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Cellular Phone Forum / General / General Topics / July 2005good place to buy Cingular GSM phone without contract?
I have 3 GSM lines on a family plan with a year+ left on the contract. My daughter would like a new phone but: - I'm not that crazy about their service and the lack of GSM service for the vast areas of AZ outside of GSM range. My previous AT&T TDMA phones also roamed onto analog, greatly expanding the coverage area. - I'm not sure that I even qualify for an upgrade yet So, I'm not crazy about lengthening my contract. What are good places to buy cell phones without a contract? She's not looking for any thing fancy, just a speakerphone and no camera. I've thought about eBay but I'm worried that any used phone might be buying someone else's problems. If it wasn't a Cingular phone to begin with and is unlocked what am I giving up by it not having "Cingular" programming. > I have 3 GSM lines on a family plan with a year+ left on the contract. My > daughter would like a new phone but: [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > someone else's problems. If it wasn't a Cingular phone to begin with and > is unlocked what am I giving up by it not having "Cingular" programming. If you want a GSM phone without a camera, it may be more likely that the phones are OK on Ebay, since even the "free" phones with contracts nowadays have cameras. I could have used a phone like this recently while away on business since the company I was at didn't allow cameras in the building. So I had to leave my phone out in the car. If I was to do this again in the future, I may buy a cheap phone for this case. >I have 3 GSM lines on a family plan with a year+ left on the contract. My >daughter would like a new phone but: [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > someone else's problems. If it wasn't a Cingular phone to begin with and > is unlocked what am I giving up by it not having "Cingular" programming. You can get new phones on ebay. Check out a Nokia 6010. You should be able to get it for about $50 - $60 new, including shipping charges. WATCH SHIPPING CHARGES. They should be no more than $15, MAXIMUM. I've seen some shipping charges on ebay for similar phones of 40-50 bucks, which is clearly a huge ripoff for something so light (even with charger). You shouldn't have to worry about it not being a Cingular phone, as there are many cingular phones available. But if it's not Cingular, that means that it might come up with someone else's logo when you first turn it on. But the SIM will determine what network(s) it connects to. That is, assuming it is unlocked. -Dave > You shouldn't have to worry about it not being a Cingular phone, as there > are many cingular phones available. But if it's not Cingular, that means > that it might come up with someone else's logo when you first turn it on. > But the SIM will determine what network(s) it connects to. That is, > assuming it is unlocked. -Dave The thing I was wondering about was that Cingular wasn't allowing ATTWS GSM customers to move their ATTWS phones to Cingular. Something about the Cingular programming allowing more/better network access than the ATTWS programming would. >> You shouldn't have to worry about it not being a Cingular phone, as there >> are many cingular phones available. But if it's not Cingular, that means [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Cingular programming allowing more/better network access than the ATTWS > programming would. Sounds like a crock of sh.t to me. The main thing you need to worry about is whether the phone will accept a 64K SIM or not. That COULD be what Cingular was really TRYING to say. It's possible that many of the older ATTWS phones won't accept a 64K SIM. In that case, it would make sense that Cingular would try to push the customer toward a newer phone. But any phone that is currently offered by Cingular *should* be compatible with a 64K SIM, regardless of what network the phone was originally intended to be used n. -Dave >>> You shouldn't have to worry about it not being a Cingular phone, as >>> there are many cingular phones available. But if it's not [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > phone was originally intended to be used > n. -Dave Actually, a Cingular store sold me a Nokia 1100 last August that I used with my old sim. A couple of weeks ago I tried to upgrade to a Cingular 64K SmartChip at another Cingular store. It didn't work. It would reboot every 15-30 seconds. Same result with a second Nokia 1100 and SmartChip.  SignatureStephen P. Reimers Naval Salvage Officer BMW Motorcycle Rider > >>> You shouldn't have to worry about it not being a Cingular phone, as [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > with a 64K SIM, regardless of what network the phone was originally > intended to be used n. -Dave Is there any way to tell whether a phone will accept a 64K SIM chip? I have a Siemens S56 that I used all the time until my contract ended - it's unlocked but I don't know if it will work on a 64K SIM if I were to get a pay-as-you-go account from T-Mobile or Cingular... Are they 64K? r/ Steve >Is there any way to tell whether a phone will accept a 64K SIM chip? I have >a Siemens S56 that I used all the time until my contract ended - it's >unlocked but I don't know if it will work on a 64K SIM if I were to get a >pay-as-you-go account from T-Mobile or Cingular... Are they 64K? Only the newest handsets are ENS-capable, generally speaking those sold by Cingular in the past 7-8 months. SignatureBest regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES: John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular> I have two Cingular phones from Ebay and one the was unlocked from another company. I have had not problems with any of them. Your account "programming" is in the sim chip. Pop it in and you are done. I usually look for new in box cingular phones, they cost a little more but then you dont buy other peoples problems. >I have 3 GSM lines on a family plan with a year+ left on the contract. >My daughter would like a new phone but: [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >someone else's problems. If it wasn't a Cingular phone to begin with and >is unlocked what am I giving up by it not having "Cingular" programming. > I have 3 GSM lines on a family plan with a year+ left on the contract. > My daughter would like a new phone but: [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > someone else's problems. If it wasn't a Cingular phone to begin with and > is unlocked what am I giving up by it not having "Cingular" programming. I have done three mot's this way from established e-bay'r's. new in box have not had any prob's E-Bay has my vote I bought mine at www.cellhut.com >I have 3 GSM lines on a family plan with a year+ left on the contract. My >daughter would like a new phone but: [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > someone else's problems. If it wasn't a Cingular phone to begin with and > is unlocked what am I giving up by it not having "Cingular" programming. >>I have 3 GSM lines on a family plan with a year+ left on the contract. My >>daughter would like a new phone but: [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >> someone else's problems. If it wasn't a Cingular phone to begin with and >> is unlocked what am I giving up by it not having "Cingular" programming. A good place to go is http://www.myworldphone.com/. Also, Amazon (http://www.amazon.com) sells them without the contract. I recently got a spare phone from them and was very happy with it. |
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