A number of years ago, we obtained three (then) ATTWS TDMA accounts under 
AT&T's "Regional Advantage" plan (or something like that), which 
basically allowed for roam-charge free use in a given regional area of 
the US (typically 10 to 15 states), no long distance, no charge for 
incoming text and e-mail messages, and unlimited off-peak starting at 8PM 
and all day on weekends, anywhere in the given regional area. 

Additionally, as has been touched on in various groups in the past, the 
plan was to be "For Life", that is, ostensibly, as long as a given 
customer maintained the given TDMA Regional Advantage account with AT&T 
Wireless, the 8PM off-peak unlimited feature would continue as well. This 
was done, to a large extent, as other carriers at the time were also 
starting to offer unlimited off-peak, but for only the first year of a 
contract or some other limited amount of time. AT&T wished to 
differentiate itself from the other carriers (things were more 
competitive then in many ways :( ) and thus made a commitment, in 
writing, that as long as a given customer maintained the aforementioned 
TDMA account(s), the 8PM unlimited would continue.

(Copies of AT&T Wireless's literature detailing these TDMA plans have 
been uploaded to:

http://www.interpage.net/webfax/cingupgrd
http://www.interpage.net/webfax/attwstdma

You may resize the later set to view the fine print if needed; the former 
is already enlarged by us)

As also has been noted on many of the groups, Cingular/ATT has been doing 
EVERYTHING under the sun to try to convert TDMA customers to GSM, other 
than offering them the same plan they have always had under TDMA, but 
with a GSM phone. 

I read an article a year or two ago, located at: 

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/276776_cingular07.html

... and at that time said to myself "Ah, Seattle, all the hills and what 
not, it's probably just an isolated coverage issue" (even though that 
used to be ATTWS's base of operations; not that that is apparently 
dispositive with cell cos; Verizon in Bedminster has some very bad spots 
along US-202/206 only a few miles from their corporate offices; their 
Wallingford office has a drop right outside along I-91, etc. See the 
Verizon dropped call list at:
http://www.wirelessnotes.org/verizon-digital-cellular-drops.html for 
details.)

As time went on, we started noticing problems with coverage in areas that 
previously had excellent service, dropped calls, e-mail and SMS were even 
slower than normal (generally, Cingular/ATT, on BOTH TDMA and GSM, agt 
times have inexplicable delays in getting e-mail messages; all customer 
service can do is say "Reboot your phone", which usually works, but it 
seems ridiculous that this hasn't been fixed yet; in the instant case, it 
was even worse than it normally can be), handoffs were sloppy, and the 
otherwise generally acceptable TDMA network was incrementally getting 
worse on a daily basis in many ATT/Cingular markets. 

As we were and are paying $50 per month per account for a service which 
was getting increasingly useless, we called to report these problems last 
fall, figuring that maybe after 25 or so calls from us someone would pay 
attention. Nothing was done, and since we generally rely on GSM from them 
as well as Verizon's CDMA service (GSM is preferred due to the lesser 
delay in conversation), no one really had the time to bother going 
through the Byzantine support hierarchy to actually get someone with more 
than three neurons firing at the same time who could help us, and we 
figured "they'll fix it when sufficient numbers of people complain" and 
left it at that. 

A few months later, we noticed that Caller ID was being presented from 
one phone when it placed calls (it is normally set have the local switch 
or whatever send the privacy bit and thus the remote switch to hopefully 
honor it). We did some tests on our end, and found that in the 
ATTWS/Cingular DC/00013 market, even if your home register shows privacy 
active, as a roamer, that field is for some reason ignored,  and thus 
TDMA people using the phones in parts of the 00013 market (closer to DC) 
may THINK their Caller ID is "per-line" blocked but in fact are sending 
it out on each call. This was not the case for GSM or for "home" TDMA 
customers who are based in the 00013 DC market.

Although these are by no means our primary phones, it's nice to have a 
predictable pattern of Caller ID being displayed or not, and with 
ATT/Cingular not paying attention (or not sending) the privacy bit when 
TDMA calls were placed from the DC area, we figured it was time to call 
them and press them on it. 

I had a staffer here give them a call (for practice in dealing with 
them), knowing full well what the call would initially be like. I said 
"I'll give them 20 minutes to do the 'Is your phone on?', 'Did you pay 
your bill?', 'Is your battery charged?', 'Do you have warranty service 
with us?' stuff, and after they've exhausted all that nonsense get 
someone who can help us and conference me in."

After about 30 minutes, I was connected with their "tech support" in 
Arkansas (my notes are vague at this point as I didn't figure this would 
be an issue) and was told the following (this was Summer 2006):

1. We don't offer TDMA
2. When you use TDMA in DC you are roaming on someone else, call them
3. Does your phone say Cingular or AT&T? (And when I answered "AT&T" they 
said, "Oh, we're
    Cingular; we don't support AT&T anymore", and then when I said "OK, 
well, I have another
    TDMA here that says "Cingular" on the screen and it is having the 
same caller ID problems, 
    the moron says "Oh, well, I can only support 'blue' (meaning ex-ATT) 
accounts; I'll
    need to send you to the Cingular side."!!)

After another 30 minutes of this intellectual banter the rep gave in and 
told us he'd look into it (and of course I didn't believe him). I 
insisted we get a trouble ticket number and that we be contacted
at our office when they resolve the problem or if they have any 
additional questions, and that they may NOT close the ticket until they 
call us. 

Needless to say, 30 or so days later we never heard from them, and when 
we called we were told "Oh, we couldn't reach you and we closed the 
ticket a few days after you called" (which is typical; they will do 
anything to dispense with a trouble ticket by saying "We left voicemail" 
or "We called and no one was there", etc. This happens so many times with 
the GSM side we gave up counting and complaining to corporate about it 
and just tell them "If you do not call back at our main number, which 
does NOT have voicemail and is open ALL DAY during business hours, we 
will cancel the given GSM account and tell the "save"/retention manager 
your name and your failure to call is why we are canceling." This usually 
works to at least result in a callback.).

We then escalated the matter to Corporate (which has an Atlanta number 
but seems to be located in Arkansas as well...Hmmm...), and after 
speaking to people who actually did have some semblance of a brain, we 
were told that the matter would be looked into, but that the TDMA network 
was going to be removed during the first quarter of 2008 (probably at the 
same time they will be released from offering analog by the FCC), and 
that at such a point we would need to upgrade. However, I made it clear 
that we are paying $39.95+taxes per month for each TDMA account, and that 
until such time that the network is turned off, we expect the same level 
of support and service that GSM customers receive (OK, well, that's not 
asking for much!). 

While we were waiting to hear back from Cingular Corporate about the 
Caller ID (lack of) per-line blocking in DC, we noticed, around late Sept 
2006, a sudden decline in many markets of the TDMA network. It was as if 
all of a sudden 75% of the TDMA towers were taken down and/or converted 
to GSM (not that I really noticed any significant improvement on our GSM 
accounts).

We called regular support about this, and got the usual "HUH? You haven't 
upgraded to GSM YET? You need to do that right away....". The rep went on 
to gleefully explain (paraphrasing) "all you have to do is sign a two 
year contract and buy a new phone from us and pay us for each incoming 
text and pay us $20 more to get to the account up to the level with off 
peak after 9PM airtime and you'll be all set" (and maybe let them stay at 
my house when they are traveling too..! Anything else I need to do?!?). I 
asked "Well, if we have to do all this, why don't I just get a phone from 
Verizon instead? I'm basically setting up a new account wof COURSE we 
appreciate your business", after which, in disgust, I said "I'm busy now; 
we'll keep the TDMA. Thank you anyhow. Please get me someone who I can 
speak to about the current TDMA coverage issues...". 

I spoke briefly about the TDMA coverage to some tech/repair person, but 
had to go, so didn't press the issue and just told him to call us back 
after he's looked into the various coverage problems we had. 

About a month later, in October, when TDMA stopped working altogether in 
areas of DC and west of Sacramento along I-80 where it had worked fine 
before (as well as countless other areas), we called to inquire about the 
status of TDMA coverage issues, only to be told "We don't support TDMA 
anymore and all it will do it get worse, so upgrade to GSM now...". When 
I was called to the phone to handle this, I said "Look, we'll move to 
TDMA when you guys offer a plan that is just like our current TDMA and 
migrate us at no charge. WE did not get rid of TDMA - that was your 
decision, and we respect it. However, as Cingular is forcing this issue, 
provide us with the SIMS (we already have extra unlocked GSM phones), a 
similar rateplan, and concomitant benefits of our current TDMA plans and 
we would be glad to move over, and we will of course not sign a new 
contract as we have already 'put in our time' with the TDMAs and do not 
need to give you the benefit of two more years just because YOU decided 
to drop TDMA." The rep flippantly refused, and infuriated at the way the 
she so condescendingly assumed it was OUR responsibility to purchase new 
SIMs, sign a new contract, and basically accede to their "conversion" 
(which is no better than what a new customer would get) , I asked for a 
manager to discuss this further. 

I was put in touch with Takisha if the Florida Call center, who said (I 
had my assistant type this out as she said it): "Cingular cannot and will 
not be bound by promises of AT&T" and then she reaffirmed that they will 
not offer unlimited plans to us (huh?), nor will they excuse us of from a 
contractual "obligation".  No exceptions. 

"Well, OK..." I thought, any other niceties you want to share with us 
lady? :)

We asked for corporate, and got Melody Brown in Oklahoma City, OK (They 
moved again from Atlanta? :) ), and Melody basically reiterated what 
Takisha said, and added "Cingular will not offer
unlimited off-peak minutes on any account, irrespective of AT&T's 
previous guarantees on the subject." (This was in Jan 2007; I think they 
were either offering or shortly afterwards started offering off-peak 
unlimited, but at higher account levels than the AT&TWS Regional Advantage.).

After all this, I decided to give up, and Melody was told "Well, if 
basically you are treating existing customers with the same policies as a 
new customer in terms of rates and contractual obligations, we can 
certainly look elsewhere and see no reason to stay with you and indeed 
have a punitive motivation to find another carrier to give our (ex-TDMA) 
monies to rather than reward Cingular".

Thus, the points of the lengthy peroration:

1. Cingular has totally messed up the conversion from TDMA to GSM. ANY 
other company, us (Interpage), Volvo, Macy's, Joe's Fish Store, whatever, 
would all come up with a plan in the event that a service had to be 
changed or eliminated which mitigates the net effect to the customer and 
tries to preserve as closely as possible (or even improve upon) the 
levels of service previously enjoyed. Having Cingular exculpatively say 
"Our billing system won't support that" isn't sufficient -- there are 5 
million TDMA customers -- I think a special ex-TDMA account code/rateplan 
could easily be promulgated for the benefit of these customers so that 
they could enjoy the same rate basis and services as they "enjoyed" under 
TDMA.

2. Cingular doesn't appear to care about the reportedly 5 million or so 
TDMA customers. It takes down elements of its network before the 
announced date of cessation, it sends out "warning" letters that it will 
start to assess a $5 fee on its current TDMA customers unless they 
migrate, it has itaging, supposedly regional roaming on any carrier (when 
they plan started; Cingular has blocked most of this a long time ago, 
thus changing the basis on the plan) will now have to pay:

-$50(?) for a new phone
-$15 for a new SIM (if not included with the phone)
-$36 activation fee (may be waived, but I was told not)
-$59.95 or $65 for the first tier of service with unlimited AFTER 9PM 
(NOT 8)
-$10 for an option (in some markets?) to extent off-peak to 7PM or 8 PM.
-$  5 for unlimited messaging (new plan; I am not sure if it is "in 
network" only or not)
-Sign a one or two (generally two) year contract with an early 
cancellation penalty 

Thus, a TDMA Regional Advantage customer currently paying $39.95 per 
month can expect to pay about twice as much for close to the same level 
of service. The customer will STILL not be able to roam on most other 
local, non-GSM carriers when Cingular has no coverage (for example, ATT 
TDMA customers could use their TDMA phones on the Washington Metro in 
analog mode via roaming on  Verizon; the same was true in Vermont or 
areas lacking other AT&T/Cingular TDMA and/or analog networks), and, to 
add insult to injury, will also be forced to purchase new equipment and 
enter into a two year contract!

Other carriers have had conversions before -- Verizon did a much better 
job (although they had to be prodded into doing so) in converting its 
CDPD data customers to 1XRTT/EvDO. This is not rocket science -- it 
should be a relatively simple matter for AT&T/Cingular, which, as per the 
literature in the URLs above, _promised_ the unlimited off peak after 8PM 
"FOR LIFE"  to create a rateplan for TDMA conversions to GSM offering the 
same basis as the TDMA accounts. 

Without getting into any of the legal merits (or lack thereof) of action 
against Cingular/ATT, from an ethical and customer service perspective 
(as well as one of just common sense!) one would think Cingular, which 
pays on average about $250 to acquire a new customer (and with market 
saturation these costs as going up), would want to induce TDMA customers 
to migrate by creating a transition plan which generously and effusively 
helps the TDMA customer into a seamless transition to GSM.

Instead, inexplicably, Cingular has chosen a heavy-handed and didactic 
methodology to force customers to migrate, hoping along the way that they 
don't realize that local number portability allows them to take their 
business elsewhere, which, until (if ever) AT&T/Cingular promulgates a 
rate basis for ex-TDMA customers which matches the current TDMA plan 
offerings which they boasted would last "For Life", will mean we take our 
business and give it to someone else who is more appreciative than 
AT&T/Cingular is. I encourage any other ex-TDMA customers to do so as 
well, and to explain this to Cingular at their corporate office at: (877) 
707-1163.

Regards,

-Doug

(This post, others, and contact info are also available at 
http://www.wirelessnotes.org)

abcdoug-wn@interpage.net (remove the first three letters of the alphabet 
to mail me)


Interpage(TM) Network Services Inc. / http://www.interpage.net