Cingular Go – Bye Bye
This post was published 4 years 1 month 3 days ago and its content may not be valid anymore.In short, Cingular can’t sell Go phones anymore (and it may look permanent), and can only keep current customers for 90 days. Now for the fine print…
A federal court today has ordered that Cingular and other carriers which use BCGI’s prepaid management services must immediately halt selling prepaid phones. The court upheld earlier decisions from both local and federal courts that BCGI had violated Freedom Wireless’ patents on pre-paid phone sales and management. Cingular must immediately stop selling prepaid service to new customers, but can continue providing service to current customers for 90 days. However Cingular and BCGI must pay Freedom 2.5 cents for every minute prepaid customers use during that time. The court also added legal files to the fine BCGI must pay Freedom Wireless, bringing the total to $148 million. BCGI has said it will now appeal the case to the US Court of Appeals – the highest authority for patent cases.
UPDATE: DAMN it is only for TDMA phones. Yet another day GSM plagues my being. (Proud CDMA user, and MANY early readers can attest to!)
Good God! 2.5 cents repayment for every prepaid minute used? That’ll add up to a nice hefty monthly bill for Cingular.
Run, do no walk from this company. Six of their telereps assured me they’d issue me a refund for a screw-up charge, and to date, the money hasn’t appeared. In my experience, they’re extremely unprofessional.
-Another Dissatisfied Cingular Customer