanced Voicemail doubles your message capacity from 20 to 40 messages, increases your message length by 1 minute and adds 7 more days of storage time. You can also send messages to groups and use member lists for added convenience.

Basically, enhanced voicemail just looks like something to let you store a few more voicemails and save them for 21 days like with Verizon.

At any rate, I don't have enhanced voicemail, and I can personalize the greeting just fine. So YMMV I guess, but I'd say no worries.

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

Have you been satisfied with their service/quality?

It's all right I guess. The sound quality does not seem as good as Verizon's was - you get occasional pops and blips in the sound every once in a while, even in a place that has perfect reception. The other thing is that at the time I switched, Verizon had a bunch of holes in the area where I lived where Cingular worked fine. Cingular had some holes too, but Verizon had the same holes - there were just a few buildings in which pretty much no cell phones worked. In the two years since I signed up, Verizon added some towers, fixing the holes that pissed me off, and also fixing the holes that they used to share with Cingular. Cingular, OTOH, has stayed pretty much the same since I signed up. That's the difference between VZW and Cingular as far as I can tell - Verizon improves their network, Cingular doesn't. I think the problem with Cingular is that they're always involved in some merger or other, and due to having to pay for all the ramifications of that, they don't have the money to fix their network. I read an article in my university's newspaper a couple of months ago describing a plan by the university to bribe^H^H^H^H^Hsubsidize the cell phone companies to fix the coverage on campus in the places where formerly nothing worked, and now only Verizon does. Oh, and Cingular's support staff are indeed idiots.

Oh well, at least they let you use all the features of their phones.

If you do go Cingular/ATT, I'd recommend you get a phone that can do 3G. Cingular is setting up their 3G network using UTMS and HSPDA, which are based on CDMA rather than the inferior GSM technology, which should hopefully get rid of the pops and blips, along with a multitude of other issues with GSM, if you live in an area that has 3G coverage. Unfortunately, Cing/ATT trails way behind Verizon in rolling out 3G (admittedly, Verizon uses EV-DO, which AFAIK isn't as good as HSPDA, so Cing/ATT's 3G service should be better in the places where it does exist). Unfortunately, the iPhone is not a 3G-enabled phone.

edit: the most important thing to do if you're planning to switch carriers is check the coverage map to make sure you have good coverage where you live and work. Make sure the coverage is Best or Good. If it says Moderate, run away. It helps to know what these labels on the map really mean. Here it is:

Best - your phone will work outside, and it might work inside, although this isn't guaranteed (all the places on my campus where Cingular doesn't work inside are labeled as "Best" on the map ).

Good - your phone will work outside, and might work inside if you stand next to a window.

Moderate - your phone will not work at all.

My two cents.

[IceEnclosure]

I didn't say so before, but I love the coverage here in South Florida with Cingular.

[Nodnarb]

I just checked the coverage map for my area.

My actual house is located in a moderate section, but literally 2 streets down has "best" connection? I currently have verizon, and my house has never been great for service (it still works, just has fewer bars).

My contract with verizon ends this month, and I've been planning on switching to cingular next month to get the iPhone.

Is there a way to like test a cingular phone to see how it actually works around here, since the map is so varied?

[butterfly0fdoom]

You could go buy a prepaid cellphone to try out the network. You'll end up with a secondary phone, too.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by Nodnarb 

I just checked the coverage map for my area.

My actual house is located in a moderate section, but literally 2 streets down has "best" connection? I currently have verizon, and my house has never been great for service (it still works, just has fewer bars).

My contract with verizon ends this month, and I've been planning on switching to cingular next month to get the iPhone.

Is there a way to like test a cingular phone to see how it actually works around here, since the map is so varied?

Easiest way is to ask your friends if any of them have Cingular, and have one come over and try it if they do.

If your house is in a "Moderate" area, I'd definitely try it before signing away on a 2-year contract. I've had bad luck even with buildings in "Good" and "Best" areas.

One thing to note is that you can get by on low bars with CDMA, the technology used by Verizon, Sprint, and Alltel, but Cingular uses a different technology called GSM which does not work nearly as well in low-coverage areas. In particular, if you only get one bar in your house, watch out. With Cingular, you will get a huge number of dropped calls, audio problems such as static on the line, and "Call Failed" errors with only one bar of reception due to the fact that GSM can't amplify the signal in a low-coverage area like CDMA can.

[Nodnarb]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

Easiest way is to ask your friends if any of them have Cingular, and have one come over and try it if they do.

If your house is in a "Moderate" area, I'd definitely try it before signing away on a 2-year contract. I've had bad luck even with buildings in "Good" and "Best" areas.

One thing to note is that you can get by on low bars with CDMA, the technology used by Verizon, Sprint, and Alltel, but Cingular uses a different technology called GSM which does not work nearly as well in low-coverage areas. In particular, if you only get one bar in your house, watch out. With Cingular, you will get a huge number of dropped calls, audio problems such as static on the line, and "Call Failed" errors with only one bar of reception due to the fact that GSM can't amplify the signal in a low-coverage area like CDMA can.

Very interesting. I do know someone with cingular, and they've been to my house before and IIRC have had no issues with their phone. I will explain to them the situation and see if we can test it out sometime over here just to check it all out.

I did not know the difference between GSM and CDMA with the low bars though, and that makes a lot of sense because with verizon, my phone can go back and forth between 1 bar and no service, but when a call comes through it sounds just fine. I'll definetely check it out, I'd be dissapointed if I couldn't get the iPhone just because of cingular/at&t's crappy service. thanks for the advice.

[Captain Obvious]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I think Downtown Chicago has the highest tower density of any U.S. city. Cellular STARTED in Chicago, in fact. But... Having all those tall buildings, a bazillion towers (many of them (let's be nice) showing their age), and a mix of FOUR different, incompatible (both hardware and signal) radio systems in a relatively small physical area guarantees radio coverage problems, interference, dropped calls, etc. It's NOT "the" system, it's "all the systems poured into a big pot and stirred." Cingular is not the only poor performer in Chigao, and Tmobile's "superiority" there is most likely its specific channel allocation, not its system overall.

As I said, it wasn't an issue until Cingular merged with ATT. They added no new towers but once they began to screw with the ATT towers the service became horrible. Not just downtown but all over the city including in the less dense outlying areas. 2 and 3 band ATT phones that had previously gotten good service and reception became unreliable.
All four radio systems existed in relative harmony around here until Cingular took over ATT. It was their new "system" not the convergence of all the signals in a small area.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by Nodnarb 

Very interesting. I do know someone with cingular, and they've been to my house before and IIRC have had no issues with their phone. I will explain to them the situation and see if we can test it out sometime over here just to check it all out.

Great idea. If their phone turns out to work fine, then you can go ahead and switch without having to worry about it.

Make sure you do a thorough test, being sure to check places like your basement and areas that are far away from windows, so you know exactly how well it'll work in your house.

If it works well in an area marked Moderate, then I will be somewhat surprised, but I will admit the possibility that Cingular's coverage map could simply be more honest in your area than it is in mine.

I did not know the difference between GSM and CDMA with the low bars though, and that makes a lot of sense because with verizon, my phone can go back and forth between 1 bar and no service, but when a call comes through it sounds just fine.

Yeah, what happens is that the CDMA phone amplifies the signal. This, of course, consumes more power, so it eats up your battery life. But your call doesn't drop. This is why you often see the GSM fanboys go on about how CDMA sucks because it has a lower battery life. Well, I don't know about you, but I'd rather take a slight hit to the battery than drop my call, but that's just me.

[Cold Warrior]

By "amplifies" I assume we're just talking about jacking up the output wattage of the phone?

[Rumor]

I've been with AT&T since about '98 or so. Throughout the years, I have tried Verizon, Sprint and MCI (a long time ago), so far, I've been pretty damn happy with AT&T/Cingular. I only have the 450 anytime plan, 5000 nights and weekends and have a whole lot of rollover minutes that I will probably never use. I also have Answer Tones, all runs me about $44 and change monthly.

Edit: I live in the sticks where if you call Cingular or check their website, I supposedly am in a non-coverage area.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

By "amplifies" I assume we're just talking about jacking up the output wattage of the phone?

Yeah, I think so. Unfortunately, I can't find the original place I found this anymore (I think it was on HowardForums somewhere). But it jives with experiences pretty closely - with Cingular, I've got to have at least two bars to be able to reliably make calls without worrying about them dropping, whereas with Verizon it worked perfectly with one or zero bars, although doing so would chew up the battery life.

[bstone]

Cingular/ATT says that the ENTIRE state of W Virginia and area of Northern CA doesn't exist.

Didn't help I spent a month of summer vacation at each location two summers in a row. All my friend with Verizon were talking away like nothing. I fired Cingular.

[ghporter]

According to their broadband coverage map they acknowledge much of WV and all but about three counties in Northern CA (were you in Humboldt County? the map is blank there). Verizon, on the other hand, doesn't provide such a tool, so I can't compare directly. Their so-called coverage in Texas was ONLY in large cities. Since I travel to some out of the way places here (you really don't want to do a Renaissance Faire in downtown Houston), that wasn't an option. Cingular/AT&T, on the other hand, makes good use of their triband capabilities, and I get coverage in the hamlet of Todd Mission (home of The Texas Renaissance Festival) and just about everywhere else people are.

[Mrjinglesusa]

Originally Posted by irunat2am 

Charles:

Get Started | AT&T, formerly Cingular Wireless

Click on the services tab, then scroll to the bottom. If you click the "enhanced voicemail" link it'll show you the text I quoted.

I actually hope I'm wrong, but if it walks like a duck

Clearly, you have reading comprehension problems. They are NOT charging $1.99 just for adding your name to your voicemail.

Whether you're in a meeting or on the other line, you can't always answer your calls. Let voicemail take a message. Get the most from your voicemail by knowing its features and benefits, and how it works.
Never miss a call
Receive fast voicemail alerts
Personalize your greeting
Enhanced Voicemail doubles your message capacity from 20 to 40 messages, increases your message length by 1 minute and adds 7 more days of storage time. You can also send messages to groups and use member lists for added convenience.

[bstone]

I also got an external Wilson Antenna for my new Verizon phone which is great when I am camping in the forest with friends. I get like 1 bar and they get none.

Glenn, I was in Modoc County, which is in N Cali. The town was Alturas, which was pretty big (for the area) and Verizon worked there.

[Mrjinglesusa]

I have Cingular (now AT&T) and have had no problems. Reception is great, customer service is great, coverage is great. I can't remember the last time I was in an area I didn't have coverage. Even worked for me in the Bahamas.

I have 1600 Family minutes, Roll-over, UNLIMITED AT&T to AT&T calling, UNLIMITED long distance, UNLIMITED Nights & Weekends, and the Data Service plan for by Treo. Costs just over $100 a month.

Yes, I will be buying the iPhone in about 3 weeks.

[Velocity211]

For where I live (Northern VA), Cingular has the best reception out of all the carriers available here. I have a SE W600i.

[irunat2am]

Originally Posted by Mrjinglesusa 

Clearly, you have reading comprehension problems. They are NOT charging $1.99 just for adding your name to your voicemail.

I love you, too. Thanks for trying to go above and beyond, and being so nice about it in the process.

Let me help you out: I would ONLY want to change my greeting out of all of those options, therefore, I would be charged $1.99 just to change my greeting. Make sense?

It's ridiculous to group personalizing your greeting into an extra service charge like that.

I've been able to change my greeting for free since what..early 90's? Seems a little strange to have to pay for it.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by irunat2am 

I love you, too. Thanks for trying to go above and beyond, and being so nice about it in the process.

Let me help you out: I would ONLY want to change my greeting out of all of those options, therefore, I would be charged $1.99 just to change my greeting. Make sense?

It's ridiculous to group personalizing your greeting into an extra service charge like that.

I've been able to change my greeting for free since what..early 90's? Seems a little strange to have to pay for it.

[irunat2am]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

[butterfly0fdoom]

Originally Posted by irunat2am 

I love you, too. Thanks for trying to go above and beyond, and being so nice about it in the process.

Let me help you out: I would ONLY want to change my greeting out of all of those options, therefore, I would be charged $1.99 just to change my greeting. Make sense?

It's ridiculous to group personalizing your greeting into an extra service charge like that.

I've been able to change my greeting for free since what..early 90's? Seems a little strange to have to pay for it.

You know what? How about you go into an AT&T store and ASK THEM FOR YOURSELF> None of us work for them. All of us are telling you that none of us have been charged for changing our voice mail message. IF you choose to believe the website over us, FINE. But you DON'T have to harp that at us constantly. If you want answers, you should be asking someone who actually WORKS for AT&T, NOT people who just use them.

[irunat2am]

Originally Posted by butterfly0fdoom 

You know what? How about you go into an AT&T store and ASK THEM FOR YOURSELF> None of us work for them. All of us are telling you that none of us have been charged for changing our voice mail message. IF you choose to believe the website over us, FINE. But you DON'T have to harp that at us constantly. If you want answers, you should be asking someone who actually WORKS for AT&T, NOT people who just use them.

Are you okay? I'm not 'harping' anything at you. I've been responding to threads to clarify where I got the info, since nobody could seem to find it. And yes I put my opinion (sorry if that offends you). You have also all been in contracts forever and plans change constantly with carriers. So no, maybe you don't pay for it.

This is also a thread about their service and reliability and I've been reading everyones responses to that, also.

No reason to get heated.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by irunat2am 

Are you okay? I'm not 'harping' anything at you. I've been responding to threads to clarify where I got the info, since nobody could seem to find it. And yes I put my opinion (sorry if that offends you). You have also all been in contracts forever and plans change constantly with carriers. So no, maybe you don't pay for it.

Yeah, and we already pointed out not only that we don't pay for it, but that you're reading the damn site wrong. The first part of the page that says this:

Whether you're in a meeting or on the other line, you can't always answer your calls. Let voicemail take a message. Get the most from your voicemail by knowing its features and benefits, and how it works.
Never miss a call
Receive fast voicemail alerts
Personalize your greeting

is just talking about voice mail in general. Or do you think that Enhanced Voicemail is required to "let voicemail take a message"? Or to "never miss a call"? Or to receive alerts that you've got voicemail?!

It doesn't start talking about Enhanced Voicemail until you get here:

Enhanced Voicemail doubles your message capacity from 20 to 40 messages, increases your message length by 1 minute and adds 7 more days of storage time. You can also send messages to groups and use member lists for added convenience.

The difference between VM and EVM is that EVM lets you store more and longer voicemails. Period.

Heck, early on in the thread someone even posted this link to the website that states the differences much more clearly, and even gives you a nice table. Here it is again, for your reference. Nothing there about personalized greetings.

But yeah, if you're so dead-set on this, then maybe the previous poster is right, and you should go talk to someone at an ATT/Cingular store about this. It certainly would be less frustrating than making us say the same stuff over and over in this thread.

[butterfly0fdoom]

Originally Posted by irunat2am 

Are you okay? I'm not 'harping' anything at you. I've been responding to threads to clarify where I got the info, since nobody could seem to find it. And yes I put my opinion (sorry if that offends you). You have also all been in contracts forever and plans change constantly with carriers. So no, maybe you don't pay for it.

This is also a thread about their service and reliability and I've been reading everyones responses to that, also.

No reason to get heated.

It's not your opinion that bothers me. It's your ATTITUDE.

[Krusty]

Had basically great service with Cingular for about 4 yrs now. They and Verizon have the best coverage around here but I hate hate hate Verizon's phone choices and their non-global-friendly CDMA network. Both of these companies do cost more in pure dollars-per-minute but have the perks of a bigger company/network too. Cing has rollover, unlimited M2M, and there are no roaming charges ... if you can grab any signal, you are NOT roaming. I'm on a now-unavailable $29.99 plan that includes 250 minutes + 5000 NW. Add $24.99 for Media Max (unlimited internet) + unlimited cing-to-cing text messaging and 200 msgs to others and I got myself one heckuva deal for about $60/mo including tax (I do 5-800 text messsages per month but most all of them are with my g/f who also has cingular). The only thing I don't like is that their data/messaging options are screwed up as far as price and they bundle things inconveniently so that you get "sold up" to more than you need a lot of times (e.g. you can pay $5 for 200 messages or $20 for unlimited but no interim step. You can get 1500 messages .. but only if you bundle in some useless amount of internet with it).

[Nodnarb]

What I'm praying for is that Apple/AT&T have an entirely new pricing structure for the iPhone service. Like unlimited everything for $X per month. And X= <50. (Hopefully way less).

I don't see Apple allowing AT&T to keep it's current price structure, with as many rules as Apple has gotten them to change and Apple's love for use, there would be too many issues/hidden charges/etc. with a non-standardized plan.

[Krusty]

Originally Posted by Nodnarb 

What I'm praying for is that Apple/AT&T have an entirely new pricing structure for the iPhone service. Like unlimited everything for $X per month. And X= <50. (Hopefully way less).

They have an unlimited everything plan called Media Max Unlimited which is unlimited internet + unlimited messaging for $39.99 + whatever-your-phone-plan is. That, plus a nice $39.99 voice plan + maybe the $8.99 early NW addition would make you weigh in at $89 + tax = approx $96 - $98/mo. Augment as your voice needs warrant.