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Cingular Wireless and US Roaming

In general, I have to give Cingular a satisfactory rating as a cell phone provider within the borders of the US. I had no problem making calls throughout the US leg of our trip, (the trip to Nassau, Bahamas started in Los Angeles and included a stop over in Miami International Airport (MIA)) and for the most part had pretty good reception.

Cell Phone Coverage in Bahamas:

Know Or Pay Through The Nose!

Can I use my cell phone to call home from the Bahamas?

Yes, as long as you don't mind using your kids' college fund to do so! Here are the details: (I am looking into Cingular first, because that is what I have at the moment.)

Foreign Carrier: BaTelCo (BTC) (Which means they will be the first phone network that will carry your phone call.)

Cell phone calls are possible with Cingular from these areas: New Providence (Nassau) and Grand Bahama (Freeport).

(I guess I need to update this to be: "Theoretically, cell phone calls are possible from Nassau, Bahamas to the United States, but we were not able to place a single call. We had to fall back on pay phones and credit cards to call home.)

Wireless Services Available: Voice (cell phone calls), Data (surfing the internet if your phone does that), 2-way text messaging.

Make sure you turn off any auto connect feature your phone may have. (See right sidebar for story about how you can spend close to $800 and not even know it!)

Technical Stuff: GSM/GPRS 1900

Roaming: (Calls Placed/Received) - These charges are per minute!!!
While in Bahamas Cingular Standard International Roaming $2.29
Cingular World Traveler $1.99
Cingular Canada $2.29
Cingular Mexico $2.29

You may not be able to place calls to international destinations other than United States while roaming in this country. Calls can be completed within the visited country and back to the United States.

Cingular Wireless and Potential Financial Ruin! Use Your US American Cell Phone at Your Own Risk!

Our experience with Cingular Wireless. We subscribe to the Cingular Family Plan, and have 4 cell phones with 4 different phone numbers. In addition, my husband's phone has the unlimited media plan, meaning that his phone can access the internet, retrieve his email, browse the web, etc.

Apparently, his little cell phone was hard at work accessing the internet the entire time we were in the Bahamas, as the night before we were returning home, I received an email from my son saying he thinks we forgot to pay the cell phone bill, and that neither his phone nor his sister's phone worked.

We had paid the cell phone bill, but had also managed to accumulate over $750 in charges due to Cingular's "unlimited media plan" and the automatic connection feature of the cell phone. Nice eh?

I am thankful that Cingular cut us off, because it could have easily become 3 times that amount, but am really irked that all of the phones were shut down, as I was relying on the cell phones to stay in contact with the kids.

PLUS, we were not able to place one successful call from Nassau to the US the entire time we were there. Our Cingular cell phones were worse than worthless, they did damage to the tune of $750.