From the news stories indicated.
Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com
From The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, OK 8-24-05
Cellular users find themselves left holding the phone after company changeovers
By Jim Stafford The Oklahoman
Norman physician Joseph Leonard and Asher resident David Duszynski are fellow travelers on a wireless telephone journey neither of them wanted to make.
Leonard and Duszynski said they were left holding expensive, useless telephone equipment when the sale of AT&T Wireless to rival Cingular and the subsequent sale of Oklahoma City wireless assets to Alltel Corp. was completed in April.
"It's kind of a scam," said Leonard, who said he paid $500 for a Palm Treo Smartphone shortly before the sale was announced. Cingular was forced by federal regulators to sell AT&T's Oklahoma City assets, and the buyer was Alltel.
Leonard can't use the Treo on the Alltel network because it uses a differenttechnology. And Cingular Wireless won't let new subscribers bring their own phones even if they use the same digital network.
Cingular's wireless network uses the same GSM -- Global System for Mobile Communications -- that the old AT&T Wireless network used.
"It appears they may have defrauded us," Leonard said. "Big business is striking again at the little guy."
Leonard said he has spent hours on the phone with both telephone companies and the Oklahoma attorney general's office, and has registered a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.
Bottom line: He can't port his Treo into either network.
Cingular spokesman Frank Merriman said the company won't allow users to bring telephones from other networks to ensure "quality remains the same across the board" for its users.
"When someone upgrades from AT&T Wireless to Cingular, they need a new phone, and the reason they need to upgrade is there is unique software imbedded in the phone to enable it to work properly," Merriman said. "The AT&T network is not functioning anymore, and there is no way that equipment can operate on the system as it is."
As for Duszynski, he owns a pair of $129 GSM phones that he can't use on the Alltel network. He said he contacted Alltel and was offered a $50 discount to purchase new telephones.
"What Alltel has said is we have until Dec. 31 before we have to decide what we are going to do," Duszynski said. "I'm going to take advantage of that and see if I come across a better deal."
Alltel's Bill Oltean, vice president of retail services for the Oklahoma City market, said the company offers a free-phone option for former AT&T Wireless subscribers. The uncertainty wrought by the wireless changeover has kept him busy trying to solve issues such as those faced by Leonard and Duszynski.
Leonard said he finally "gave up," signed up for Cingular service and bought a $200 Blackberry, which provides some of the features that his Treo offered. He assigns blame to everyone, the telephone companies and federal regulators. "It's kind of a vicious circle with no one taking responsibility," he said.
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From The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, OK 8-26-05
By Jim Stafford The Oklahoman
Business is booming for Jesse Fox of Oklahoma City. He "unlocks" digital cell phones, such as those owned by former AT&T Wireless subscribers to let them work on virtually any carrier's network.
Fox operates Eco-Tech on Northwest Expressway, and for $20 each he will "unlock" the code that restricts a GSM -- Global System for Mobile Computing -- phone to one network and allow its use on any carrier's network that uses the GSM technology.
"This is a business that's been strong for years and years," Fox said.
The issue of "unlocking" a phones software codes to allow users to port it from one network to another surfaced recently when Cingular Wireless bought the former AT&T Wireless network.
Although federal regulators forced Cingular to sell the Oklahoma City assets of AT&T Wireless, some former AT&T subscribers chose to migrate to Cingular rather than stay with Alltel and use its CDMA -- Code Division Multiple Access -- network.
But Cingular has said it won't accept cell phones from the AT&T Wireless network, forcing subscribers to buy new equipment to operate on its network. Fox provides a service that allows subscribers to do just that.
"We just unlock the phone off the carrier so they can put a new SIM card in," Fox said. "It's totally legal. It's just like owning a Chrysler and putting a Ford motor into it."
A SIM card is a computer chip inserted into a cell phone that provides user identity information.
"If you come down here, nine out of every 10 customers that come in were sent to me by Cingular," Fox said. "I'm not sure it is the corporate stores, because the corporate stores want to sell their phones."
Oklahoma City resident Robert Orner is among those Cingular subscribers who brought his own phones to his new wireless carrier. He bought three digital phones before the AT&T Wireless buyout and wanted to keep them rather than move to Alltel's service or buy new phones.
So, he paid Eco-Tech to "unlock" them and then took them to a Cingular agent.
"I took it in and the lady programmed it right there and there was no problem," Orner, 73, said. "So far, everything is fine. I'm talking to you now on my Nokia 6200 GSM phone."
Several other Cingular subscribers, contacted by The Oklahoman, on Wednesday shared similar experiences. Their phones were "unlocked" and put in use on the Cingular network.
A Cingular spokesman responded by saying that the company does not condone the practice.
"We do not unlock phones, nor do we recommend that people get their phones unlocked," spokesman Frank Merriman said. "That's not something that we authorize or perform. If they circumvent the system it can cause problems. We make no guarantees about the performance of their phones."
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Of course Cingular would not 'condone' any practice which did not serve to rip off their customers even more than they have been already. So what else is old news? PAT]