Cingular quietly announced their intention to shut down select accounts on older networks. The nation’s largest wireless provider informed employees that they will shut down all prepaid TDMA services on March 31, 2007. This includes Cingular’s TDMA KIC prepaid plans, as well as AT&T Wireless Free2Go prepaid plans. This date is far ahead of the planned February 2008 shutdown of all consumer TDMA (postpaid) services.
This month Cingular began enforcing a $5.00 fee on all postpaid TDMA customers. Customers on the older network are now charged an “Administrative Fee”, which Cingular has inserted in order to encourage customers to transition to the newer GSM national network. However, many customers have expressed outrage to the new fees. Cingular’s most affected customers by these forced rate increases, are those that are in extremely rural areas, where TDMA/AMPS coverage extends beyond newer GSM coverage.
