I am headed to Europe next week and Cingular assures me that my phone will work ( it does have GSM). I am not too confident as they were a bit unsure of the process. Has anyone used Cingular abroad? How was it?
Also, They say it is 1.29$ a minute. Is that reasonable?
thanks

What model phone do you have?

It's not far from what other US providers charge.

What you can do is use it to answer incoming calls, and then call people back some other way. Otherwise it could get a bit pricey

Cingular used to be $2.99 + 1.00 for incoming calls a few years ago... Which was a rip-off. It's still bad now, but a little better.

The other option is to forward your calls you your voice mail box. Turn the phone on in the UK. You will get notification of incoming voice mails left real time. You can then use another phone (e.g. prepay or landline) to check your vm box.

Make sure Cingular customer service has international roaming active on your account. Also be forewarned that at peak times US carriers are notorious for calls to roaming mobiles in Europe NOT going through. Roam elsewhere in the world and it isn't a problem.

I'm from Norway and I used the Singular GSM net when I travelled to the US last year. The only problem I had and which you might encounter as well is that my phone was european triband which means 900/1800/1900 and I could only use the 1900 band in the US. While if you got a US triband telephone you will have these nets covered 850/1800/1900 and thus you as well will only have one net to use the 1800 one.
But I beleive it will work, though knowing your phone model number and brand might help

Cobos

It will depend on which bands your phone covers, not a lot of phones available in the US have all the bands the rest of the world does, so come back with your phone model and which countries you are visiting and I'm sure you will get very specific answers.

I have AT&T, and I got a triband GSM for use outside the country, just take the SIM card from my in country phone and put it in the other one when I travel. Search Ebay for unlocked GSM and you will usually find more then a few available if your current phone won't work over there.

Hi all,
The phone is a motorola V60ti. It says under the technology screen that it is Triband GSM.
Does that help?
Also, I am going to France and Belgium.
thanks !

[This message has been edited by njvj (edited Jan 22, 2004).]

FYI: GSM850Mhz overlay is primarily in markets that Cingular converted from TDMA. The original Cingular (Pacbell/Bell South) markets of the Carolina's and California are GSM1900 only right now.

If you do travel in Europe and rural US, look to some of the upcoming quad band phones *OR* have a cheap GSM850MHz handset just in case you do go rural'ish that you can use by putting your SIM card into it.

ok, I am feeling dumber by the minute. I just checked the phone . Under network setup, it says BAND 1900. It gives me the option of changing this to automatic or 900/1800. Should I change it?

I am sorry to be so ignorant. I thought I knew something when I bought a GSM phone !

Not a dumb question.

Some phones (Motorola's) go under the assumption when in GSM1900 that the phone should never scan GSM900/1800 and vice versa.

GSM900 and GSM1800 are NOT used in the US, they are used everywhere in the world except for the America's (exception being Venezula; GSM900, some French territorial areas and Brazil GSM1800).

GSM1900 is only used in the America's.

To pass all regulatory easier the phone cannot be aggressive in scanning for networks. Technically a GSM1900 phone shouldn't be trying to do anything in the GSM800 or GSM1800 bands as they are used for other things. Motorola chooses to make it the users selection on where to search for networks. Other handset mfr's do other methods to scan the bands.

Bottom line: Choose GSM1900 when in the US
Choose GSM900/1800 when you go OUTSIDE the America's. Once you do that THEN scan for a network.

[This message has been edited by NickP 1K (edited Jan 22, 2004).]

Strangely enough, there's also a 1900Mhz GSM network in Thailand. Why on earth???

Strange... ACT was supposed to be WCDMA/UMTS at 2100MHz... Good question on what this is!

In the US WCDMA 1900MHz is still a gleam in ATTWS's eye as they are "coaxing" the equipment vendors to ship now to meet their obligation with NTT (that owns 17% of ATTWS)

thanks guys, I put the network setting to automatic last night to make sure that it works. I will let you know how it goes when I get back.
thanks again!

Well, I am back. The phone worked fine for outgoing calls and text messaging. As some of you mentioned, I had problems receiving calls. I think that I only got about 1 out of 5 . Other folks told me they got a busy signal or endless ringing. All in all, not too bad but I would not count on Cingular for incoming calls.