The good news is for the cingular customers nothing is really going to change. The good news for sales is that at&t wireless customers will be upgrade eligible. Because at&t wireless sim cards and phones need to be changed if they want the new combined network.

Speaking of the new combined network, I'm going to take a wild stab and say that it's probably not going to be active on day, am I right?

TheVZWMan said:
Speaking of the new combined network, I'm going to take a wild stab and say that it's probably not going to be active on day, am I right?

i assume you meany day 1. 😉 don't know, but i wouldnt be surprised if it was. if not, net maybe day 2 or 3 😁

Is that wishful thinking? hehehe

All of the new AWS rateplans make use of Cingular as a roaming partner already. How do you think the network will change other than having the added benefit of 850 mhz in current markets where AWS might only have 1900 mhz licenses? TDMA will be going away unfortunately but it should help prove less confusing for customers. Any thoughts???

adlman said:
All of the new AWS rateplans make use of Cingular as a roaming partner already. How do you think the network will change other than having the added benefit of 850 mhz in current markets where AWS might only have 1900 mhz licenses? TDMA will be going away unfortunately but it should help prove less confusing for customers. Any thoughts???

there are a some markets where coverage will improve or where customers will suddenly have coverage where they didnt before.

the combined network for cingular customers will be active on day one. Fot at&t customers they will need to get a new phone and a new sim card if they want their coverage to improve.

AWS phones have been able to use the Cingular network for quite some time already. Granted it is set as a secondary sites so the phones will only use them if and AWS site is extreamly poor but AWS phones can already use the improved coverage.

this is true vox dei, HOWEVER right now the only complication is this, if an AWS subscriber is on the phone w/ someone, and their phone switches to cingular and the customer has to dial the area code (as you have to do whenever you are "roaming"), the call is dropped, obviously this complication will be taken care of when the merger finalizes

I'm not really sure how GSM does it because i work mostly with TDMA but it should be just as simple as updating the phones IRDB and updating Cingular's list of (What ever the number on SIM cards is). but like i said i'm just TDMA rep so i could be wrong.

no no no, you are on the right path, they will have to merge the data (all the SIM card numbers in the database) and that would alleviate the issue

Customers do not have to get a new phone and sim for their coverage to improve. The improvement will happen immediately. The attws customers WILL be required to get a new phone and sim IF they choose to migrate to a Cingular plan.

no no no, we arent saying that they will need a new sim, what we are saying is this, cingular will have to add all the SIM card numbers from the ATT customers for them to work on cingular w/ no issues (obviously rebuild their back end user profiles as well with proper routing numbers, etc), cingular could not force current ATT customers to change their plans without letting them opt out without any ETF if they did not want to change

so let me get this straight, AWS customers DON"T have to migrate over to cingular, after the merger ????!!! they will still have their services with AWS. 😕

No. You will be a Cingular customer but most people will keep their AWS plan after the merger.

You will be a Cingular customer, but you will not be forced to migrate to a Cingular plan. If you want a Cingular Plan and/or feature, you will have to get new equipment and a new sim.

Wait a minute. Are you saying that all ATTWS phones are gonna need to b replaced? That can't be right, can it? Do you just mean the older models?? I have a Nokia 6620 and a 6820 - they use the same bands as any Cingular market, right?

Depends on what the customer wants. If the attws customer wants to use the combined network they would need to get a new phone and new sims.

Are you saying that someone who own's a phone that uses 800/1800/1900 bands, will need a new phone to use the expanded network? If so, why? Cingular uses 800/1800/1900, don't they?

HOPEFULLY THIS HELPS. RECEIVED THIS INFO FROM A FELLOW CO-WORKER @ CINGULAR.

Think of it as roaming. The subsidy lock only controls which SIMs the phone can accept, not where the phone will pick up service. That is a function of the network. Xxxxx briefly mentioned the LACs. The reason ATT subs couldn’t roam on our network before was because there were LAC restrictions set up on our network to prevent it. Being able to roam locally is referred to as home-on-home roaming, which we have never really had to do here with the exception of the Washington (Seattle, Spokane) areas. However, it is much more common back east.

Also, we don’t need to give the ATT customers a new SIM, we just need to open up our network locally. We can put their SI...
(continues)

um, hate to tell you buddy, but you're wrong... AND you're right.

IF the current ATT customer wishes to STAY on their current plan and NOT MIGRATE TO a Cingular plan, then THEY DO NOT NEED A NEW SIM.
IF the customer wishes to migrate to a Cingular plan, the customer WILL NEED A NEW 64k SIM AND A NEW PHONE. The 64k sim is also used for the 3G services, so there will be no need to upgrade the sim again when UMTS is released in their area.
Current ATT customers WILL BE ABLE TO USE THEIR PHONES ON OUR NETWORKS, but will have to upgrade to migrate to the Cingular plans.

That is correct. I merely quoted what one of our Revenue assurance people said. I asked that question in one of our meetings.

Can you add a Cingular MMS plan to a ATTW voice plan?? I'm guessing ATT customers will have to either stay with their old plan, or switch entirely to a new Cingular one, right?

Thanks!

Laura

No you cannot add that. Be sure you add the ATT MMS feature. The two features are compatible. You will have to MIGRATE in order to get Cingular features.

no but ATTWS has MMS plans as well, i am a rep for AT&T and it's 2.99 for 10 messages; or 4.99 for 20 messages, with no package it's .40/message

I am a cingular rep its 10cents a messages with out a package and 2.99 for 100 and 750 for 9.99 or you can get a media package, 7.99 gets you 250 text, 50 multimedia messages and a 1mb wireless internet

ummm...we were talking about mms. the mms standalone packs for Cingular are 2.99=20, 9.99=75...The pay per use option is available for .25 cents per message. the media packs are the 7.99 Basics pack 250 sms, 50 mms, and 1mb of Wireless internet Xpress, and the 19.99 1500 sms, 200 mms and unlimited WIX.
Best bet is to contact Cingular after the merger, and find out if you are eligible for migration. If you are eligible, you can get a new phone and new sim card and get to choose from our new plans and features. If you are not eligible yet, you can keep all of the current ATTWS features you have, because we will not take them from you. Whatever Fits U Best. 🙂

Thanks for all the replies! Yes, I already have a MMS plan with ATT. I do like the CIngular MMS plans better - especially that one for 7.99 I probably will end up switching! It's just that I have a national family plan for $74.99 (plus 9.99 for each additional line) that includes 1500 anytime minutes, unlimited nights (at 7:00), mobile to mobile, and long distance. It's a heck of a package! At least I've always thought it was! CIngular's not too far off. Maybe that 7.99 package will be worth switching to their 79.99 plan with 1250 anytime minutes. I guess.