Who knows Cingular?

[sosha]

I went by the store tonite, and got a hands-on with the Blackjack. Very sweet.

BUT....

The pimply-faced kid working there told me that I would have to upgrade my data plan to $39.99 for the PDA unlimited data for the Blackjack (from 19.99 for the "Smartphone" plan I have now). I tried to explain to him that the blackjack is a smartphone, but stopped myself mid-sentence. I know better than that :lol:

Who know what plan is required to run the 3G Blackjack on Cingular? If I spent the big bucks and popped my SIM card in, it should work, right?

Any experience here?

[Mike Temporale]

Any experience here?

Lots! I'm not one of them though. ;)

It's my guess that it should be fine without the upgrade. But you're best to get an answer from someone with a BlackJack and using Cingular. :lol:

[michaelp]

The Cingular website shows that you need the $39.99 plan for unlimited data on the Blackjack :(

[Jerry Raia]

But you don't. Right now I'm on some 29.95 plan, unlimited, works fine. What it comes down to is they have no idea what device you have unless you walk into a Cingular store, or order directly from them. Who you have in front of you usually determines what plan you end up with.

[ifonline]

I just finished a chat argument (how fun was that?) with Cingular, and was told in no uncertain terms that because the BlackJack has a QWERTY keyboard, it is a PDA, not a SmartPhone. I tried to explain that it is a SmartPhone running the same OS as the other SmartPhones, but they didn't want to hear it.

So it boils down to this... "Normal" SmartPhones cost $20.00 a month for data, but SmartPhones with QWERTY keyboards (the only distinction) cost $40.00 a month for the exact same service. That, my friends, is a joke. Cingular charges this because they can, not because the phone has any special features that required different data service.

I am sending Cingular Corporate a letter to express my dissatisfaction, and if I don't get my plan changed to the SmartPhone plan, I'm out. I love the phone, but I'm not paying $20.00 a month MORE just because it has a QWERTY keyboard.

[sosha]

Jerry......Do you have multiple accounts, or do you move a SIM card around between devices regularly?

[Jerry Raia]

I have multiple accounts.

[GSmith]

For years I used a Fujitsu 720 bluetooth tethered to a Motorola v5xx series phone (not a smartphone). And in the last year I've used an iMate sp5m. In the tethered days, I pulled probably 2gigabytes a month for a few months over cingular data and now I regularly pull probably between 200 and 1000 megabytes a month using the (non-querty) smartphone.

I have always been on the $19.95 unlimited data plan with no issues.

Even though they try to price differentiate each situation, I believe they cannot tell the difference between tethered, non-tethered, smartphone, or pocket PC. In addition, it seems that if they differentiated on volume (even in "unlimited"), then I'd likely be one of the first to get questioned.

They may try to enforce the data plan if you purchase the phone from them (and some of their rebates may depend on exactly which data plan you get). Because I bought my iMate smartphone unlocked from a non-carrier vendor, the carrier has no real way to determine my device type (except maybe if they cross-referenced the IMEI).

Incidentally, I heard a rumor (from a regional Verizon sales supervisor) that Cingular will "soon" be leading the way in limiting their "unlimited" service to 5 gigabytes per month, with the other carriers in tow.

This may affect you if, like me, you download podcasts and video podcasts directly to your device over the cell phone network. And especially if you have high-speed data (like the Blackjack) without WiFi, which would preclude use of the data network while at home or office or near a hotspot.

Greg Smith
Author, FeederReader - Windows Mobile news, blogs, audio, video, podcasts downloaded direct to your Smartphone or Pocket PC
www.FeederReader.com - Download on the Road

[AdamaDBrown]

Incidentally, I heard a rumor (from a regional Verizon sales supervisor) that Cingular will "soon" be leading the way in limiting their "unlimited" service to 5 gigabytes per month, with the other carriers in tow.

Actually, Verizon is the one that already limits their unlimited service to either 5 or 10 GB, depending on who you ask.

[billcalle]

I've been using the MediaMax 200 Unlimited plan ($19/99/month) for about 6 months now with my iMate SP5. I average about 3GB/month (lots of email with attachments which I review on the phone, etc.). I just upgraded to a Blackjack last week and the very knowledgeable sales rep (a rare treat) suggested I change to the Smartphone Connect plan to guarantee I wouldn't have problems with the rebate. As I don't text often, I didn't mind losing the 200 messages, so I switched. Just today I noticed that I couldn't access Cingular Video because this plan does not include it. I went back in, and she was more than happy to switch me back to the MediaMax 200 plan which does include unlimited Cingular Video, even though my account very clearly shows that I have the Blackjack. She said the officially recommended plan is the Smartphone Connect plan, but that eitherh plan will work equally well even with 3G. She said that in general there is tremendous confusion in the stores because Cingular marketing has not done an adequate job coming up with comparison sheets that highlight the differences between the plans. For example, there is a Smartphone Connect + DirectPush plan for $29.99/month. This almost implies a requirement for a higher priced plan in order to push e-mail, but she said that in reality this plan just includes technical support for configuring the service, which the $19.99 plan does not. Who would have known from the name of the plan? Overall I think the best plan is the MediaMax plan. It provides access to everything every other plan has without restrictions of any kind. The only exception is if you need to run Windows VPN (not Cisco VPN) in which case you have to have the PDA plan. Hope this helps...

[Pete Paxton]

Interesting, the Blackjack is now being listed on Amazon and after you select the device and rate plan next comes the data plan and there is a mediamax choice (200 text messages and unlimited internet) for $19.99 for that specific phone. Hmmmm