vB Easy Archive - Old AT&T (blue) wireless customer, can't get any lovin from "new" AT&T

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Old AT&T (blue) wireless customer, can't get any lovin from "new" AT&T
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Posted by: brownnugen

So, I signed up for wireless service with AT&T back in 2002 before they merged with Cingular. I have a plan with 650 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends and mobile to mobile for only about $34/month (military discount). We have an old school candy bar style Nokia 6010 phone that my wife loves because it gets awesome reception.

Well, she accidentally got some water on the phone and now some of the buttons do not work anymore. I went on my local craigslist and found a cingular 6010 phone. I am thinking that this will work out great, but when I put the old AT&T SIM card in the Cingular phone, I got an error that said something like "user restricted" and it only gives me an option on entering some code (which the owner of the other phone had no clue about).

When I called AT&T, they say that it is because my SIM card is on the old AT&T (blue) plan and the phone is on the orange plan, therefore they are not compatible. Seems like the "new" AT&T is trying to phase out all of the "blue" plans and have people buy into the "orange" plans. The problem is, my blue plan is great and I can't find one comparable to it under the orange plans.

So, what are my options. The only thing I can think of is:
1) Try to find an old phone that was originally used for the old AT&T blue plans.
2) Switch over to the orange plans (new 2 year contract, plan with less minutes, more expensive)

When I spoke to another customer service rep, she said that AT&T was going to start cutting off service to people with the old blue plans. When I asked her for more details, she said that they are in the process of tearing down the old towers, and that pretty soon, my number (cell phone) will not show up on other people's caller ID and eventually, they will not be able to hear me when I talk to them. When I asked her for this in writing, she said that she couldn't do that because this was something new. So, I'm not sure if she is telling me the truth or if she was just trying to use some sort of sales pressure tactic to get me to switch over........

So, does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do with my equipment situation? And is there any truth to what the customer service person said about even less support in the future?

Thank you very much.

Posted by: VTECaddict

no, you will not be shut off.

for phones, you can get unlocked phones from ebay or other third party. you can get your nokia unlocked pretty easily. there used to be free programs that can calculate unlock codes for nokias, so do a google search or something. hopefully you didnt try to "guess" the code because it only allows 5 tries before its permanently locked. if you want other phones, there are sites that offer unlocking services, but the easiest way is to just buy an unlocked phone.

Posted by: 1G-Drew

Quote:

Originally Posted by brownnugen

When I asked her for more details, she said that they are in the process of tearing down the old towers, and that pretty soon, my number (cell phone) will not show up on other people's caller ID and eventually, they will not be able to hear me when I talk to them.

That is just terrible misinformation. Almost laughable. No way they're tearing down towers when it's so costly to build them.

anyway, three options:

1) Do a google search for unlocking nokia phones. Most are DIY from home--just generate the appropriate code and put it in.

2) Buy an unlocked phone from any number of places.

3) Migrate your plan. If you're still military, you may be able to get something comparable, but probably will be more expensive.

Posted by: brownnugen

Hi, I wanted to give an update. I took y'all's advice and bought an unlocked 6010 Nokia off the net. When I put the old AT&T SIM card in, it shows that the memory card is empty (no contacts or messages). But the phone does make calls and receives calls.

I'm not sure if there's anything I can do... does anyone have any ideas?

Posted by: afecu

Sounds like the contacts were in the old phone's memory and not on the SIM card. I'm not familiar enough with the 6010 to say if you can copy from the phone to the SIM, but if the buttons work enough you could try that...

Posted by: FerneyZan

Yes, that seems to be what it is.. I also have one of them as a back up phone and you can move or copy your contacts to your SIM..

Posted by: brownnugen

How do you move the contacts to the SIM? I was playing around with the new 6010 and created a contact, but I can't find the function to save it to the SIM? I may also not know what to look for

Posted by: Bob859

Quote:

Originally Posted by brownnugen

How do you move the contacts to the SIM? I was playing around with the new 6010 and created a contact, but I can't find the function to save it to the SIM? I may also not know what to look for

With your right soft key, go to "Contacts". Then scroll down to "Copy". Then you can choose to copy from SIM to phone or phone to SIM.

If you want all of your new contacts on the SIM, choose "Contacts", "Settings" and then "Memory in use". You can choose to use SIM, Phone or both.

.

Posted by: brownnugen

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob859

Thank you for the instructions. The problem I have now is that the left soft key doesn't work. Is there a way to bypass the left soft key or another way to "select" a function? If I can, I think I will be all set.
-Nick

Posted by: Bob859

Quote:

Originally Posted by brownnugen

You need to use the right soft key, not the left.

.