Regarding the Cingular / ATT service changeover:  I would like to correct a couple of errors I've read elsewhere and add some information you may find useful if you have one of their older cell phones.

# 1 - In their most recent transaction, AT&T did not "buy out Cingular", but rather, it was the other way around.  Cingular purchased AT&T and then changed its own name to AT&T.  May not make sense to the reader, but it's what happened.  Before that, approximately two years ago, Cingular had already purchased AT&T Wireless service and customers. The transition of those cellular phone accounts and the merger of their two similar technologies had already taken place when Cingular purchased the remainder of the AT&T company, completed late in 2006.

# 2 - The recent "takeover" of AT&T by Cingular, including the name change of Cingular to AT&T had nothing to do with some of the older technology phones no longer working on the network. Cingular/AT&T has moved into their "3G" (or Third-Generation) network technology in most major metropolitan areas and is rapidly completing the conversion in all their coverage areas. When they cut over to the new 3G equipment, some of the advanced cell phone features of older models stopped working. This did not affect voice cell phone service, however.

If yours was one of the phones affected, stop by any company-owned AT&T cell phone store and ask them to change your existing SIM card to a new 3G SIM card. That's usually all it takes. There should be no technical need to change the cell phone itself IN MOST CASES.

If there is no company-owned store near you, call Customer Care (611 on your cell phone) and discuss the situation with them. In most cases, they will have a remedy for the problem.

I sell AT&T, Sprint/NexTel, and most of the pre-paid cell phone services every day for a nationally-known service reseller, and am a retiree from the old "Bell System", so I have been following this and other similar situations for a long time.

1familyguy