Can i upgrade my phone?
hey guys, i have a pretty old plan, and phone, i would like to keep the same plan but buy a new spiffier phone. I am with cingular. So is there any possibilty that i can just go to a cingular and buy a new phone but keep the same plan and just start using the new phone?
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ya, but it is full price for the phone. any contract will get you a discount if you want it but you probably dont wanna do that. splurge on the extra $100 for peace of mind
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so i can do this is any point of mt current contract, i dont need to let it expire or anything, if i had the money i could buy a new phone today?
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correct. its the sim card system. you could buy 20 phones and swap them around every day and Cingular wouldnt know or care. All they care about is the orange chip under the battery.
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my phone is kinda old, i would say like 3-4 years. It still would have the sim card right?
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i dunno, check underneath the battery. If you do and the card is way old, you could check into getting a new sim card at a cingular store. they're free and some store can put your old info on the new card.
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ok thanks i appreciate all the help you have given me. I think i read somewhere that you couldnt upgrade your phone unless your contract was nearing an end. But i guess that is not accurate. Alothough i think i read that on cingulars web site.
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ok well this is the situation. My phone was with at and t but then cingular bought them out. But the phone still says at&t but i guess it is cingular in the long run. So what do i do. Can i still just go to a cingular and by a phone, with the same plan i have?
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Your on an At&t plan...this is a good and a bad thing for you. A lot of it depends on whether or not you have a sim card phone (GSM) or not (TDMA). If you dont have a sim card you can migrate over to Cingular with no charge and get a new free phone with a sim card. You still cant keep the same plan. You would have to have a cingular plan. Now if you old phone does have a sim card then it is a different story. If you are still in contract (and not within 30 days of the end) you can migrate but you have to do it over the phone and pay the ful price for a new phone (120 being the cheapest) now if your out of contract you can just migrate over and get the free phone. This once again requires you to change to a cingular plan.
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you say i need to do it over the phone. Could i just go to a cingular and have them help me? Also is there really not a phone under 120 bucks, all i really want is one with a colored screen and what not.
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All cingular phone now have a colored screen. You could go to a store. A COR store might be able to do it. An indirect wont...but i do know that they would do the talking over the phone for you. Do you have a sim Card?
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i will check to see if i have a sim card. But does this plan of mine work. I go buy a preowned cell phone, which there are ton of on the net and then just swap the sim card from my current phone to the preowned one i bought?
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It's not quite that simple. Some phones have something on them called a "subsidy lock". This effectively prevent you from putting a foreign sim card in the phone and use your service on it. This even applies to AT&T sim cards in Cingular phones, and vice versa. Sounds ridiculous, I know.
This lock is in place so that when carriers sell you the phone for a discounted price, they can be sure that that phone will always stay on their network, and never used with anyone else. This saves them a lot of money.
Luckily, people can get around it. There are several websites on the internet that offer unlocking services that require you to send in your phone with some money, and they return it to you unlocked.
If you aren't a fan of se...
(continues)
This lock is in place so that when carriers sell you the phone for a discounted price, they can be sure that that phone will always stay on their network, and never used with anyone else. This saves them a lot of money.
Luckily, people can get around it. There are several websites on the internet that offer unlocking services that require you to send in your phone with some money, and they return it to you unlocked.
If you aren't a fan of se...
(continues)
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on the interent i can get a preowned at&t phone. Would this work cus it is the same as my current phone?
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Global Systems for Mobile...it is the digital signal that cingular uses for its frequencies...AT&T used TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) which is an older Analog system, and also the Newer digital GSM system (which is what the rest of the world uses)
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wow. was that read directly out of you Spring training book? 🤣 jk good reminder. bottom line: GSM rules, CDMA sux, TDMA was ok and will be missed. For an actual review on this very subject from the technical end, go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8753895/
This is actually a superb review of gsm service and i highly recomend it.
This is actually a superb review of gsm service and i highly recomend it.
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you can upgrade at any time and get a newer phone
just don't fall for the rebate plans unless you are anal and can manage to read the fine print at the bottom of the disclaimer or can send everything back to them certified exactly on the day - BS - err - Cingular - expects them
plus the prices go down in 60 days on most stuffr
just don't fall for the rebate plans unless you are anal and can manage to read the fine print at the bottom of the disclaimer or can send everything back to them certified exactly on the day - BS - err - Cingular - expects them
plus the prices go down in 60 days on most stuffr
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