TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Cingular Plans to Raise Pries on Older Phones

Cingular Plans to Raise Pries on Older Phones

Reuters News Wire (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Mon, 31 Jul 2006 20:52:32 -0500

Cingular to raise prices for users of older phones

Cingular Wireless, a venture of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp., said on
Monday it would start charging customers with older phones an extra
$4.99 monthly fee as early as September unless they upgrade their
phones as it moves toward using a single network technology.

The biggest U.S. wireless service, said the fee would apply to about
4.7 million subscribers, or about 8 percent, of its 57.3 million
customer base unless these users upgrade their phones.

It is part of Cingular's plan to phase out phones based on older TDMA
and analog technology, the technical standard for the first cellphones
produced more than 20 years ago.

Cingular has been working for years to phase out these technologies in
favor of GSM (Global System of Mobile Communications), a newer
technology that is the world's most popular wireless standard.

Cingular, which hopes to create savings by converging to a single
network, said last month on a conference call that it would risk an
increase in customer cancellations for the rest of the year as it
works to eliminate the older technology.

Customer discounts on new phones will depend on issues such as how
long they have been customers at Cingular.

"Some customers will qualify for discounts on their new phones," said
spokeswoman Rochelle Cohen, without specifying the number.

Cohen said the quality of service on Cingular's GSM network is better
than on its TDMA and analog networks.

It is planning to shut down its TDMA network in early 2008 and under
Federal Communications Commission rules it must keep its analog
network in place until February 2008, Cohen said.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.

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