Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 17

Cingular wireless internet question

I've been going through the posts here and found a lot of good info so I thought I'd ask a question that's been bugging me for a long time. I bought a VisorPhone to work with my Prism. Now the phone part of it works (sometimes). When I bought the phone, about 4 months ago, Handspring said wireless internet was included with the phone servce. I happily signed up and off I went. I tried wireless internet and it didn't work so I called handspring and cingular. To make a 2 month long story short, now their website says internet costs $0.15/min plus $7/month.
Someone posted a thread that said he was using wireless internet and wasn't being charged the $0.15/min.

Has anyone else had this expereience? I can hack the $7/month but the $0.15/min is f****** crazy. If anyone can share their experiences with me I'd appreciate it. I don't want to have to buy a wireless modem on top of my Visor Phone.

Thanks!
Myrddin

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Conway SC USA
Posts: 92

Cingular does NOT charge $.15.Here in SC it work like this. I have the 700 min plan and the data/online min comes out of the service plan. Also the free nights/weekends is free ONLINE time.
I get my e-mail and go offline to save the serive plan time for talking. Hope this helps.

__________________
LARRY

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 61

Same here.. i don't get charge

some people get charged and some don't its all depend on plans you get.

I tried to talk to people about their plans so we get this thing figure out but people won't work with me so i just going to enjoy my own plan..

later.

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Durham NC
Posts: 5

Clearing up Cingular confusion

There are two different plans through Cingular that will allow you to use the Visorphone as a wireless modem:

Cingular Data Service $2.99/month + 0.15/min

Wireless Internet 100 Service $6.99/month + no per min charge
uses minutes from voice plan
Some have elected not to have the 100 SMS messages included with the Wireless Internet 100 plan. This lowers the plan cost by $2.99/month.

Either way, you're still required to have an ISP (Corporate or Personal dial up account) that uses standard PPP (no encryption or compression for logon).

In my specific situation, it will likely be cheaper to choose the Wireless Internet option instead of paying 0.15 per minute since I usually waste a minute of online time just connecting and authenticating.

I hope this helps everyone.

Rob

Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 17

Cingular wireless internet question

Thanks a lot for you help guys! Looks like I'll give it a shot and see what happens. If I can get away w/o the .15/min charge I'll be really happy. Just so you know, I've got the cheapest plan of 150mins for $30/mo. I don't know if this makes a difference but I'll find out.

Myrddin

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 61

Cool. I choose the right plan The reason I got Wireless Internet is because I wanted to try out WAP services.

I don't have WAP phone but I'm on visor phone every day. I'm on local car club mailing list that very active. I can keep up with them on the weekends where I'm away from Internet and have free times to read e-mail and stuff.

Cingular website used to be deatil about their service plans and options.

Before Wireless Internet/100 's info dialog box used to say Use you Plan miniutes to surf the internet, Enjoy the unlimited surfing on nights and weekends etc etc.

I figure WAP uses Modem to dial up to Cingular ISP to get internet access.

You can see copy of my bill here. I used about 2 hr worth of Internet on it.

http://trashbin.homeip.net/deleteme/

Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 17

Thanks a lot guys!!! You've really helped me out. I've been pretty unhappy with this VP since the day I got it. I get bad service in my apartment (but others with different brand phones work fine), I couldn't get Internet, I paid $300 for my phone and 2 months later they dropped the price, now they are giving it away. I've had a lot of let downs but you guys helped me out a lot.

I called Cingular and told them I wanted their Wireless Internet plan attached to my service. I actually had to call twice. The first guy put me on hold for almost an hour then finally gave me an "ISP" number and said we were done. I waited a bit and tried Internet but couldn't connect. Then I tried calling the number he gave me from a regular phone and do you know what I got? PacBell came on the line and said "number aint working". So I called back and got a woman. She was VERY stressed out and insisted that Wireless Internet wouldn't work for me. She INSISTED I get the .15/min plan. I told her I just wanted to try the Wireless Internet even if it don't work. So she ACTUALLY signed me up and within 2 minutes I was on the internet syncing avantgo. She also gave me an "ISP" number but it has been busy for a really long time. Luckily I've got dialup service through work.

Thanks again! You've made my day!
Myrddin

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 61

Dont' tell them that.. they probably going to figure it out and we all will be paying for it!

Tell them you got a WAP phone you want to try out.


Cingular Internet thingy is for WAP phone anyways but it just happens to work with VP.


What is the ISP number you talking about anyway? I just use my free ISP for my dial up's

Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 22

Not Sure I follow

I hope you guys can help me! After reading about myrddin33 success, i decided i too would endeavor in selecting the Wireless Internet option through Cingular. I had the 6.99 option added tonight, but now i'm left wondering if it was a good decision to make. I logged on and set up my account (mywirelesswindow), but it seems all i can do is have news/stock quote alerts sent to my VP as simple SMS messages. I have Blazer on my Edge, but i can't can't log on and surf. I get a code of (0x1102) when i try to log on. And if i'm not mistaken, that means i don't have data service through Cingular, and therefore no service to log on to my Earthlink ISP. So, what does Wireless Internet do for me with my VP. Please educate me what i should be doing to enjoy surfing the web. Thanks in advance

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 153

Re: Not Sure I follow

quote:

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Originally posted by hlbiii
Please educate me what i should be doing to enjoy surfing the web. Thanks in advance

---

Last edited by dtplink on 11-06-2001 at 06:47 PM

Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 17

Zaw,
I'd tell you the number they gave me but I'm not so sure it is what they say it is. Every time I call it (with a regular phone) it is busy AND my VP rings once. If I post the number they gave me, probably my VP will be ringing a lot =) In your "mywireless" account there should be a box labled as "Cingular Wireless Phone Number". They are telling me it is a dial up number to get Internet but I really don't think it is. The number they put in that box for me is a 510 number which is the area code where I live, but is not my VP phone number.... Go figure.

hlbiii,
It is a pain in the a$$ but well worth it. Now that you have Wireless Internet service set up on your Cingular account all you really need to do is go into your "Prefs" and set up a dial up connection. Basically it is just a username, password and phone number. Then Blazer will get you to any website although not all websites will look great =)

Cheers!
Myrddin

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Durham NC
Posts: 5

Hi everyone,

The phone number that Cingular gives is the data number for your phone. In order to enable data calls, another phone number for data is enabled for your SIM card. That's why your phone rings when you call it and also why it's always busy when you try it from your Visor. It is not the number you dial to access an ISP! Cingular does have a number you can dial for wireless internet but I'm not sure how to authenticate to it through a VisorPhone since it's not a normal client for their setup.

Later,
Rob

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 61

hmm... Weird.. I think i stick wiht my ISP which i had them about 6 year ago.. i canlled my account, they stop billing me but my user/pass still work

may be if you use them as ISP they will charge you .15 a min.

Cingular Wireless Phone Number on my accont is my phone number.

you must have E-mail/IM service.. does it work with AIM ???

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Durham NC
Posts: 5

Cingular usually gives voice number. When you sign up for Wireless Internet, they give you another number which they sometime mistaken call an ISP number. It is actually the phone number of your phone for data calls. So basically, your phone has two phone numbers, one for data and one for voice. It's confusing only because the Cingular reps aren't very familiar with how the Visorphone uses their data service.

Rob

Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 17

I've only done a small amount of testing with my new service. I can't tell you if it works with AIM because I don't use it but I can tell you it works great with Yahoo. Next I'll try ICQ.

Cingular gives out software called "Desktop Portal". I've been messing with it and can't find a single use for it. Anyone have any ideas why I should use this vs anything else? It sees my MSN "buddies" but only on my desktop. It doesn't seem to do me any good on the VP.

Myrddin

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Simi Valley, CA
Posts: 110

I just got my VisorPhone yesterday!

I already have Cingular service here in SoCal (750 min plan carried over from PacBell acct). I just moved my SIM card from my Nokia to the new VP and presto, instant working VisorPhone!

Next on my agenda was to get Wireless Internet for browsing. I called Cingular customer service from my VP and not suprisingly, got a CSR that was clueless to VisorPhones. She wanted to know what kind of phone I had so she could make sure it would work for me! I told her it was a VP and she kinda paused. I then assured her that if it didn't work, I would just cancel the service. So she hooked me up with Wireless Internet 100. The process took about ten minutes. She also gave me a second phone number for data.

Five minutes later I was browsing the web with Blazer 1.1!

My next step was to aquire and install Blazer 2.0 from Handspring's website. Now I'm all up to date and loving it.

__________________
Joe V. - Simi Valley, CA