Originally Posted by kanebear
My current Luddite-fone is the Nokia
6340i. Note that it doesn't have bluetooth or GPRS or anything like that. What it does is have exceptional battery life, durability and voice quality. It's what you want. It's the same formfactor as the 6310i but not built quite as well. It uses different batteries. The ace up it's sleeve though is that it's not only dual band 850/1900 (won't work abroad, though) but tri-mode. Yes, this was the first, last and about only gasp of GAIT technology when Cingular was switching to GSM.
Thus, it does GSM, TDMA (older digital tech, wider coverage) and ANALOG! There're very few to no places in the US this thing won't work. As you're on Cingular, just buy one off Ebay, slip your current SIM into it, call Cingular up and tell 'em you want to activate GAIT. You'll need to give them the ESN which is on the back of the phone inside the battery compartment.
kanebear,
I am very intrigued by this suggestion.....
I am currently on a ATT-now-Cingular account (my plan is a nationwide $39.00 family plan -- which seems to be no longer offered on Cingular's website)
So, I can't find details of this plan, but Cingular's current family plan GSM offering says "Customer must (1) use a Cingular GSM dual-band handset programmed with Cingular Wireless' preferred roaming database;"
I am not only luddite but cell phone illiterate.
So.....
1) Could I simply buy an unlocked 6340i and drop in my current sim and I'd be good to go?
2) Would this phone meet whatever restriction that I quoted?
3) If I were somewhere where there wasn't Cingular GSM signal but there was (is there any still such ??) Cingular TDMA signal, would that still be included in my minutes-bucket? (Or would that be considered extra-cost roaming?)
I'm sure I'll have other questions, if this looks possible. TIA
