Yes, I pointed out that out in my communications with Cingular as well but it's annoying to have to buy one more piece of hardware and carry it around.

If we're going to check our messages once or twice a day and make the very occasional call I'm reconciled to the Cingular International rate plan. There are circumstances such as those I've described where it would be useful to have the option to insert a local SIM card without abandoning poor little Cingular.

I really think it would be a minor selling point for a company scrapping for points of market share to make it easier for folks such as us to be able to insert a new SIM card into an unlocked phone.