Review of Cingular Wireless

I recently switched from Sprint PCS to Cingular. Here are some of my experiences with Cingular’s service. I will be posting separate reviews in the coming week about my phones and my experience with Sprint over the past few years.

Background and Technology
Cingular is a nationwide mobile phone carrier. Unlike most American carriers, Cingular uses GSM. GSM is a set of digital standards that is used by approximately 70% of the world’s cell-using population, and is most widely deployed in Europe and Asia. I have discovered there are some advantages to GSM:

* Every GSM phone has a “SIM card” in it. This card carries information such as your phone number, cell provider account, and wireless networks to use. It can optionally also hold phonebook entries. If you wish to switch phones, all you have to do is pop the SIM card from one to the next, and your new phone is instantly live and active on the network. Very nice system.
* PC communications (using your phone as a modem, downloading phonebook entries, etc.) seem to be standardized across GSM phones
* Data communications (Internet browsing from your phone) also seems to be fairly well standardized in the GSM world

It seems that the coolest, smallest (and also best-priced) phones come out first in GSM. I suspect that’s because the GSM market is much larger than the mostly North American CDMA market.

Terah and I signed up for the cheapest 2-phone plan from Cingular, a $60/mo “FamilyTalk” plan with 500 anytime minutes per month (that roll over to the next month if unused), and unlimited nights/weekends and mobile-to-mobile calling. We both have Motorola v551 phones.