AT-T wireless service - Re: Cingular to change name

Author

Re: Cingular to change name

Kurt

2007-01-06, 10:34 pm

In article < 459e30a5$0$68960$742
ec2ed@news.sonic.net>,
SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:

> SinghaLvr wrote:
>
>
> Or at least that's what the AT&T execs hope.
>
> Consumers have very negative feelings toward AT&T's long distance
> services, which engaged in very deceptive marketing for many years.
> Remember all those promises of multiple monthly credits to your phone
> bill if you agreed to switch to AT&T LD. The credits usually ended up to
> be far less than the telemarketer promised, but of course since you had
> no written agreement you were screwed.
>
> Personally, I had only good experiences with AT&T Wireless, but I left
> prior to their decline. If someone has been living in a cave, and
> doesn't realize that the new AT&T Wireless is simply Cingular, then they
> may mistakenly switch to it, expecting more than they're going to get.

ATT wireless was decent. The Cingular takeover forced me to give up the
best phone I ever had - a Startac for a newer crappier phone. Held on to
my ATT account as long as I could, but I started getting treated like
the bastard stepchild by billing and customer service.

Happy with my Treo, but the Cingualr service has been less than stellar.

Even worse for Treo buyers was all the firmware they built in like
Express mail and MediaNet that doesn't work on a Treo. Spent a lot of
time with customer support trying to get that worked out. Only the Treo
support knew of the incompatibility.
Great minds at work here.

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Jeffrey Kaplan

2007-01-08, 12:33 pm

It is alleged that Kurt claimed:

> Good, read my comments further.

Ok...

> BTW- why the upgrade? 680, from all the reviews, has shortcomings like
> diminished battery life. Blazer's apparently a little quicker, but I
> don't see the big deal - especially since you aren't on a data plan.

The 650 has ~24MB of on-board storage and the 680 has 69MB. The 650
has 8MB of dbcache and the 680 has 24M. I actually mostly like the new
phone app on the 680. The 680 not only has better audio quality in the
phone, it also gets better reception despite the lack of an external
antenna (real-world testing, not just product blurbs). And a few other
tweaks here and there, like the card slots no longer being exposed.

Yes, the battery life is shorter, it is a smaller battery. But the
"battery drain" issue mostly goes away within a week if you do some
battery conditioning and leave BT and the data radios off except when
needed. I'm now able to go at least a day and a half without draining
the battery, and since I'm rarely more than an hour from a charger (one
bedside, one deskside, and one in my car), I'm OK.

>
> Had my Treo for almost 2 years. Intially tried to set up MediaNet. This
> was before I had any data plan. Wouldn't work. Was told from the get-go
> that MediaNet would not work with Treo. They, on many occasions, have
> told me that this is for cell phones only, not Treo. Spent a lot of time
> with Cingular with this.
> If you actually use it on your 650/680 - proof how screwed up Cingular
> is with Treo support.

When I got the 650 (June, '05) they tried to sell me a data plan. I
think my top usage of data at that time was 50kB over a nine month
period, so I declined the data plan. They +said+ that unless I got a
data plan, I would not be able to use a data connection.

A week later, I went to a different Cingular outlet and asked about it,
without specifying what device I was using, and I was told "no
problem", it would just be at the a la carte pricing of $0.01/kB, on
the default MediaNet connection, if I wanted a higher-speed connection,
I'd have to get a data plan for the higher speed.

And... it works. The connection details were already programmed in,
all I had to do was tell a data app to go online. Be it Blazer/Treo
Web, Opera Mini, DirectoryAssistant, or whatever.

When I upgraded to the 680 (unlocked, I figured I'd have to enter my
call and network settings manually), I went to Call Preferences to
enter the voicemail number and the Treo said it would query for this
information for me, and it did. It also apparently got the data
network settings either OTA at the same time or off of my SIM because
those settings were there too, when I next went to the Network prefs
panel.

Now, my data usage is higher, but it's still less than the "cheaper to
get a plan" threshold so I still use it a la carte.

> Xpressmail would not work, and Cingular support said it was
> compatibility issues with Treo.

As I said before, I used it once, nearly two years ago now, and didn't
like it. Maybe I just didn't like it, maybe it didn't work right.
Upshot is that XPressMail should work since it's an app for the Palm,
but has a crappy design. Since my 680 is an unlocked model, I don't
even have it anymore, and my 650 has been mailed to Trade Ups for a
rebate so I can't check back on the old device either.

--
Jeffrey Kaplan www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled Send personal mail to gordol

If I Am Ever the Sidekick... 1. If the hero tells me to stay put while
he goes on ahead, I will do so instead of sneaking around and getting
captured.

Kurt

2007-01-08, 3:33 pm

In article < mqr4q29e1nerfr026u0u
q9su1abq7lk8d0@gordo
l.org>,
Jeffrey Kaplan <nomail@gordol.org> wrote:

> It is alleged that Kurt claimed:
>
>
> Ok...
>
>
> The 650 has ~24MB of on-board storage and the 680 has 69MB. The 650
> has 8MB of dbcache and the 680 has 24M. I actually mostly like the new
> phone app on the 680. The 680 not only has better audio quality in the
> phone, it also gets better reception despite the lack of an external
> antenna (real-world testing, not just product blurbs). And a few other
> tweaks here and there, like the card slots no longer being exposed.
>
> Yes, the battery life is shorter, it is a smaller battery. But the
> "battery drain" issue mostly goes away within a week if you do some
> battery conditioning and leave BT and the data radios off except when
> needed. I'm now able to go at least a day and a half without draining
> the battery, and since I'm rarely more than an hour from a charger (one
> bedside, one deskside, and one in my car), I'm OK.
>
>
> When I got the 650 (June, '05) they tried to sell me a data plan. I
> think my top usage of data at that time was 50kB over a nine month
> period, so I declined the data plan. They +said+ that unless I got a
> data plan, I would not be able to use a data connection.
>
> A week later, I went to a different Cingular outlet and asked about it,
> without specifying what device I was using, and I was told "no
> problem", it would just be at the a la carte pricing of $0.01/kB, on
> the default MediaNet connection, if I wanted a higher-speed connection,
> I'd have to get a data plan for the higher speed.
>
> And... it works. The connection details were already programmed in,
> all I had to do was tell a data app to go online. Be it Blazer/Treo
> Web, Opera Mini, DirectoryAssistant, or whatever.
>
> When I upgraded to the 680 (unlocked, I figured I'd have to enter my
> call and network settings manually), I went to Call Preferences to
> enter the voicemail number and the Treo said it would query for this
> information for me, and it did. It also apparently got the data
> network settings either OTA at the same time or off of my SIM because
> those settings were there too, when I next went to the Network prefs
> panel.
>
> Now, my data usage is higher, but it's still less than the "cheaper to
> get a plan" threshold so I still use it a la carte.
>
>
> As I said before, I used it once, nearly two years ago now, and didn't
> like it. Maybe I just didn't like it, maybe it didn't work right.
> Upshot is that XPressMail should work since it's an app for the Palm,
> but has a crappy design. Since my 680 is an unlocked model, I don't
> even have it anymore, and my 650 has been mailed to Trade Ups for a
> rebate so I can't check back on the old device either.

Thanks for your experience. I have been doing the $20 5 MB data plan.
How much do you end up spending with Medianet. May get mine switched
over. Aren't they doing unlimited Medianet for $16?

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