Cingular in your area allows you to stack your contracts? Not that I would want to do that but they don't give me that option. From what I understand about unlocked phones, yeah you should be able to buy an unlocked phone and put your SIM card in there. Or you can just pay full price for the phone from AT&T/Cingular.

I just upgraded a month before I could and I beleive it starts over again for another 2 years as soon as you receive the phones and activate them. Thats what they told me but who knows.

As for the Pearl 2 I just got my Pearl last week and wont even think about upgrading. It has some cool features but I can't justify spending the money and since I just upgraded it is going to be 1 1/2 years before I can do it again. Probably get a curve next time but for now I am happy with my Pearl.

Yes, inserting the SIM in any phone causes it to fire up.

Are you sure that your carrier gives you a "consecutive sentence," so to speak, on extending the phone contract. I have NEVER heard of such a thing.

What T-Mo does when I upgrade the phone is extend the contract [or renews it] for another two years, commencing from the date I get the upgrade phone. In other words, say I get the Pearl 2 in September 2007 [oh please Lord, let this happen]. My contract would be for two years from September 2007. T-Mo would NOT add two years to my existing contract term.

In other words, and by example, I got T-Mo's new $40 pricing plan last week, which started a new two year contract term, to 2009. If I get the Pearl 2 in Sept, my contract would NOT be extended to 2011.

Sidenote: I am very happy with T-Mo as a carrier so I don't care about contract terms. Besides, if some deal came up with another carrier that I could not resist [can't imagine what that would be] or if I moved to where T-Mo was not available, then I would simply pay T-Mo's $200 early cancellation fee, which to me is not that much in terms of assumed cost/benefits when switching carriers.

You should double check with them. The way it was explained to me is you sign up for a 2 year contract. After 18 months if your account is in good standing they allow you to upgrade as a "new customer" meaning you can get the same deals a new customer would get. At that point you start a new 2 year contract (or whatever agreement you signed).

Thanks for the help Mike and SanFrancisco.
I'm pretty sure that's what they said.
When I went in to get the Pearl they told me that I still had another year and a few months left on my contract with my other phone and that the only way I would be able to upgrade to a new phone is to sign an additional contract that signs me for an additional 2 years.
I think that I just didn't wait out the full 18 months because it didn't seem so complicated last time when I went in to upgrade my LG to a Nokia.
But yes, I'll probably order one from their website after a few months of it being out and just stick my SIM card in there.

Sounds right, thats what I meant to write.

My corp Tmobile rep said she "heard about the Pearl 2" but didn't know much more about it besides the rumors. She then said, until then, the Blackberry Crimson ie. Curve/8320 will be out in July or Aug for TMobile.

You should call 611 on your phone and check with a CSR. It sounds like the salesperson did not clearly state what was what or used poor word choice. But if he said "additional" to me that could be a way of saying what we have said, that a new two year commitment starts on the date you upgrade the phone.

I did not see anything on Cing/ATT's Site that mentioned this stacking of contracts or that they would add additional years to an existing contract. That would be bizarre and pretty much assure that no one could ever upgrade their phone [who wants to sign up for a three to five year commitment?]. And it would also be contrary to the industry standard, which is one to two year contracts. I suspect it would make the news if Cing/ATT had the ability to herd, "con" or cajole existing customers into five year contracts.

Here are the Site's web pages on upgrading the phone. Note they mention a new two year commitment, but nothing is said about adding two years to one's existing contract.

Under contract law, "new" means the old contract is extinguished and the new one takes its place. So the Site, IMHO, says what we are saying, that just like T-Mo, with a phone upgrade one agrees to a new two year commitment/contract.

Again, I suspect there was simply poor communication by the salesperson.

Cingular does not stack contracts. If anything, you have to pay a premium price for a phone if it's before the 18 months but I have gotten them to do it a bit early. Your 2 years starts from the time you sign the new contract.

Haha, that gave me a little laugh... I was thinking the exact same thing...

What bought me was the streaming media support... time to save some money...

I think this is in retaliation to the iPhone =X *I think I said a word that should not have been said*