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Hey guys, sorry if this is a bit OT but since this is a Bay Area question...

I currently have Cingular, off contract. It's about time to replace my ancient Nokia 8290, and I have to admit I'm still a Nokia kinda guy. My question is, since the merger, does anyone in the Bay Area with Cingular service ever free roam on ATT? It's weird, because I only display Cingular in the Bay Area, but when I go to Chicago or NY I often see ATT Wireless in the display. I have a friend with ATTWS here, and he gets both ATTWS and Cingular depending on where in the Bay Area he is.

It seems kinda silly that Cingular bought ATTWS and yet the child gets more coverage than the parent, but I saw a post on howardforums indicating that indeed- ATTWS can roam to Cingular in all states, but Cingular to ATTWS only in some markets. Complicating the issue is the fact that my 8290 is GSM 1900 only, while I know there is some use of GSM 850 in the US.

I have had no problems with Cingular billing or CS, and the coverage is spotty but good enough for my purposes. I get good signal in my apt. and work, but crap at my parents house. ATT seems to be great at my parents' house. Staying with Cingular seems the safest, as I have heard bad stories about ATT billing and CS. But ATT has some nicer phones, free incoming SMS, better providers on their mMode thingie, and possibly better coverage? Also for the same phones it is cheaper to switch than it is to stay, unless I find some way to haggle Cingular into giving me a break.

For phones I am looking at the Nokia 3120 (rebadged 3100) for no frills, or the 6820 with the flip out QWERTY keyboard, which only ATT has. Cingular will have the new 6230 which looks nice, but is kinda expensive for a series 40 phone. They both have the 6620 which is nice with the series 60 OS, but expensive and probably more and bigger than I really need. Samsung is about the only other phone I would consider due to the interface.

Any suggestions?

TIA,
Peter

JDMwhore

Im also in the market for a new phone. Does anyone have the site with the bay area cell phone company comparisons? I thought there was a msg board or something.
Thanks!

DongTran

http://www.howardforums.com/

720 rOcKs

ATT is should become Cingular sometime this month

nVz2000

and hopefully they'll keep the phone offerings

but anyway - i'm an AT&T Wireless customer, typically my phone display switches between AT&T and Cingular - I think because of that new "GSM America" plan. Regardless - the phone works in either network

-= joe =-

kitwetzler

I have found GSM in america to be really really poor. I <3 verizon!