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Andy S - 22 Mar 2006 16:20 GMT

I used to decry Cingular Wireless. This past Monday, my wife signed us up
for service.
I am willing to give Cingular a try. I'll keep my current provider, VZW,
until I can terminate service
affordably. Besides being the #1 carrier, rollover, etc. what are the
benefits of Cingular over VZW?

We're getting basic phones Samsung X497s. Is this a decent choice by my
wife?
If I want to, can I swap my X497 now for a Sony Ericssson X520 with minimal
cost?
If so, how do I go about doing so? Corp. Store?

Note to John Navas. Much as I have not really liked Cingular's ways and I
have
thought of you as over barring, I'd like to mend fences and give you a fair
shot at helping
this "newbie"

Signature

Andrew D. Sisson
LG VX8100 VZW AC II SINCE APRIL 1993
SAMSUNG X497 CINGULAR NATION SINCE MARCH 2006

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John Navas - 22 Mar 2006 16:31 GMT

>I used to decry Cingular Wireless. This past Monday, my wife signed us up
>for service.
>I am willing to give Cingular a try. I'll keep my current provider, VZW,
>until I can terminate service
>affordably. Besides being the #1 carrier, rollover, etc. what are the
>benefits of Cingular over VZW?

What matters most is coverage in the areas you care about. Compare Cingular
to Verizon, and keep the carrier that gives you the best coverage. If you
want to stick with Verizon, be sure to cancel Cingular within the no risk
trial period, and be sure to keep everything that came with the phones so that
you can return them.

>We're getting basic phones Samsung X497s. Is this a decent choice by my
>wife?

It's a decent phone, but no better than that. My personal recommendation is
the Motorola V557.

>If I want to, can I swap my X497 now for a Sony Ericssson X520 with minimal
>cost?

The Sony Ericsson Z520a is quite a bit better than the Samsung X497 (IMHO),
but lacks EGPRS(EDGE) high speed data, which is why I recommend the Motorola
V557.

>If so, how do I go about doing so? Corp. Store?

You'll probably have to exchange the phone from the place your wife got them.

>Note to John Navas. Much as I have not really liked Cingular's ways and I
>have
>thought of you as over barring, I'd like to mend fences and give you a fair
>shot at helping
>this "newbie"

Good. Me too.

Signature

Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

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John Navas - 22 Mar 2006 17:35 GMT

>>We're getting basic phones Samsung X497s. Is this a decent choice by my
>>wife?
>
>It's a decent phone, but no better than that. My personal recommendation is
>the Motorola V557.

That was based on what Cingular currently offers. Without regard to that, my
current personal favorite is the quad band version of the Motorola V360, which
would have to be purchased unlocked from a third party (e.g., on eBay, where
the going rate for a new one is about $160 delivered).

Signature

Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

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mc - 22 Mar 2006 17:35 GMT

>I used to decry Cingular Wireless. This past Monday, my wife signed us up
>for service.
> I am willing to give Cingular a try. I'll keep my current provider, VZW,
> until I can terminate service
> affordably. Besides being the #1 carrier, rollover, etc. what are the
> benefits of Cingular over VZW?

GSM technology. With a triband phone, you can roam in Europe. You can also
buy a Virgin Mobile "Joining Pack" in England, slip that SIM card into your
Cingular triband phone, and have local prepaid mobile phone service over
there.

> We're getting basic phones Samsung X497s. Is this a decent choice by my
> wife?

I have the x495 and like it.

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Marty - 22 Mar 2006 18:19 GMT

Somewhere around Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:20:39 GMT, while reading
alt.cellular.cingular, I think I thought I saw this post from "Andy S"
<adsisson@NOSPAMrochester.rr.com>:

>I used to decry Cingular Wireless. This past Monday, my wife signed us up
>for service.
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>shot at helping
>this "newbie"

You get 30 days to try the phone, IIRC. It's spelled out on Cingular's
website somewhere. I tried the Sony Ericsson for a week and returned it (I
got it from the corp store, and returned it there). I didn't like it
because it was constantly accidently taking pictures, and the interface was
too slow to do things. I have a RAZR now, and love the interface (very
customizable like most Motorola phones).

Advantages of Cingular; better phones, less customization - Verizon RAZR
sucks compared to Cingular; Verizon's doesn't even have the important "menu"
button used for context sensitive functions, and you can't reassign most of
the buttons - just one, etc. Plus, you can't use the bluetooth to transfer
data, because then you wouldn't buy as many ringtones.

Cingular is cheaper, or can be. With rollover, you may not need to pay for
as many minutes if you usually don't use them all, since you have rollover
minutes for those times you might go over your allotment.

Signature

Marty - public.forums (at) gmail (dot) com
"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...
well, I have others." - Groucho Marx

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subdude - 23 Mar 2006 16:03 GMT

>Note to John Navas. Much as I have not really liked Cingular's ways and I
>have
>thought of you as over barring, I'd like to mend fences and give you a fair
>shot at helping
>this "newbie"

I've *always* thought of John as "over barring" and told him many
times to cut out the heavy drinking...<BG>

subdude

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