vB Easy Archive - 650 - AT&T versus Cingular

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650 - AT&T versus Cingular
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Posted by: Yellow Hammer

I'm about to pick up an unlocked 650 next week which I won on EBay. Actually it's a locked AT&T phone, but being that I'm a long-time AT&T customer (11 years if you include the Cellular One days), I'm guessing that I'll be able to get an unlock code from them pretty easily. (Maybe I'm wrong?). I'm leaning towards staying with AT&T and just replacing my existing MMode plan ($20) with the unlimited data plan for $49, which should cover all my data needs.

The more general question is, what is Cingular's rate plan for unlimited data access for the 650? I've seen reports that it is $24.95, yet most others I talk to say that it is $44.95 per month. Two things I don't like about Cingular - I receive a lot of SMS messages daily, around 30 to 50 per day. Cingular charges, while AT&T has free incoming SMS. Also, because I've been a long time AT&T customer, I'm a year into my 2 year contract which gives me extended weekend hours from 7 to 9pm for free. Something Cingular charges $15 a month for on a shared plan. I would say that 200-300 minutes per month of my non-weekend calls are during this time period. In Cingular's favor is the rollover stuff, but then again I get about 400 minutes more per month on AT&T over Cingular for the same rate (I'm on the $59.95 shared plan).

Given this, is there any good compelling reason why I should switch over to Cingular, or perhaps some other carrier like T-Mobile? I'm looking for reasons such as better Edge connectivity, some cost I'm not considering, something Cingular has that AT&T doesn't, or something along those lines...

Posted by: xynos

Good luck in getting the unlock code from AT&T. I was told (repeatedly) that they don't do that.

Posted by: r0guenj

i am on at&t and i pay the 24.95/month for unlimited. as long as you can live without using some protocols (VPN and SSH primarily), this should suffice.

i use my treo as my modem when i am away from a broadband connection with my laptop.

Posted by: sspooner

They have no mechanism to do so.

I would steer well clear of this locked phone if I were you, unless you plan to use it on AT&T's network.

Posted by: Yellow Hammer

Quote:

Originally posted by r0guenj
i am on at&t and i pay the 24.95/month for unlimited. as long as you can live without using some protocols (VPN and SSH primarily), this should suffice.

i use my treo as my modem when i am away from a broadband connection with my laptop.

you're getting $24.95 on AT&T? Not Cingular right? Interesting...

If I have to use the AT&T network I'm fine for now. I'm not planning on going overseas until late this year nor have I heard any compelling reasons to switch providers (yet). If worse comes to worse I'm betting that I'll find a way to unlock my phone sooner or later - too many people in the Bay Area with this phone.

Posted by: r0guenj

yep on at&t it should be similar on cingular as well although it seems there is more push (and more hassle in trying to get a lower price plan) to make people sign up for the pda plans.

Posted by: SuperManFan

I am also on AT&T. I have a locked AT&T 650 and use the $25/mo plan with no issues.

I am one of those who will hang on to my AT&T plan and avoid switching to Cingular for as long as I can.

Posted by: Yellow Hammer

$25 sounds much better than $49! Is this unlimited plan for AT&T also called Media Works? If and when I switch phones on my phone number and give them the ESN, can they tell if the phone is a PDA phone? Of if they ask me, can I tell them that it's a say, ugh, Nokia 3650 (i.e. some phone with full browsing capabilities but not a PDA)?

Posted by: islandsnow

what do you mean as long as you can live without protocols such as ssh? i also pay $24.95 unlimited but its actually called unlimited mmode plan. not the data plan. but i can use pssh without any problems.

Quote:

Originally Posted by r0guenj

i am on at&t and i pay the 24.95/month for unlimited. as long as you can live without using some protocols (VPN and SSH primarily), this should suffice.

i use my treo as my modem when i am away from a broadband connection with my laptop.

Posted by: Yellow Hammer

the world is all well and good. Got my unlimited MMode for $24.99/month thru AT&T, though I did have to lie and tell the AT&T CS person that I was using a different model phone with a full-browser when I did my switch. It wouldn't make sense if I had told them that the phone I was switching to was a Treo 650 (they did ask), otherwise I would have been charged with the PDA price ($49.99/mo).

The only problem with telling this lie was that I couldn't possibly ask them for the unlock code without exposing myself. However, living in Silicon Valley has its benefits (not much, but it does) and let's just say I went right to the source to get my unlock code and not from AT&T/Cingular.

The main question I have about AT&T service is whether or not any of you feel that the Internet speeds are slow or not. They feel like 56K modem speeds to me whenever I browse on Blazer. Am I not doing something correctly?