Cingular Sensation?

[eggwards]

Tonight was the team's christmas celebration at the exotic Chili's location across from work. Really, it was pretty much like being at work, but being at Chili's, with a few presents. My boss Lisa brought her husband, probably to try to prove to him that all of the stories are true, and we're crazy. the rest of us were coming from work, and even if we could, we left the spouses at home. Frankly Lisa's spouse didn't seem to be taking her side on much.

Since I drew our Yankees baseball loving guy Dominick, I resisted buying Stephen King's love note to the Boston Red Sox's season, and instead bought him a book about Yankee Yogi Berra that he appreciated. Marvin drew my name and gave me a basket full of beer. Several bottles worth. Now I'll admit it was several different kinds, so somewhere there's several 5-packs of beers waiting for Marvin.

Lisa and I went in together to by little punching bags for each of the team members as our gift to them. it's a little inside joke as they comment on how often that we fight back and forth. Lisa also got me a little desk dartboard that I'll have to resist putting her face on. I haven't found that gift for her yet.

After dinner I went to go look at phones a bit. My phone is about 4 year old now and is getting a little old in the tooth. My hands-free device went south on me last night as I was talking with Chris, so I needed to buy a new one, so I was tempted to just chuck the whole thing and start over.

What I really want is a phone that has bluetooth technology. my computer already supports it, and I love the wireless earpiece. My problem is, Houston is on some pretty old cell networks, and it's been a slow area for updating. The phone companies have not been updating the stuff quickly. Verizon offers only one bluetooth phone right now, and they are charging $300 for it (the Motorola V710), with a 2-year contract. I've been with Verizon way back when they were GTE, some ten years ago, but now that you can take your phone number with you, maybe I should jump.

Cingular has a bluetooth phone for $150, and I think there's a rebate that makes it $99. It's the Motorola V551 Camera phone. i don't care about the camera, really. I'm a little worried about their rate plans and their nationwide coverage, despite their takeover of ATT Wireless. I need to ask my sister about Cinglar's nationwide coverage as she uses them. Does anyone else use Cingular? How are they? Are they affordable because they look like they are more expensive than Verizon? I've been with Verizon so long I'm hesitant to change.

Comments

[jdvsqz.livejournal.com]

Cingular Sensation=OGT

[joezer.livejournal.com]

Though I work for the "V" I am still a Cingular user from my old BellSouth employee days. I've not had any problems with coverage...not in Dallas, Vegas, WI, NYC, Florida...

I'm on a plan that's about $50/mo for 600 peak minutes with rollover of the unused minutes. I've also kept with Cingular since here in my area I've been able to have that bill combined with my home phone bill as well as having the two voice mail boxes linked together into one. If your landline provider (if you have one as I know some people rely totally on cel service these days) is SBC, you may want to check to see if they offer something similar.

I've found it a nice benefit to be able to know when someone calls the house line and leave a message when I'm not at home to take the call...my cel just lets me know with a quick beep when the voice mail is left on the house line.

Aside from Cingular having "roll over" minutes compared to "V" not having them...both have "Nights and Weekends" and "Mobile to Mobile" calling plan features. It's getting more and more to the point where service and customer service are the deciding factors with what carrier people decide to go with.

And...speaking of new phones...I am being sorely tempted to jump away from the Nokia brand thanks to the intro of the Motorola V3 RAZR...

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm a bit of a Moto fan. It's silly to be stuck on a phone brand, but I don't trust LG or Samsung - and V. tries to push their crap so much. I just like my plan with Verizon that rarely ever goes over $50 even with talking to Chris all the time.

Getting the same plan as yours should be fine, but now they charge extra for camera phones, so I bet it will be closer to $55 when it comes down to it. I don't have a land line anymore - I don't have a need for it.

The RAZR is way cool, but the only thing I'm spending $500 on is a new iPod!

[dozerbull.livejournal.com]

If Cingular buys Nextel or Vice-Versa, I'm hedgeing that rates will go up....BTW, I got my Nokia 3650 bluetooth Camphone. last year and made $100. on Rebates. and got the Jabra bt-200 bluetooth earpiece for only $9.99. This is the year to buy. Check Amazon.com, and if you do decide to switch carriers, there are extra goodies.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Actually Sprint and Nextel are in talks (pays to be in finance, you hear all the merger rumors), and I know Sprint's service sucks outside the city, so we won't worry about them.

I hadn't though about eBay, thanks!

[dozerbull.livejournal.com]

Amazon.com

[texaspenguin.livejournal.com]

I switched from Sprint to AT&T to Cingular (before the merge) and although I was a little hesitant to leave AT&T because they had excellent coverage, I'm very happy with them.

Sprint made a goofball mistake when I left them for AT&T. Instead of charging me $150 to cancel, they rang up the charge 6 times, and my bill was for over $1,000 with taxes and everything. Yeah, I'm not upset I left them at all. postscript: after almost 6 months of bitching, they finally fixed it.

When I heard Cingular bought out AT&T, my heart leaped for joy. My coverage area is much better now.

By the by, I grabbed the Sony Ericsson T919 (or something like that) cameraphone because it had Bluetooth technology and I already had the Jabra headset. It works quite well. It could definitely stand to hold a charge a bit longer than a few hours, but it's an excellent headset.

[shortstackbear.livejournal.com]

I've had Cingular for 4 years now. Their rates/plans are completely competitive, their Customer service is above average really. If you call with a problem they will usally make some sort of adjustment on your bill. I rarely have a problem with drop outs..........all in all it's a good service. I'd recommend them.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks!

[cpj.livejournal.com]

Bluetooth kicks ass, but I'll never see it on a Sprint phone; because it has the potential to steal online revenues from Sprint.

I'll probably switch providers in a year or so.

[drood.livejournal.com]

I switched from Verizon to Cingular a year ago because I wanted a phone with bluetooth (and Cingular has a lot of them, including many a lot cheaper than $99 . . . the SE 637 is available in my area and it's only $39 after a rebate). Totally happy with the switch.

Verizon had crappy customer service, dragged its feet on the Bluetooth front, and I'm much happier with Cingular's GSM networks. I've never had a coverage dropout here, and I've roamed with my phone from the wilds of Canada (where my partner's Verizon phone pooped out) to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

In general, my bills are cheaper than they were with Verizon, though I've added on a couple of packages to allow myself to give my phone unlimited usage as a bluetooth modem, for when I need that functionality.

[goofycubb.livejournal.com]

I have the Motorola V710 phone from Verizon. Its a great phone. But the blue tooth is missing some teeth! It only works for the bluetooth head set. you can't connect it to your computer.
I love the phone and the service. I have been w/ verizon for almost 10 years. they are great. I also have cingular for my work phone. does not get as good of reception as my verizon phone.