Ed,
you have several options, some already discussed. You have about a year
before the old phone stops working. You may have to pay to "upgrade", so
this is a good time to explore other carriers who may provide better prices.
This Cingular "upgrade" attitude is making them a lot of enemies, and their
merger proposal allocated a certain amount of acceptable customer
losses...so they really don't care about you. Another carrier will, and you
can take your phone number with you.

The credit card is total BS. I've never heard of that before. The Nokia
6030 is a very basic phone. It's good, but you can get a much better phone
for free from another carrier. If you insist on staying with Cingular, you
can deal with their customer service on the phone after visiting their phone
selection online.

I strongly recommend you shop for competing deals. An independent retailer
offering several choices would be very helpful.


Bill Radio
Click for Wireless Reviews at:
http://www.mountainwireless.com


"Ed Stasiak" <estasiak@att.net> wrote in message
news:1160527627.723989.288370@m73g2000cwd.googlegr oups.com...
>I got a letter from Cingular the other day and it said that
> they will no longer be supporting my (4+ year old Motorola
> V60) TDMA/analog cell phone (whatever that is) and I have
> to get a new GSM cell phone (whatever that is).
>
> Now Cingular is offering a "free" Nokia 6030 phone, but the
> rebate deal states that I have sign-up for a new 2-year contract
> with them and I have to get a Cingular VISA Rewards Card
> and I'm not interested in going thru all that BS.
>
> So since it appears I have to get a new cell phone and I'm not
> hip to the cell phone provider market, I figured I'd head down
> to the local Cingular store and buy a new phone I like and have
> them transfer my existing Cingular service (which works fine,
> more or less) to the new phone.
>
> I know it can't be _that_ easy....
>
> So what kinda problems and additional costs might I end-up
> facing with Cingular by going this route, and what do I need to
> know and say to the (no doubt punk-ass teenage) service rep
> at their store, to avoid all kinda hassles over this?
>