DCAview

I'll wager that the big reason your experience was so much different (and better) than Murphy's was because you are on a Cingular plan with a Cingular SIM card, while it sounds like Murphy was on a former AT&T Wireless plan with a former AT&T SIM card.

Cingular has been actively pushing to migrate the former AT&T customers to Cingular plans that are in many ways less generous than the plans AT&T offered (e.g., AT&T offered free incoming text messages; not only did Cingular not offer its own customers free incoming texts, it began charging former AT&T customers 15 cents per incoming message).

Part of the push is, as Murphy found, preventing former AT&T customers who lose their SIM cards (or have them stolen) from simply buying new ones; instead, Cingular is requiring those former AT&T customers to sign up for Cingular plans as if they were new customers.

The problem that I see in Cingular's logic, however, is that once I'm forced to switch service plans, I might as well consider other companies alongside Cingular -- and could very well sign up with T-Mobile, Verizon, or Sprint.