A question for all of you: I have an old Nation plan with Cingular, 250 anytime, 3500 nights/weekends (9pm) for 29.99. No roaming. They have added GSM functionality to it and I use the T62u. I am out of contract. My brother had his own SPrint phone with 8 pm nights, which he gave up a little over a year or so when his company gave him a Sprint phone to use. My mother has a Verizon phone, which has been nothing but trouble in terms of battery life, etc. They don't seem to want to help all that much, since they always check it out and say it's fine. I find that hard to believe since one call will take the battery down from three bars to one. Whatever. Unfortunately, she got into a 2 yr contract and it is not over until April. She has gone over her minutes (400 monthly) once and had to pay penalites, which ticked her off since she is often WELL under. My dad does not have a phone at the moment. I was thinking about starting a new family plan. Both ATT and Cingular seem to have the best deal with plans starting at 59.99, since the additional lines drop for 19.99 to 9.99. With several additional lines, it is actually cheaper to have a more expensive base plan with cheaper add on lines. So here is my dilemma. I had planned to start a Cingular family plan in the spring when my mom gets out of contract. I like Cingular since my hospital has microcells by Cingular in it. Rollover seems pretty cool, too. I would buy a world phone, since we do travel outside the country. I wish I had known that my T62u is not a world phone! But ATT has some good offers as well. Their 59.99 plan has 900 anytime, versus Cingular's 850. 7 PM nights cost extra with Cingular but are free with ATT. I think since I may get several phones, I can work that and free mobile to mobile into a 1 year deal, though the website asks for a 2 yr contract (never!) ATT allows people to text message across the web for free, and the person receives for free as well. Very attractive. They will likely also waive activation fees. I wonder if the annoucement of the merger approval will drastically change the plan offers. I also wonder if they will stop ATT activations. And if I only get three phones at the moment, will I be locked out of adding a fourth in the spring? None of us need camera phones. I could buy from Amazon and then activate the plans locally. I am currently in Philadelphia, but would like the phones to have Buffalo numbers (my Cingular one does). I think we are looking for durable, solid world phones with great battery life and reception. I really don't need a camera in it. I'd like it to be light and small. My dad will need buttons that are easy to push. Bluetooth would be nice, but I don't know if I can use it at the moment, anyway! I thought of this since it might be a nice time to snap up an ATT deal. My use of the phone in the hospital should not be affected since ATT shares with Cingular anyway! What do you think? I would greatly appreciate your advice. I am posting this in the CIngular forum as well.
