Cingular cell phone service - Cingular 8125-data connect plan question

Author

Cingular 8125-data connect plan question

Mike

2007-04-17, 3:33 pm

I purchased a cingular 8125 (refurbished) a month ago and love it. I
am semi-technically literate when it comes to cellphones, but would
appreciate your help.

I had a Motorola V551 phone. The only thing I use the cingular
internet for is to download occasional weather radar maps (50K or so
at a time..I use wap enable sites prmarily or other sites made for
pda's). Any other downloads to the PDA are either done through the
USB connection or at home via my wireless access point. I am a soccer
coach and want to see where the lightning is when I am out in the
field! I only download a couple of maps a month. I pretty much use
the 8125 as a PDA
that can also work as a cell phone.

Right now I am on the pay per use media net package. It looks like it
costs me $1 or so everytime I download a map. Some months I download
a dozen or so, but in the winter, hardly any.

As I read this forum, it seems that cingular probably wants me on a
data connect plan, but I don't use the internet that much. I assume
that as long as I don't tell them what I'm doing, and at my low rate
of usage I shouldn't trigger anything that would make them look at my
bill. Does this seem to be correct?

I have a family plan with 4 phones (3 kids in college) so I pay them
enough each month that I should be valued customer, but you never
know. If anyone thinks I should do anything different, or if you have
any
suggestions for a newbie, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

John Navas

2007-04-17, 3:33 pm

On 17 Apr 2007 11:09:27 -0700, Mike <mnolan@purdue.edu> wrote in
<1176833367.275396.245260@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>:

>I purchased a cingular 8125 (refurbished) a month ago and love it. I
>am semi-technically literate when it comes to cellphones, but would
>appreciate your help.
>
>I had a Motorola V551 phone. The only thing I use the cingular
>internet for is to download occasional weather radar maps (50K or so
>at a time..I use wap enable sites prmarily or other sites made for
>pda's). Any other downloads to the PDA are either done through the
>USB connection or at home via my wireless access point. I am a soccer
>coach and want to see where the lightning is when I am out in the
>field! I only download a couple of maps a month. I pretty much use
>the 8125 as a PDA
>that can also work as a cell phone.
>
>Right now I am on the pay per use media net package. It looks like it
>costs me $1 or so everytime I download a map. Some months I download
>a dozen or so, but in the winter, hardly any.
>
>As I read this forum, it seems that cingular probably wants me on a
>data connect plan, but I don't use the internet that much. I assume
>that as long as I don't tell them what I'm doing, and at my low rate
>of usage I shouldn't trigger anything that would make them look at my
>bill. Does this seem to be correct?

AT&T/Cingular has no problem with you being on pay-as-you-go -- there's
no pressure (other than cost if you use too much data) to get a data
package.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ Cingu...less_FA
Q>

Todd Allcock

2007-04-17, 10:33 pm

At 17 Apr 2007 11:09:27 -0700 Mike wrote:

> Right now I am on the pay per use media net package. It looks like it
> costs me $1 or so everytime I download a map. Some months I download
> a dozen or so, but in the winter, hardly any.
>
> As I read this forum, it seems that cingular probably wants me on a
> data connect plan, but I don't use the internet that much. I assume
> that as long as I don't tell them what I'm doing, and at my low rate
> of usage I shouldn't trigger anything that would make them look at my
> bill. Does this seem to be correct?

They don't care how much data you consume if you're on pay-per-use. The
more the merrier (at least for them!) Where you might get in trouble is
if you add a $20/month unlimited MEdia Net plan designed for "dumbphones"
on a PDA phone which is supposed to use a higher-priced PDA plan.
WithYour useage pattern, however, I doubt that'd ever be a problem either.

> I have a family plan with 4 phones (3 kids in college) so I pay them
> enough each month that I should be valued customer, but you never
> know. If anyone thinks I should do anything different, or if you have
> any
> suggestions for a newbie, please let me know.

You're fine usless your usage creeps up to where pay-per-use gets to
expensive. Cingular used to have an x# of MB for $9.99 plan that had a
lower rate on overages than the pay-per-use plan. If that's still around
you might consider that one (to keep your bill down- not to keep Cingular
"happy"- they don't restrict what device is allowed to use pay-per-use or
capped-amount data plans. Just the "unlimited" ones.)

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