Is it worth this?

[wesleyJ]

Hi All,

I live in Vermont, and our state has no cingular/ATT service...and I am drooling to get an iPhone...

Should I hop onto my Brother's cingular plan (as a family share...he lives in NYC) just to get an iPhone? I am assuming I can forward my calls to the iphone and use the NYC number for family calls (they all live in NYC...don't ask why i am in VT...haha) If I get the iPhone, I would be roaming in Vermont through Unicel.

Is the iPhone worth this much effort?

 

[Genghis Khan]

only you can answer that question




*it's all about if you value the iPhone that highly...personnally, i may be looking at ways to import the iPhone if it's well recieved (i live i australia, so i have another 6 months to wai unfourtunately)

 

[zap2]

I'd wait before I'd picked what to do...not enough it knowen about the iPhone publicly to be a good choice(data plans, voice plans etc)

Also whats coverage up their like? I'd have to guess its bad if they don't sell phones up there, right?

 

[wesleyJ]

I'd wait before I'd picked what to do...not enough it knowen about the iPhone publicly to be a good choice(data plans, voice plans etc)

Also whats coverage up their like? I'd have to guess its bad if they don't sell phones up there, right?

The Unicel coverage is actually excellent in VT...too bad Cingy/ATT hasn't bought them...haha

I would probably want the most basic plan with the iPhone...maybe edge, but i'd be using the wifi mostly.

 

[Fearless Leader]

Does the unicell use SIM chips, I'm 99.9% sure they do (they'd have to), anyways you could buy they iphone with the 9$ month plan and never use that plan. Swap the SIM chips with some cheapo phone or the one you got now.

Though you probably won't get the cool guy features like the voice mail.

edit: you'd more than likely need to unlock it, if it is, which might be hard.

 

[wesleyJ]

Does the unicell use SIM chips, I'm 99.9% sure they do (they'd have to), anyways you could buy they iphone with the 9$ month plan and never use that plan. Swap the SIM chips with some cheapo phone or the one you got now.

Though you probably won't get the cool guy features like the voice mail.

edit: you'd more than likely need to unlock it, if it is, which might be hard.

Yeah, they use SIM cards, but I am with evil verizon currently, and would be sharing a line my bro on ATT if I decide to get the iPhone.

 

[earnjam]

Just move...

 

[fishkorp]

by no service do you mean they just don't sell it? because i'm a cingular customer and get excellent service when i go to all major ski resorts in VT. and it's not roaming, because it says "Cingular" on the display. so there is indeed service in the state.


EDIT: looking at their coverage map, they have partner service only. wonder why it shows up as "cingular" on my phone?

 

[wesleyJ]

by no service do you mean they just don't sell it? because i'm a cingular customer and get excellent service when i go to all major ski resorts in VT. and it's not roaming, because it says "Cingular" on the display. so there is indeed service in the state.


EDIT: looking at their coverage map, they have partner service only. wonder why it shows up as "cingular" on my phone?

Yeah, NO cingular in VT...they hop onto the Unicel towers...So, given this scenario, would you have an out of state number to get the iPhone?

 

[wesleyJ]

Just move...

Very funny...Vermont is a pit (Coming from a native NYC'er)...but it's a gorgeous pit.

 

[andiwm2003]

no it's not worth it. it's just a damn phone.

just wait 6 month and there will be a solutin to the problem (or a unlocked iphone) or a competitor has a similar phone out.

 

[earnjam]

Very funny...Vermont is a pit (Coming from a native NYC'er)...but it's a gorgeous pit.

Very true...too cold for me though. I live in NC.

 

[fenixx]

it's your call - can you handle the hassle?

 

[A Pittarelli]

people moving, like picking up and leaving everything behind, to use a cell phone, i dont know how that makes me feel....

 

[wesleyJ]

people moving, like picking up and leaving everything behind, to use a cell phone, i dont know how that makes me feel....

haha, I wont ever move just to use a cell phone...but this is the iPhone!

I really want to own one...maybe in 2009 when it comes to Verizon.

 

[Fearless Leader]

gonna be more like 2012.

 

[wesleyJ]

it's your call - can you handle the hassle?

I am not sure I want to pay for two lines (Verizon and Cingular) just to use the iPhone...and I bet visual voicemail wont work in VT when I am roaming on Unicel...these are definitely concerns...

I bet all these concerns will go away once the iPhone is actually released and real people (you guys) begin to praise it.

 

[timmypv15]

if you roam too much they will cancel your service. where i live, it is a Cellular One tower, which works w/ cingular. they have stopped selling plans to people who live in my town, and if you don't use 50% of your minutes on an actual Cingular tower, they shut you off. but since your brothers will be using minutes in NYC, you shouldn't have a problem

 

[feelthefire]

Be careful- I had cingular on a blackberry and they cut my service for roaming too much (I live in Burlington). The contract does state that if you use a partner network more than 50% of the time in the first three months they can terminate your contract, and they terminated mine and charged me a fee.

That said, I was able to go to a cingular store in MA, buy the phone, and give my Burlington address for the bill and there was no problem.


But I gotta tell you, the data service stinks up there anyway. Voice calls in burlington were fine, but there was no data service available.

 

[mkrishnan]

That said, I was able to go to a cingular store in MA, buy the phone, and give my Burlington address for the bill and there was no problem.

Yeah, the whole issue of having a "foreign" area code is a non-issue. I've been in Florida with a Detroit area code since 2004.... But being dropped for roaming is a bigger issue -- if there's no Cingular coverage there at all (i.e. Cingular people have someone else's name show up on their cell while they're there), then it's likely to happen to you. In my case, T-Mo operates here, and I could have a Florida number if everyone didn't already know my Detroit one.

 

[yg17]

Be careful- I had cingular on a blackberry and they cut my service for roaming too much (I live in Burlington). The contract does state that if you use a partner network more than 50% of the time in the first three months they can terminate your contract, and they terminated mine and charged me a fee.

That said, I was able to go to a cingular store in MA, buy the phone, and give my Burlington address for the bill and there was no problem.


But I gotta tell you, the data service stinks up there anyway. Voice calls in burlington were fine, but there was no data service available.

Those crooks shouldn't have charged you a fee. If they cancel your contract, you don't pay ETF.

But yeah, Suckgular has the 50% roaming rule. So your idea isn't a good one

 

[Fearless Leader]

Be careful- I had cingular on a blackberry and they cut my service for roaming too much (I live in Burlington). The contract does state that if you use a partner network more than 50% of the time in the first three months they can terminate your contract, and they terminated mine and charged me a fee.

That said, I was able to go to a cingular store in MA, buy the phone, and give my Burlington address for the bill and there was no problem.


But I gotta tell you, the data service stinks up there anyway. Voice calls in burlington were fine, but there was no data service available.

wait they charged you? I did this on purpose to get out of a contract and didn't get charged, it was a year and a half ago. Though I had had the phone for a year and had another year on it.

 

[CoachKrzyzewski]

i said yes, but only because my situation is a little strange... I'm going off to college in Charlottesville next year and I'll actually be at orientation on the 29th so getting it in virginia wouldn't be that bad because I'd be living there anyway...

 

[CoachKrzyzewski]

and you can get a free roaming plan... dunno if it's been mentioned

 

[TequilaBoobs]

i said yes, but only because my situation is a little strange... I'm going off to college in Charlottesville next year and I'll actually be at orientation on the 29th so getting it in virginia wouldn't be that bad because I'd be living there anyway...

UVA is aight but W&M is better!! JK LOL
can u tell which school i went to?