Cingular is in the process of completing the acquisition of ATT Wireless. I am current ATT subscriber, but with their older, ‘TDMA’ service. I want to migrate to GSM and get my wife an ATT GSM phone so that we can talk for free because of unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes that are a feature of service plans nowadays.

ATT and Cingular have opened their networks for free roaming, so at home, I have seen some ATT GSM phones display ‘Cingular’. Now, the interesting thing is that if it displays ‘Cingular’ on the caller’s phone or the receiver’s phone it is not counted as mobile-to-mobile! It comes out of normal minutes, unless of course it is night/weekend.

I think that is just not acceptable. If they have opened up the networks, which lets me use Cingular’s network for free roaming, I think it should be counted in the mobile-to-mobile minutes. No?