A question for all of you: I apologize for the cross posting, but I wasn't sure how many are reading the Carrier forums. 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.
No one really knows what will be offered after the merger, but if I were in your place, I think that I would wait and get a contract post merger. I base my answer on several possibilities. 1) I think that competition with Verizon will heat up post merger. You may be able to get a really good deal with Verizon post merger 2) The deals that are being offered by ATT, now, are made available with full knowledge that a merger is very probable. I do not think that they are offering anything that will not be continued post merger. 3) Finally, I think that immediately after the merger is finalized, there will be sales asking users to "Join the Celebration of two great companies" etc. Similar to a closing out sale. Bottom line no one knows, but I do not think that you will get hurt to wait, which would be my course of action. Wishing you a good deal.
I think Verizon will offer better deals so they can be #1 again If Cingular lower rates of plan minutes. Verizon will give even better deals. Verizon had great deals Christmas 2000 and 2001, but once they became #1 in customer growth those great deals started not to be as great.
At least in my area, AT&T phones are more expensive than Cingular except for the low end promotional phones. I am in my trial period with Cingular, switching from Verizon. The only thing that really annoys me with Cingular is that their customer service has limited hours and is closed entirely on Sunday. They do have an emergency number for Sundays but I called and waited 20 minutes on hold before hanging up. If AT&T had cheaper phones, I might go with them. Anyway, soon they will be one and even if you have a contract, you will be able to renew and switch to whatever the promotional offer is.
Why wait? You can always change plans at anytime, so if you see something you like with ATT now, grab it! Once the merger completes, you will be able to change to a Cingular plan at anytime if something better comes along.
of course she got charged for going over the minutes. thats how it works with all carriers. why would she be mad at verizon for that? she is the one who went over her minutes. they didnt force her to use extra minutes. maybe a cingular rollover plan would better suit her needs since she obviously varies her usage month to month.
I was not complaining about that. Of course there would be charges for going over. THe industry has a unique pricing structure. After all, isn't "peak and off peak" rather arbitrary? The reason I made that comment was to say perhaps Cingular's rollover would be better, or even Sprint's Fair and Flexible. She was just kind of annoyed at all the peak minutes that had gone unused over the prior year and a bit.
So here's what I did! I found a good offer with ATT, so I signed it. They seem to be eager to keep signing up customers. Once you lock into a contract, you will not be bumped by Cingular. I have been happy with Cingular, so I don't mind that I am basically still a Cingular customer, though a "blue" one. I signed up for a famliy plan, 4 phones. It's a national plan. 1450 anytime minutes. Unlimited nights and weekends, starting at 7. No activation fee. Two V505, 55 dollars each. Two V220, both free. Free incoming text. Free mobile to mobile, including both ATT and Cingular. I bought two car chargers for the price of one. The price is 84 dollars a month, plus taxes. The only thing I do not like is that the phones are locked. I will have to see how to unlock them. I am debating whether I should have taken the plan with 1035 anytime minutes, all else the same, for 72 a month (plus all those wonderful taxes, of course). A question for all of you-- how can I transfer all the contacts from my Cingular SIM onto my new phone? Will I first have to get it unlocked, or can they do this at an ATT store? And how long should I really charge the phones before using them? I don't want to screw up the batteries! I will have to see what to do with my mom's Verizon phone. I guess I will have to drop it to the minimum plan for the next few mos. Thanks for the advice. I think I locked in a pretty good deal. And if I want to change plans, I am sure Cingular will let me.
Re: So here's what I did! The AT&T store should be able to transfer your numbers for you. If not, get your new phone unlocked. I think it's good to charge a battery at least 12 hours before using it, and then use it untill it shuts itself off. From then on use it like you normally would.
yeah, the rollever probably would be the best thing for her since the usage seems to fluctuate a bit. i should have rollover too, but i dont think showing up for work at a verizon agent nd having a cingular phone would go over very well!!! a few friends of mine use cingular rollover plans and have nothing but billing problems. for example, if they have 500 min leftover, only 1/2 ever rolls over for them and they assume that all 500 rolled over. well, they end up going over their mnutes anyway because they were under the impression that ALL the minutes would roll over for them. this is happening monthly to two of my friends and a few other people i know have encountered this problem.
