I have been a customer of Cellular One for many years now. I have not had a contract for quite a while, so I pay month by month. I had received info in the mail that CellOne is now AT&T, but, I was able to keep my current plan, so the buyout did not affect me. Well, my phone quit working altogether, so, I went to the CellOne store in town to buy a new phone. Here’s the deal, they do NOT sell any phones that will work with old “cellone” plans. If you buy a phone there, it will only work with AT&T service. That means that I would have to change my service plan. I currently pay $50 a month for Unlimited minutes (on the CellOne plan), and the only Unlimited plan that you can get with AT&T is $100 a month- Can you believe that???!! That is double the cost!!! Now, you would think that since AT&T is a Nationwide provider that their service would actually be cheaper than CellOne was. That is definitely NOT the case!
So, while I was in the store, I asked if I could get a phone somewhere else that would work with my CellOne plan, and she said yes, you can get an unlocked phone off the internet, like on Ebay. This is fine, but, I really didn’t have the time to wait around for a phone to be ordered/sent from the internet.
Someone had mentioned to me at some point that there were “unlocked” phones at the Jammers store over by the post office. So, I headed over there. Sure enough, I got myself a new phone and used my existing SIM card. I was very impressed with the service there. They were very nice and knowledgeable about the phones, etc. They did not try to sell me anything that I didn’t need either. They do provide service for Einstein Wireless, but, at this point, I just needed a phone.
I think it is a total crock how CellOne/AT&T is getting people to switch plans to AT&T and selling only phones that work with AT&T. I could understand maybe a small increase in price, but, DOUBLE the amount of my current plan. I think NOT! If there comes a point when CellOne/AT&T says that I can no longer have the $50 unlimited plan that I am on, I will definitely be switching to a new provider. It will probably be to Einstein, if I don’t switch sooner.
I hope this post will help others to save money too and not be sucked into the AT&T conspiracy.
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