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Cell Phone Woes, Cingular has no PDA Phones!!??

L

luto1999

Member
Okay heres my deal, My mother and I are with Cingular on the Family Plan. I can leave when i want, she has to stay 8 more months or pay a $150 fee to cut off her old contract. Right now its $29.99 for her and $17.99 for me 500 min anytime local, free night and weekends. Now I had a Nokia 5165 that broke May 6th, I hated it with a passion and was glad it stopped working, this is the 3rd one. Now what perfect timing because i wanted to buy a PDA, so I started looking at PDA Cell phones. I found a Palm Treo 180 which i can get for roughyl $100 - 150. Only problem is Cingular doe not support it from what i can see. I am in st louis, 63033, and cant find ANY PDA phones Cingular does support. So now I have to look for another provider. I found a T-mobile deal where i get $150 amil in rebate if i buy a Treo 180 and get service with T-mobile. Well only problem is T-mobile has only like 2 family plan options, and both are too expensive. The cheapest is $70 a month fo 800 min.
Basically I want some advice on how i can get a PDA phone, preferably the treo 180, without having to spend tons more $$$ on contracts. Any advice?
 
i thought cingular supported pda phones. i could be wrong however. i know tmobile supports quite a few, just take a look at their website
 
go with tmobile on your own deal
they have the sidekick....not quite a pda phone, but a great phone for 75 AR
500 anytime
unlimited internet (something u will use on this phone) for a year

i think its like 35/40 per month
 
I think the 5165 is a TDMA phone, so you must be in a Cingular TDMA market. Cingular does have PDA phones for their GSM markets.

You can either wait for Cingular to convert to GSM in your area (which may be really soon, or awhile) or change carriers.
 
ok so what Cingular GSM PDA phones are available? Dang I really wanted a treo!
If i call T-mobile will they comptete with my cingular plan?
 
u never know if they'll compete unless u call.....
i have a great deal on sprint, but only cuz i threatened termination....so....
 
Originally posted by: luto1999
ok so what Cingular GSM PDA phones are available? Dang I really wanted a treo!
If i call T-mobile will they comptete with my cingular plan?
Click to expand...


I know Cingular matched and actually BEAT the T-Mobile plan I was on. Not that this helps any 😛

But call Cingular up, and talk to them. And ask about GSM, if it's planned soon, or what. Or if T-Mobile is in your area, go get a phone and activate it from somewhere close by with Cingular, and then just use it where you live, and it will go off the T-Mobile towers. (This might need a little more thought here, but something like that MIGHT work.)




KeyserSoze
 
I think the PDA option is the least of your worries if you're still w/ Cingular. I believe T-mobile uses Cingular's tech (GSM) but has twice the switching capabilities. It would be the same service area as you have now but w/ less busy circuits. Or if you go w/ Verizon - that would be the bomb. I've been w/ Nextel, ATT, CellOne, Sprint, Verizon and I can tell you that Verizon is definitely the best consumer phone comp - Nextel is the best for business.
 
PDA phones suck... they're trying to cram too many functions into one device and you get something thats not particularly good at any of them... you might want to re-think wanting a PDA phone... whats wrong with having a phone and a PDA?
 
i dont like luggin around two seperate peices of expensive technology if i dont have to.
So KeyserSoze you are saying to just buy a Treo with T-mobile, but have cingular activate it? I am confused, i don't think Cingular would just do me that favor.
 
T-Mobile is GSM. On the west coast (or maybe just California), T-Mobile piggybacks on Cingular's GSM towers. Thus, any phone you can use for one, you can use for the other (assuming the phone is unlocked). I live in California, and there are many phones available for both carriers (Nokia 3690, Motorola T720, Treo, etc).

You are probably in a TDMA market, and T-Mobile probably does not use Cingular's towers in such case. T-Mobile used to Voicestream (they may have had a presence where you live). If you are in a Cingular TDMA market, a T-Mobile phone will do you no good on Cingular's network. Also some of the new GSM markets are going to use the 850Mhz frequency, and some phones will not work, so you need to be careful in that regards as well.

Basically, if you want to stick with Cingular, you don't really have any options until/unless they're running GSM in your area.

Once that happens, you only use other GSM phones if they are 1). The right frequency, and 2). unlocked. Sometimes phones are unlocked, usually they're locked to whatever carrier you bought them from, and must be unlocked (usually you pay somebody to do it for you).
 
Does anyone know for if Cingular is TDMA or GSM in the St. Louis area??? If not does anyone know if they will be switching soon??? THANKS!
 
No idea but also you should realize how much bigger those pda phones are compared to normal phones now. They're all pretty fat and wide which is not my idea of a good shaped phone. I've heard that they're making new PDA wristwatches that are soon to debut - you might want to look into that instead.
 
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